BOLT NOW THE GREATEST SPRINTER EVER

Going into the London Olympics Usain Bolt continually stressed his desire to become a legend. In the eyes of many he already was having wOn three gold medals in world-record times in Beijing four years earlier and won the sprint double in world-record times a year later at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin.

Bolt’s accomplishments so far these Games have already elevated him to a new level. Yes, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis won four gold medals in Berlin and Los Angeles respectively, but Bolt’s accomplishments have already surpassed both and here’s why. Since 2010, Bolt had not been at his best. Injury and I suppose a lack of motivation saw him lose a 100-metre dash in Stockholm to American Tyson Gay in 2010. It was his first loss since his countryman Asafa Powell beat him in Stockholm in 2008, just weeks before he conquered Beijing.

In 2011, Bolt was not as dominant over the 100 metres and was unable to successfully defend his 100-metre world title in Daegu because of what could very well be the most infamous false start in history. He bounced back to take the 200-metre title in 19.40, the second fastest time in the world that year. Blake would set an astonishing 19.26-second run in Brussels, a few weeks later.

So come 2012, and Bolt, by his standards, had an up and down season going into the London 2012 Olympic Games. He began the season with an impressive 9.82-second run and delivered fast times of 9.76 and 9.79, suggesting that he was rounding into the kind of shape that would see him successfully defend his Olympic title. Then in early June, Bolt was involved in an auto accident that would eventually trigger doubts about his health, especially when at the national championships at the end of that month he would not only lose to training partner Yohan Blake in the 100-metres, only his third loss in four years in the short sprint. However, Bolt had not lost a 200-metre dash since he  finished second to Tyson Gay in the finals of the men’s 200 metres in Osaka, Japan in 2007. So when Yohan Blake defeated him in the finals of the 200 metres, concerns turned to intense worry. Would Bolt be able to be the superman he was in Beijing and Berlin?

Bolt departed the island a few days after the trials under a cloud of doubt but within weeks – after seeing his doctor in Germany – he was reportedly doing well in training. We heard reports of a 50-metre dash in 4.5-second 50-metre dash, we heard about consistently great starts but none of that would matter unless Bolt was able to transfer those performances to the track where he would face the fastest men in history.

In the finals Bolt would face Yohan Blake, whose 9.75s run at the national championships made him the fourth fastest man of all time, Tyson Gay, whose 9.69 and 9.71 made him the second fastest man of all time, Asafa Powell, who for all his shortcomings at major championships, has a personal best of 9.72 which makes him the third fastest man of all time, and Justin Gatlin, whose 9.80 at the US national championships put him in the top-10 of fastest men all time. Never before has such a quality field been assembled in the men’s 100-metres at a global championships. If ever there was a chance that Bolt could lose his Olympic crown it would be in London on the night of August 5, 2012.

Bolt however decimated the field. He recovered from a bad start and blew them away to win by a margin of 0.12 seconds, a city block in the world of sprinting. Bolt had just destroyed the best ever field of 100-metre sprinters ever assembled without much effort, even having time to glance at the clock even as his teammate Blake, the man who defeated him on June 28, found himself in a dog-fight with Americans Justin Gatlin and Tyson  Gay for the other two medals. Blake equalled his personal best which was good enough for the silver but Bolt reigned surpreme.

Yes, it wasn’t a world record but he broke his own Olympic record setting the new mark at 9.63s. A great man is not judged by what he does when things are going well but by how he responds to adversity. Bolt’s performance on the night of August 5,  demonstrated that he is made of the stuff of champions.