Replacing Olympians Bolt and Phelps will be a hard act to follow

SOMEONE, infinitely wiser than me, warned me that the Olympic Games would be an impossible beast for me to comprehend. I’d have to see it, the brilliant blur of it all, to understand and truly appreciate it, they said.

It has been astonishing. Scribes though we may be, we are firstly fans of the human triumph, and sympathisers of the dream deferred.

Rio 2016 has piled up both helpings, relentlessly. It has been an incredible journey, one characterised by the personal touches across all these events that breathe life into this magnificent beast.

The headline acts, naturally, did what they were born to do. Messrs Bolt and Phelps will never grace this stage again, which is a weary thought. But what a way to go, the ultimate mic drops at the pool and in the cauldron of an emotional Stadio Olimpico, respectively and respectfully.

They have given us infinite doses of delight, and the Olympic world will have to find new heroes, as it has done for decades.

To be an Olympian is immense in itself, and to be a medallist is surely to know that the Olympic juice has been worth life’s squeeze.

But, to go on and touch the rarefied air that Bolt and Phelps wolf down for breakfast is what has elevated them into legend status.

Their longevity has allowed some of the kids that they inspired to get that priceless chance of going toe to toe with a hero.

A chance is all they got, however. Bolt explained that he did not lose to ‘kids’, just as Phelps had spoken of a four-year itch to return to the five-ringed pool and settle a score with a kid who ‘has got talent’.

You’re not supposed to meet your heroes, they say, because the real thing may not be as good as the dream.

Bolt and Phelps’ feats have rubbished that notion, and also laid the platform for Tokyo 2020’s heroes to emerge from their considerable shadows.

Andre Degrasse and Chad le Clos would have hated losing, but they will be inspired by knowing that the only thing that stood between them and a slice of immortality were the greatest sprinter and swimmer of all times.

That’s not bad company, and now the considerable onus is on them, and the emerging class of 2016, to make the kids of 2020 dream, too.

That is the beautiful thing about the Olympic Games. The torch moves from city to city around the world, and so, too, does the flame of inspiration, from superstar to superstar.

Bolt and Phelps greedily held on to it for longer than protocol usually dictates, but legends tend to write their own scripts.

We will never again see Phelps fly or Bolt saunter to the finish line. There’s terrific sadness in the finality of that truth, for sure.

Nothing lasts forever, but their legend will grow larger with each passing day.

And, to have witnessed their sensational swansongs has been an incredible pleasure.

Roll on, Tokyo 2020, so that fantastic flame can burn brightly again.