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And that’s that on “the Bolt”
By Christopher Galakoutis
| Monday, August 24 2009 3:41:37 PM |
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You just knew it was a sign of things to come, when in walked a rep handing out “Bolt Arms” on the subway en-route to the historic Olympic Stadium in Berlin on the night of the men’s 100m final.
“I want the Bolt to win Daddy,” my 5-year old daughter kept repeating, as she and her mother clung on to those large yellow contraptions all the way to the stadium gates, where they were confiscated by stadium security. The sponsor responsible for their production was not an “official sponsor” of the Championships.
Perhaps my little girl had confused the larger than life figure clad in yellow with Ronald McDonald, I thought. Perhaps we had the same hypnotic effect happening here. I reminded them that we were an American family rooting for Tyson Gay.
To no avail, as their disappointment at losing the “arms” was short-lived, for by the end of that evening they stood and cheered along with thousands of others as the 100m WR had been broken yet again by “the Bolt,” the 22-year-old Jamaican, first name Usain.
Had this been a Hollywood movie full of chase scenes, shoot-outs, explosions, and special effects, Bolt would have been the star, Spider-Man, Super-Man and the Terminator all packed into one. How does a Tyson Gay, running 9.71 seconds and left in the dust, not to mention the other six runners car lengths behind, compete against that?
For this was not a “B” movie full of cheap special effects, or a magician’s sleight of hand, this performance, 9.58 seconds over 100m, was absolute genius and highly entertaining.
But I remain unconvinced and suspicious. This was not the same man that ran in 2007 and prior years, and until someone can explain to me how one can improve their performance by a multiple of standard deviations, in one year, I will remain unconvinced. For the images of Ben Johnson in 1988 and Marion Jones in 2000 keep coming to mind, each with similar lop-sided leads over their rivals.
But the crowds love him, gobbling up every word and every performance, much like most of the media. Particularly the British media, salivating at the thought of Bolt performing in London in 3 years. Who knows, perhaps by then he can leap over Big Ben in a single bound. Why spoil that party?
And that’s that on “the Bolt.”
The other two countries closest to my heart, Greece and Canada, did not have memorable championships. Only one medal for the Canadians, courtesy of its new 100m hurdles star, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. A London gold medal is now a very realistic target. The men’s 4x100m relay team squeaked out a 5th place in the final, but they were lucky to keep that placing, for Sam Effah running leadoff clearly stepped on his inside line.
Greece’s best performance was a 5th place by Pericles Iakovakis in the 400m hurdles final. The other major hopeful, long-jumper Louis Tsatoumas, disappointed yet again in his final, missing two out of three jumps and not advancing. The only jump he did make was a 7.59m, well under the 8m mark and well under his best jumps and abilities.
The US led the medal standings with 22, followed by Jamaica and Russia at 13 and Kenya at 11.
Final Medals Table
*****
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Chris Galakoutis is a business and sports writer, as well as the founder and managing editor of HellenicAthletes.com. He can be reached at Chris@hellenicathletes.com
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