Usain Bolt and his new cub, Lightning - yes, Lightning Bolt.

The world’s fastest human sprinter adopted one of the world’s fastest feline sprinters.

Usain Bolt, the Jamaican runner who set speed records at the Beijing Summer Olympics, adopted a three-month old cheetah in an effort to raise awareness and boost conservation efforts in Kenya where the continued survival of the species continues to be threatened.

Bolt named the cheetah cub “Lightning Bolt”.  He paid $13,700 to formally adopt the cub and will continue to pay $3,000 a year for his ongoing care at an animal orphanage in Nairobi.

Lighting Bolt is one of  three cubs rescued by Kenya Wildlife Service officials after their mother abandoned them in a game park.

Bolt posed with his new cub, feeding him from a bottle and looked entirely at ease with his new feline friend.  Reporters asked if Bolt was nervous around the cats, and he responded “Yes, I was, but not anymore.”  Earlier in the day he had been asked to pose with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga as they pet a fully grown cheetah named Sharon for a photo shoot.  Bolt declined and had one of his traveling companions stand in for him until he saw that Sharon didn’t seem intent on eating anyone.

Bolt was not the only stars in the athletic world to make the trip to help encourage conservation in Kenya.  Colin Jackson, a former 110-meter hurdles Olympic champion, and Jochen Zeitz, the chief executive of athletic gear manufacturer Puma were there.  Jackson adopted a 2-year-old eland, the largest of the antelope species; Zietz was doing PR work to announce the launch his charity’s campaign to preserve ecosystems — Usain Bolt is an ambassador for the Zietz Foundation.

The cheetah was listed as an endangered species on June 2, 1970.  Their main threats come from the loss of their habitat, being hunted for their coats; occasionally they are killed by farmers protecting their livestock.