Jamaica's Usain Bolt, center, breaks the tape with a world record time of 9.72 seconds in the men's 100 meter sprint at the Reebok Grand Prix athletic meet at Icahn Stadium in New York. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun
Despite being one of the most famous sportspeople on the planet, Usain Bolt acts like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Which is an intrinsic part of his appeal. He jokes with teammates before stepping into the starting blocks.
He mugs for the TV cameras.
And when he wins, the celebrations are fantastic.
The Lightning Bolt pose he first showed off at the Beijing Olympics is now so famous that his apparel sponsor Puma is selling foam Bolt Arms, which can be strapped on like a backpack with one arm pointed to the sky.
But whether the Jamaican chooses to think about it or not, he effectively has the future of track and field riding on his shoulders.
Seeing Bolt decimate his own 100m world record with a jaw-dropping time of 9.58 seconds at the world championships in Berlin was one of the great experiences in sport.
But athletics has been down this road before.
And too often the unbelievable has turned out to be chemically induced.
Think Marion Jones. Or Justin Gatlin. Or Tim Montgomery.
Or further back — Ben Johnson.
Great sprinters all of them.
And cheats of the highest order.
If the unthinkable were to happen and Bolt tested positive some time down the track, athletics could just about shut up shop as a global sport.
But the good news is that plenty of good judges fervently believe he’s clean.
He doesn’t have the exaggerated body shape of a Ben Johnson.
And it’s not as though the 22-year-old has come from nowhere in the last 12 months.
Back in 2002, he became the youngest-ever world junior champion at 200m, winning the title as a 15-year-old.
Further age group records came at 16 and 17 before he broke through on the senior stage with three golds — all in world record time — at the Beijing Olympics.
The magnitude of his achievements — and track and field’s sorry doping history — mean it’s inevitable that questions will be asked.
Let’s just hope the answer is that Bolt has become the fastest man ever on the back of his own remarkable natural ability and work ethic.
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