BOLT GATHERS UP GOLDS IN STYLE
World’s fastest human has lots to be proud of
His Twitter account reads as follows:
“Usain St. Leo Bolt @usainbolt The most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen. Kingston, Jamaica.”
You’ll notice that St. Leo, not Humility, is his middle name.
But then, what does the world’s fastest human have to be humble about? After becoming the first man in Olympic history to successfully defend both the 100 and 200 metre sprint titles — he led a Jamaican podium sweep of the 200 Thursday night, with Yohan Blake and Warren Weir trailing in his wake — what’s he supposed to do: chalk it up to dumb luck?
Michael Phelps may have the plaque inscribed with the words “The Greatest Olympic Athlete of All Time” but no one will ever confuse the American swim legend with Muhammad Ali.
The 6-foot-5 Bolt is Ali in a singlet and spandex shorts. He preens, he jokes, he brags, he mugs for the camera. And then he wins, and wins in style. And then he preens some more.
Thursday night at the London Olympics, the 80,000-seat stadium abuzz with anticipation and his fellow competitors pacing and pawing at the ground like nervous horses, Bolt had his arm around a female volunteer near the starting blocks, whispered something into her ear, made her smile. He fist-bumped the attendant standing behind the block in his lane, an opportunity not even a Queen’s guard at Buckingham Palace could have refused.
He had a too-big baseball cap on backwards emblazoned with the letters UB entwined, as if it were the logo of some alma mater, and in fact it was. It was the University of Bolt, and he was giving the lessons.
It was impossible to conjure up the mental image of someone finishing ahead of Bolt either before or after the gun went off, and when he came out of the curve into the straightaway, only Blake — who had beaten him at both distances in the Jamaican Olympic trials — had a ghost of a chance of running him down.
But Bolt glanced to his left once, saw Blake closing, and found the other gear that no one else has. His long levers pumping, eating up more real estate per stride than anyone else, he was free and clear with 25 metres to go and eased up to win in 19.32 seconds, the same once-untouchable time Michael Johnson ran in Atlanta 16 years ago. The number was not lost on Bolt.
“I did what I wanted. I came out of a rough season and I did what I had to do,” he said. “It’s what I came here to do. I’m now a legend, I’m also the greatest athlete to live. I am in the same category as Michael Johnson. I’m honoured. It’s all about Michael Johnson for me. I grew up watching him break world records.”
It wasn’t enough to beat Bolt’s own world (19.19) or Olympic (19.30) marks, but it was plenty for the gold, and before he crossed the line, he looked left once more, put his index finger to his lips in a “Shhh!” gesture — and that, hilariously enough, is the pose captured by the photo-finish camera that strings the finishers out in a single image of timelapse photographs in case of a close finish.
This one wasn’t required. Blake was second in 19.44, Weir took bronze in 19.84 and Wallace Spearmon of the U.S. ran 19.90 and won, as the French say, the “medaille chocolat.”
“Those guys are on another planet right now, congratulations to those guys, they were superb,” Spearmon said of the Jamaicans. “It’s not the first time someone has run sub-20 seconds and not got a medal, it has just not happened to me before.
“I am going to go home and work harder. I’m sorry I let everyone down.”
No apology required. Whatever the Jamaican sprinters have going for them, they’ve pretty much cornered the market.
“It’s wonderful. Jamaica has proven that we are the greatest sprint country,” said Bolt, who bounced back from a sub-par couple of seasons — plagued by back problems — in a big way.
He didn’t break the world record in the 100, either, but he has two gold medals, and a third in the 4x100 relay — which would give him a second consecutive Olympic triple — now looks like a cinch, as long as the Jamaicans don’t drop the stick.
He thought a world record 200 was possible.
“I came off the corner (fine) but I was not quick enough,” Bolt said. “I could feel the strain in my back a bit.”
For Blake, who trains with Bolt every day, and Weir, it was just affirmation of something they probably already knew: there’s no one, anywhere, quite like their teammates.
“It’s great. Of course, I want to thank Usain and Jamaica. This is my first Olympics, I can’t complain,” said Blake, who also won silver in the 100.