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.
Whiteline
Guest
James - you are on the money. "He means every sportsman in the world has tried to run fast, but what percentage have tried playing League? or AFL? Or soccer? Or swim 1500 or 400 IM?"
onside
Guest
Thanks Jameswm, I'm not too good at sums it seems,and the stopwatch info is most relevant
Jameswm
Guest
there are some uninformed comments in here. irstly, Bolt got a cool $200,000 for breaking a WR. His endorsements would be enormous as one of the most recognisable sportsmen on the planet. ou have misunderstood what Whiteline said and Whiteline is dead right. He means every sportsman in the world has tried to run fast, but what percentage have tried playing League? or AFL? Or soccer? Or swim 1500 or 400 IM? And onside your maths is way out. Even if Jesse Owens ran 10.2, the difference is 0.62, not 0.44 as you claim. But in 1936, there was no such thing as electronic timing, only hand times. And with hand times, you normally add on 0.24 as the standard reaction time of the timer, so Jesse Owens ran 10.44 and Bolt is nearly a full second faster - 0.86 to be precise. My father was saying Bolt is running the 100 metres in almost the same time they were running for 100 yards (about 91m) in his day. As the article says, his times are consistent with a natural improvement from when he was younger. The guy ran 19.85 over 200 as a 17yo FFS - I remember when he came on the scene.
AndyRoo
Guest
I am sure as the absolute fastest man on the planet he will be making a fair bit of money. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/23/usain-bolt-athletics-marketing-appeal
Roman
Guest
his achievements are amazing, but i cant help but wonder how much (financially) he has gained from his wins? Then i wonder how much he could be earning in some other form of sport using his amazing athletic ability. Makes me wonder when he is going to strap on some football boots and become a wide receiver or something in the NFL.
onside
Guest
Back in 1936 Jesse Owens ran 100 metres in 10.2 Seventy three years later, Usain Bolt ran it in 9.58 Took seventy three years to reduce the time by .44 All things considered,10.2 in 1936 was pretty quick.
Brett McKay
Guest
I think John's onto something here, and it's a fairly sad indictment on sprinting that a large number of us would have seen the footage of Bolt streaking away in a World Record time, and then thinking at some point "he better not test positive to anything..." I know I did, and I even tried to marvel in what I'd just seen for as long as I could. The question I have about Bolt is this - when is he going to run out a full 100m?!?! He turned it off yet again in Berlin, this time at about the 90-95m. No wonder he says he can run 9.4 secs - he just needs to run the whole 100m!!
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I guess what Whiteline is trying to say is that unless you can be the fastest man on Earth, there ain't much point in specialising in sprinting as a professional sportsperson, when a stack of other options are possible.
Tom
Guest
I've thought about it for a while, whiteline, and its wrong. The AFL (and probably other codes as well) is full of highly successful junior athletes who focussed on ball sports rather than pure athletics in their mid teens. But there is no doubt in my mind that Bolt is the greatest athlete in the world.
Hoy
Roar Guru
I don't know what that means Whiteline, but I like him. It makes such a difference how I perceive him when he is joking around at the start, than the other sprinters who are so far up themselves and believe far too much about themselves. Sure, he has his strong self belief as well, but jeez, he can back it up. Pray he is super clean.
Whiteline
Guest
Whilst not wishing to get into a 'greatest athlete of all time' debate, you unique thing about Bolt is that every person who has ever lived has tried to run fast (if capable of running) and then if they couldn't do that, they tried another sporting pursuit. Just think about that for a while.