Gods of the Games are made of true intergalactic gallantry Doping, fraud and sleaze still on agenda
Phelps and Bolt set great legacy
USAIN Bolt and Michael Phelps towered over the 2016 Rio Games, capping an era of sustained excellence that promises to reverberate through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
From Beijing in 2008 through London 2012 and, finally, in Rio, Bolt and Phelps captivated both die-hard fans of their sports and casual spectators attracted like moths to the Olympic flame.
More importantly, they inspired a legion of young competitors determined to flourish on sport’s biggest stage even as Olympic officials grapple with soaring costs, corruption and the ever-present spectre of doping.
“It’s not even once in a generation – it may be once in 10 generations that someone like Michael comes along,” said Bob Bowman, the coach who nurtured Phelps from an age-group phenomenon to an Olympic superstar whose five gold medals in Rio took his already stunning tally to 23 gold among a total of 28.
The same could be said of Bolt, who has dominated in the tests of speed that are the quintessential sporting contests, maintaining his supremacy over an unprecedented span of years.
Both Bolt and Phelps presaged their mature exploits with precocious Olympics appearances, Phelps as a 15-year-old contesting the 200m butterfly in 2000, and Bolt, at 17, finishing fifth in his heat in the 200m in 2004.
By those Games in Athens in 2004, Phelps was already challenging Mark Spitz’s record of seven titles at one Games, coming away with six golds and two bronze.
In Beijing Phelps cemented his place among the Games greats with a perfect eight golds in eight events at the Water Cube while Bolt electrified the Birds’ Nest stadium with his 100m, 200m and 4x100m sprint triumphs.
From Beijing on they were linked in Games lore, each adding to his legacy in 2012 – Bolt with another sprint sweep and Phelps with four more gold to add to his staggering tally of Olympic medals.
Although a burned-out Phelps flirted with retirement after London, it was fitting that his decision to return for one last, fifth, campaign, saw him bow out at the same time as Bolt.
The Jamaican’s unprecedented third sweep of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m means debate will rage loud and long as to which can claim the status of “greatest Olympian”.
Already in Rio, dozens of rising swimming stars cited Phelps as their inspiration.
That included Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, who bested his idol in the 100m butterfly to claim his country’s first-ever Olympic gold in any sport, and Adam Peaty, who twice broke his own 100m breaststroke world record to become the first British man in 28 years to win Olympic swimming gold.
“No matter what country you swim for, you’re indebted to Michael Phelps,” US backstroker Ryan Murphy said. “He’s opened a lot of doors for all of us.” Bolt’s influence is just as broad. “I will say that it is an absolute pleasure to be able to compete in the same era as Usain Bolt,” said America’s two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist Ashton Eaton.
Eaton isn’t among the doomsayers worried that Bolt’s departure from the track – after an extended victory lap in 2017 – will leave a void that can’t be filled.
“I really disagree he’ll leave a vacuum,” said Eaton. “If anything, he’s provided a platform for all the other young, aspiring athletes to launch from.
“Just now we’re not seeing the fruits of his accomplishments and labour, but I think in the years to come you’ll see a lot of young athletes who’ll say ‘I got inspired by Usain Bolt’.
“When I got inspired by Michael Johnson I was eight years old and I didn’t start coming into fruition in track until I was 18,” Eaton said, “so give it a decade”. — AFP DOPING, financial and sexual abuse scandals have increasingly shamed sport in the past 12 months. Here are five scandals to look out for in 2017: ● Barely a week goes by without new cases of doping in Russian sport even as the country battles to get back into international athletics in time for the 2017 world championships in London.
The International Association of Athletics Federations has already extended its suspension of Russian competitors until at least February.
World anti-doping agency chief Craig Reedie said in November that Russia is “quite a long way off” being compliant with international doping statutes.
After more than 110 Russians were banned from the Rio Olympics in August, the International Olympic Committee opened two investigations into Russian sport, including one on doping at the Sochi and London Olympics. Russian weightlifting has also been badly hit and Russia has lost the world bobsled championships because of the scandal.
● Football’s world governing body has had a mass clearout since Swiss investigators detained seven Fifa officials at their Zurich hotel in May 2015.
US prosecutors have not given up their campaign however and eight key figures in the case will face trials in New York on November 6, unless talks about possible guilty pleas succeed. Former Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, who has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering could be sentenced in May.
Two other former Fifa vice-presidents, Jack Warner and Nicolas Leoz, could be extradited to the United States in 2017.
Forty-one individuals and companies have been charged by US authorities over more than $200-million (R2.8-billion) in bribes. Separately, US and Swiss prosecutors are looking into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively as well as the activities of former Fifa boss Sepp Blatter.
● In April 2016, Femke van den Driessche, a former European youth cyclocross champion from Belgium, became the first person to be banned for using a hidden electric motor. She may not be the last.
Thomas Voeckler, a former holder of the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey, said he was “convinced” that the motors have been used by professionals but added that it should be easier to detect than doping.
● British police are investigating hundreds of historical cases of sexual abuse of young footballers by coaches and some top clubs have been implicated
London police said they have more than 100 allegations of abuse at 30 clubs including four now in the Premier League. Scottish police added 109 cases. Former Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward opened the floodgates by telling about abuse he suffered at the club’s academy 25 years ago.
● Weightlifting, one of the most popular Olympics spectacles, accounted for 48 of the 104 positive tests detected in new analyses on samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and London 2012.
The shaming of Kazakhstan’s Ilya Ilyin, who won a gold medal at each Games, highlighted the crisis facing the sport.
Even the International Weightlifting Federation said that Russia’s and Bulgaria’s multiple doping failures were “shocking” before banning them from the Rio Olympics in August
IWF president Tamas Ajan said Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus would be banned for a year because of their high number of doping failures.
China could also be at risk from a motion passed by the IWF this year calling for a ban for any country that has three or more failures from the new tests on London and Beijing samples. — AFP