Bolt looking to strike it rich
Jamaican looks to claim 3rd golds in 100, 200, relay
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Olympics can begin. Usain St. Leo Bolt is in the house.
The Summer Games’ only true global superstar arrived for his first race Saturday, an early-afternoon preliminary heat in the 100 meters in a stadium that was packed despite the early hour. He flipped down his hoodie to reveal a shaved head.
Trying to look younger, he said.
He’s 29, still five years younger than his primary rival, but venerable and perhaps vulnerable in a sport in which the clock ignores pedigree and history. Bolt is trying to complete an inconceivable triple-triple, winning three golds in three consecutive Games in the 100, 200 and 400 relay. And if he needed any reminder of the difficulty of winning just one event in three straight Olympics, it came on the same blue, urethane oval a day earlier.
Tirunesh Dibaba, the gold medalist at 10,000 meters in 2008 and 2012, ran a personal best in Friday’s final at Estadio Olimpico and took the bronze. She wasn’t even the best Ethiopian. Almaz Ayana, seven years younger, went 25 seconds faster and shattered the world record.
Bolt won his heat Saturday in 10.07 seconds, which was only the fourth fastest of the day behind American Justin Gatlin (10.01), Ivory Coast’s Ben Youssef Meite (10.03) and Canada’s Andre De Grasse (10.04).
“It wasn’t the best start,” said Bolt. “I felt kind of slow.”
Read into that what you want. Gatlin and Meite ran with a slight tailwind, and Bolt’s heat had a slight headwind. And the early rounds are an exercise in head swiveling for the main contenders, looking side to side while determining whether to shut down the engines at 70 meters or 80.
This is also Bolt, as masterful between the lanes as he is between the ears.
The man given the best shot at beating him in Sunday’s final is Gatlin, and no one might be under Bolt’s mesmerizing spell more. Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, entered last year’s world championships with the year’s six fastest times in the 100. He was faster than Bolt through the rounds. He was faster in the final through 50 meters.
Bolt won, 9.79 seconds to 9.80.
Others could contend — De Grasse, American Trayvon Bromell, Jamaica’s Yohan Blake, France’s Jimmy Vicaut — but most bill this as a two-man drama, and the part of the villain is played by the American.
Gatlin, 34, has twice failed drug tests and served suspensions. The most recent ban was initially for eight years as a second offense, then halved by an appeal board. He returned in 2010 and has run faster purportedly clean in his 30s than he did doped in his mid-20s, which has raised only more eyebrows and questions.
Oh, and he’s coached by Dennis Mitchell, who served a doping suspension during his competitive career and has been linked to alleged steroid dealer Angel “Memo” Heredia.
The ultimate arbiter Sunday night will be starting blocks, eight lanes and the clock. Of the three events Bolt plans to run in Rio, this figures to be the hardest. At 6-foot-5, his more natural distance is the 200, and he doesn’t have to worry about the start as relay anchor.
But the start will be a factor Sunday night, and Bolt won’t have a large body of work this season to draw from. Then again, he also suffered a hamstring injury before the 2012 Olympics, went to Germany for treatment, raced minimally, showed up at the Olympics and completed the doubletriple.
Asked at the U.S. trials if he thought the injured Bolt might not make it to Rio, Gatlin laughed: “Come on, man, he’s Usain.”