It was an incredible display of pure speed. It originated from those long, waist-high strides of 6-foot-5 Usain “Lightning Bolt” with his golden spikes, to win the 100-meter Olympic gold medal and break his own world record Saturday night.
In a race usually determined with a look at the replay, it was there for all to see, this one was an amazing gap of several feet between the Jamaican and the rest of the field at the finish. And the bright, yellow numbers on the red-and-black trackside clock blaring the official time: 9.69 seconds. “Is that really possible?!” Was it possible for one man to end up that far ahead of seven other men, seven other elite sprinters, the best the world has to offer? It was, after all, the first Olympic 100 in which six men finished in under 10 seconds.
Imagine what the time might have been if with 20 meters to go and already certain victory steps away Usain Bolt had not slowed to mug for the cameras. Outstretched arms with palms up, he slapped his chest while taking the last steps, leaning back to enjoy the moment instead of leaning forward at the finish line.
Usain Bolt’s eyes were wide as he playfully nudged an opponent during the prerace stroll through the stadium hallways, and, moments later, when he clowned with one of the volunteers at the start line before handing her his backpack. “I was having fun,” Bolt said. “That’s just me—I like to have fun.”
Those lanky legs allow Bolt to cover more ground, but his turnover for each stride also takes longer. He might just be turning the dash into a big man’s event. In 2004 Bolt ran the 200 m in 19.93 seconds, becoming the first junior to break the 20-second mark; breaking Lorenzo Daniel's world junior record. At the 2007 Jamaican Championships, Bolt ran 19.75, breaking the 36-year-old national record held by Don Quarrie by 0.11 seconds. At the World Championships in Osaka, Japan Bolt won a silver medal in the 200 m behind Tyson Gay. This was only his 5th senior run over the distance. On the 13 July 2008 in Athens, Greece Usain once again broke the 200 m national record by running 19.67. Bolt arrived at the Beijing Summer Olympics as the favorite in both the 100 m and 200 meters. He is coached by Glen Mills and currently attends the University of Technology, Jamaica. Bolt has 6 sub-10 seconds in 100 m and 12 sub-20 seconds in the 200 m.
Bolt’s sudden emergence truly began May 5 in Jamaica, when he ran 9.76 seconds, just shy of countryman Asafa Powell’s then-record 9.74. Then, on May 31 in New York City, Bolt broke Powell’s mark by finishing in 9.72. Now that is gone, too, and Bolt’s 0.20-second margin of victory matched the largest in an Olympic 100 final over the last 40 years. Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, and the NCAA champion from LSU won the silver by finishing in 9.89 and Walter Dix of the United States, was the bronze medalist in 9.91.
Bolt turned in as awe-inspiring a show as Olympic track and field has seen in years, maybe dating to Michael Johnson’s world-record 19.32 seconds in the 200 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Games. That mark could be next for Bolt, who considers the 200 his specialty. The heats for that event begin Monday, and the final is Wednesday, a day before his 22nd birthday. It’s all particularly remarkable when you consider that Bolt, from the same farming Trelawny parish in his Caribbean nation that was home to Ben Johnson, only began competing in the dash 13 months ago.
Even though his left shoelace was dangling, the knot undone. Even though he skidded out of the starting blocks with the seventh-slowest reaction time in the eight-man final. Even though as recently as this month, Bolt left some doubt as to whether he would even contest the 100 in Beijing, because he didn’t want to disrupt his preparation for the 200. The talk for weeks has been about how Bolt might hold up in the four-round format at the Olympics, and how he’d do squaring off against Powell and reigning world champion Tyson Gay. That didn’t work out. Gay, who paid for being sidelined the past 1 1/2 months after injuring his left hamstring at the U.S. Olympic trials, didn’t even make the final, finishing fifth in his semi. Powell, meanwhile, was fifth in the final for a second consecutive Olympics, adding to his reputation for flopping on the big stage.
Usain Bolt was born 21 August 1986 in Trelawny, Jamaica, the youngest of six sons of parents Cislins and William Powell. While attending William Knibb Memorial High School, he won the Jamaican high school titles in the 200 and 400 meters. At the age of 15 he won a gold and two silver medals at the 2002 World Junior Championships in front of a home crowd in Kingston, becoming the youngest world junior gold medalist ever. He won another gold medal at the 2003 World Youth Championships, running the 200 m in 20.40 seconds. Usain Bolt and retired Jamaican sprinter Michael Green are past students of William Knibb.
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