I appreciate that he did this. I will admit to being a little confused why he did so. Does he do that for all national anthems, or has he become partial to our national anthem in particular?
Very nice of him to treat our national anthem with so much respect. Now, if only the current _resident could muster such courage.
I suspect his show of respect was standard for him. And for many other truly good athletes. He is good, very good. Phenomenally good. Fastest man to ever live and has a right to be proud of that.
A very classy moment from 2012. Nice to see it again.
I used to be a protocol officer with the Royal Australian Navy (not the only thing I did, by the way, but they give you some weird jobs sometimes). Mr Bolt is a citizen of a Commonwealth country, and most of the Commonwealth shares the same protocol rules on this. You should stand silent and respectful when the National Anthem of any nation is being played as a gesture of respect to that nation and its people. Not everybody learns these rules anymore, but Mr Bolt apparently has.
In this case, I would guess it's also a matter of good manners towards a fellow athlete - it's being played because somebody has won a gold medal and it's their moment, not yours. Other athletes would definitely notice if he didn't do this.
Addendum to what I just posted - the protocol applies if you are aware what you are hearing is a National Anthem - most people are not going to recognise every anthem in the world, and some are obviously more recognisable than others. But if you know, you stand respectfully.