Magical Moment
...when Usain Bolt unsettled the Bird’s Nest and announced himself ‘To the World’
JAMAICA’S athletic prowess gained world acclaim during the island’s debut at the 1948 London Olympic Games.
This small nation of just under three million people has been a powerhouse at the Olympic Games, mainly through athletics, and has garnered 78 medals as evidence — 77 in track and field and the other in cycling.
Various theories have been sought to explain the reasons for this little nation’s envious achievements — in both per capita and real numbers — as Jamaicans do so well, especially in the sprint events.
One theory links our athletic prowess with our African ancestry, our fasttwitch muscles to the theory of escaping economic poverty, and posits the environment of Jamaica’s long history of organised national youth competition (primarily through the Intersecondary Schools Sports Association Gracekennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships), as being at the heart of the nation’s success.
Whatever the reason, Jamaica has made its mark in no uncertain manner. The likes of Arthur Wint, who won Jamaica’s first gold medal 73 years ago, laid the foundation.
Jamaica now has the fastest human being ever in Usain Bolt and in tandem with Shelly-ann Fraser-pryce, the tiny island has the two fastest humans alive.
Today, we look back at some of Jamaica’s most memorable displays at the Olympic Games in a series of articles dubbed the Magical Moment, and what better way to start than with Usain Bolt, who is Jamaica’s first Olympic 100m gold medallist.
That Magical Moment was inside the Bird’s Nest at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China. Bolt became the first man since American Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4×100-metre relay in a single Olympic Games, and the first ever to set world records (9.69secs, 19.30secs, and 37.10secs, respectively) in all three events.
Jamaica has been knocking at the door for that first 100m gold medal ever since Herb Mckenley lost in a tight photo-finish with American Lindy Remigino. Both clocked 10.4 seconds. In fact, the final was “probably the closest mass finish in Olympic 100-metre history, with the first four runners all clocking in at 10.4 seconds hand-timed”. Then there was Lennox Miller, who won silver at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and bronze four years later at the 1972 Munich Games. Donald Quarrie also narrowly lost the 100m gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics to Hasley Crawford of Trinidad and Tobago. Quarrie, however, did secure gold in the 200m at the said Games. But 32 years later, Jamaica would finally get that long-awaited gold in the 100m courtesy of Bolt at the 2008 Olympic Games – and what a performance it was.
Bolt captured the hearts and minds of Jamaicans and the world with a scintillating display of sprinting never before witnessed.
The lanky sprinter had come to the 2008 Olympic Games as the world record holder in the 100m after running 9.72 seconds four weeks earlier. But he was still a relatively unknown factor over this distance because that was just his third race in the 100m.
But what he did in the final will never be forgotten.
After jogging through his heats and semis, Bolt dismantled a world-class field in no uncertain manner, powering away from the field and 20m before the finish line, he started his celebration by opening his arms wide then slapping his chest. This was never done in a sprint before and probably will never be repeated.
Bolt went on to win nine Olympic gold medals in the 100, 200m and the 4x100 relays before, unfortunately, losing one of the relay gold medals because of a teammate’s failed retroactive drug test.
“The celebration just came out. It wasn’t anything practised,” reminisced Bolt during a recent interview with the
Jamaica Observer.
He continued: “But as Jamaicans, you
know wi beat wi chest when wi do great things so I guess it just naturally happened.”
On August 16, 2008 Jamaica finally won the 100m gold and claimed the title of the fastest man ever in history. Bolt won that race in a then world record 9.69 seconds. It was Jamaica’s first title in the event and first medal in the event since 1976.
“For me, that performance was one of the best because that was my first gold medal. And that was something I was looking forward to throughout my whole career – to be an Olympic champion and just the hard work that I had put in over that season to get to that point,” Bolt explained.
It was the largest winning margin in the 100m as second-place Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago finished in 9.89 seconds, a full two-tenths of a second behind.
Fellow Jamaicans Asafa Powell, the former world record holder, was fifth in 9.95 seconds, and Michael Frater sixth with 9.97 seconds.
But the young star athlete, dubbed Lightning Bolt, who turned 21 years old a few days later on August 21 was well on his way to greatness, not only on the track but in front of the cameras where he would dance, pose, laugh and embrace the fans at every opportunity. A star had indeed arrived.
But Bolt was not finished there as he would secure his first 200m title a few days later, this time in world record fashion clocking 19.30 seconds, and winning by the largest margin of victory of 0.66 seconds. American Shawn Crawford was second in 19.96 seconds. It was Jamaica’s first victory in the event since 1976 and second overall.
Bolt lowered the previous 200m world record from 19.32 seconds to 19.30 seconds. It was a record many people thought would be almost impossible to break and Bolt told the Observer he was overjoyed at the achievement.
“My most satisfying performance was breaking the 200m world record for the first time and for me, that was a big deal because Michael Johnson was someone that I looked up to and for a minute, I never thought I could actually break his world record. The fact that I got his world record, for me that was a big deal,” reiterated Bolt.
But Bolt was on the hunt for his third Olympic Games gold medal, this time in the 4x100m relay with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Asafa Powell. This, he said, was his most memorable moment.
Bolt was on the third leg as Carter gave them a flying start, Frater ran a superb second leg and when Bolt got the baton, the race was as good as over.
“The most memorable moment was definitely the ‘4x1’ with me and Asafa when I screamed at him and said, ‘Run Asafa!” Bolt noted.
And run Asafa did. Jamaica had smashed the previous world record of 37.40 seconds, lowering it to 37.10 seconds.
“For me that was very memorable and was one of my favourite moments and actually, I got the picture of it – which is one of my favourite pictures also,” said Bolt.
Three gold medals, three world records, Bolt had produced the three best races in Olympic history.
Of note though, in 2017 Bolt would lose his gold medal won in the relay because Carter failed a retroactive drug test taken nine years before.