I’m blaming the CBC on this one, or, more accurately, http://cbc.ca/olympics, which indicated that the men’s 200m final would be streamed at 4:49am (Mountain). Of course, once 5am rolled around with no signs of Usain Bolt, I did some digging and discovered that the race wasn’t being run until 8:20am. And of course, at that point, it was too late to go to bed and not sleep through the race; yes, I’m an idiot, but I’m still blaming the CBC. This is all your fault, Scott Russell.
And so Usain Bolt becomes what probably amounts to the greatest sprinter of all time at the ripe-ole age of 22 (on his 22nd birthday, in fact). World Records in the 100m and 200m (beating Michael Johnson’s record in the 200 which was seen as almost unbeatable). The platitudes have been laid just about everywhere else, and I think Elliot Friedman used every superlative possible this morning, so sicne I don’t believe in being redundant, I’ll pass on all that, except to say that I do believe Bolt is (or will be) the best sprinter of all time.
Instead of continuing down that vein, I’d like to focus on how lucky Bolt is that his breakthrough as a sprinter is coming in an Olympic year. Before he broke the world record in May in the 100m, he was a relatively unknown in the shorter distance, though a medal threat in the 200m (if not the outright favourite). Sprinters characteristically have short shelf lives, lasting maybe 5 years (depending on doping scandals) and not really hitting their stride until they hit their mid-20s. Bolt basically has a Quadrennial head start on every other sprinter, meaning his career may last through more than one Olympics.
More importantly, because sprinters normally only last say 5 years instead of 8, it’s very rare for them to last through two Olympics; the timing just has to be perfect. Take Donovan Bailey for example: the man was the best sprinter in the world for three years, peaking in Atlanta in ‘96, but because he didn’t take up sprinting seriously until ‘94, and because he was injured in ‘98, he neverhad a chance to do more than one Olympics. Had Bailey started in ‘92 and been injured in ‘96 (for argument’s sake after the Olympics), then he could have had himself two Olympic Games, instead of just the one. A similar point can be made about Michael Johnson, whose dominance in the 200m didn’t last long enough for him to compete in more than Atlanta, though he won the 400m in Sydney.
But Bolt is starting in an Olympic year, so even if he only has 4 or 5 years, he should be able to be in top form in London; and because he’s so young, there’s no reason to believe that a 30-year-old Bolt won’t be on the podium in 2016 either.
The other thing about Bolt that I want to bring up is that some people were upset with him over his showboating antics at the end of races. To me, I say that these people need to relax. Bolt’s a young guy getting very excited, and he’s still running ridiculously quick times. Moreover, when he can run a 9.92 while slowing up halfway through the race, that’s a huge intimidation factor for his opponents.
My favourite part of this “controversy” is when Friedman was interviewing Bailey before the race and asked what he thought about Bolt’s showboating. Of course Bailey was fine with it; he probably cost his team a World Record in the 4×100m in Atlanta when he raised his hand in triumph for essentially his entire leg of the relay. Sprinters do this sort of thing; it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Moreover, when Bolt actually ran all the way through a race, he broke a record that was previously believed to be near untouchable for this generation of runners.
So yeah, Bolt is awesome. I’ll let CBC say the rest.
