Father Time has just caught up with Bolt
The greatest sprinter of all time is hitting the wall after an epic career, reports Ron Lewis.
Even the greatest grow old. Usain Bolt turns 30 today, a young man with tired legs.
Yesterday, his Olympic journey reached the finishing line in the final of the 4x100m relay. He believes that he has no more to give and does not want to hang around for the day when someone might catch him.
Bolt is bowing out at the top, the greatest athlete of all time. Comparisons with other athletics stars do not fit. Some liken him to Michael Phelps, more point to Muhammad Ali and Pele, men who reached beyond their sport and when they were gone had fans harking back to the good old days.
The Jamaican has a handful of races left before he finishes at the World Championships in London next summer. It will not be a busy campaign, his body will not allowed that. He has even said that he is set to run only the 100m and 4 x 100m in London, consigning his favourite event, the 200m, to history.
The 200m final on Friday showed why Bolt is winding down. He won, with ease, with his usual smile and swagger replaced by a look of anger and frustration. Bolt is great, but he is not as great as he used to be or expects to be.
He had talked of breaking his world record of 19.19sec, maybe even being the first to break 19 seconds, but the Bolt that could run super-fast times was years ago, before the toil of injury niggles dominated him. He won in 19.78, well clear of the rest, but behind the younger Bolt of Games gone by. ‘‘I knew it was going to be hard to beat the world record, but when I came off the corner, my legs were saying ‘look, we’re not going to go any faster’,’’ said Bolt, who collected another gold in yesterday’s 4 x 100m relay. ‘‘My legs just didn’t feel fresh. I’m not 26 any more. I’m not 21 any more. It’s not as easy as it used to be.
‘‘I wanted it, but my body couldn’t take it. They key thing is that I won, which I came here to do. I’ve proven to the world that I am the greatest and that is what I came here for.’’
In Rio, it is not only Bolt’s times that have been behind what they used to be. The man has seemed weary and there has not been the sense of spontaneous fun that there was four years ago.
If he is tired, it must be no surprise given that he has carried the sport on his back. There are fears of how athletics will do postBolt. There will be other runners who will collect the medals, but no one seems capable of filling the void that he will leave.
When Bolt ran, people stopped talking about the scandals - some trick considering the murky past that sprinting has. ‘‘I’ve proved to the world that you can do it clean, I’ve made the sport exciting, I’ve made people want to watch,’’ he said. ‘‘I put it on a different level.
‘‘This is why most people say I’m so important for the sport to prove to the younger generation that all it takes is hard work and determination.’’
There will be other days for Adam Gemili, but fractionally missing out on the chance to stand alongside Bolt on the podium at an Olympics is a hammer blow that he won’t forget soon. The 22-yearold was 0.003sec away from a bronze medal as Christophe Lemaitre’s late lunge caught him on the last stride.
‘‘I thought it was close,’’ he said. ‘‘I know I was in the mix and Lemaitre was all the way out on the other side. I knew it was me and a couple of people. I saw his name in third and I just fell to the floor. I’m just heartbroken. I put so much into that run and I lost my form at the end. To get so close is heartbreaking. Gutted, just absolutely gutted.’’
When they are looking for the people to step into Bolt’s shoes though, Gemili will be one they mention, with Andre De Grasse, the 21-year-old Canadian who won a silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m. TIMES