This Olympics has been a lot of fun, but the real Opening Ceremonies began with a gunshot and lasted under 10 seconds. To the untrained eye, every 100m dash might look exactly the same, but this was the fastest race ever. Where do we begin? With Usain Bolt, the man the myth the legend? With Tyson Gay running a 9.80, good enough to win gold in every single Olympics that Bolt did not take part in, but not even medaling (and bursting into tears afterward)? Gay should be remembered as one of the best American sprinters of all time. He swept the 100, 200 and 4x100 in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka (a good location for World Championships I'd like to add). He ran a 9.71 to finish 2nd to Bolt in the 2009 Worlds, and has a personal best of 9.69 in the 100 and 19.58 in the 200, both numbers that would have been mindboggling just 10 years ago. However because of Bolt, he will never be an Olympic Champion unless the US pulls off a miracle in the 4x100. Can we talk about Justin Gatlin? His story is phenomenal, winning the gold in the 100m in Athens before testing positive for testosterone in 2006 and ultimately being banned for 4 years. He is now competing in these games as a 30 year old, extremely old for a sprinter (Carl Lewis, known for his longevity, did not medal in any individual sprints as a 31 year old in Barcelona), and ran a sensational 9.79 to grab bronze. Then there's the silver medalist, 22 year old Yohan Blake, who beat Bolt in the Jamaican trials and created a lot of hype for a possible upset. He ran a 9.75 which was impressive, but not enough to compete with Bolt. Can I also say a word about Asafa Powell? The world record holder in the 100m from 2005 to 2008 and the man with the most sub 10 second 100m's ever, Powell pulled up with a groin injury halfway through the race and pulled up to the finish. He will finish his otherwise-illustrious career without an individual Olympic medal. However, I want to point out that he was still clocked at 11.99 seconds on his hamstrung run in London, which is amazingly faster than my personal best! Yes if I were to race Asafa Powell and he got seriously injured halfway through the race, he would still win. Anyway, arguably the five fastest men in history ran in that 100m dash.
But it's all about Bolt. He's one of the reasons the others are so good - they're all chasing him. In a sport where the world record used to drop every few years .01 seconds at a time (and Carl Lewis' 100m record of 9.86s was a sacred number while I was growing up), Bolt chopped away tenths of seconds at a time and rewrote our entire conception of what is possible within the human species. He's tall, he's charismatic, he's got a trademark gesture "To De World" that both looks awesome when he does it and looks lame when someone else does it, and he's got a name for the ages. He's never had any association with steroids but rather more association with McDonald's Chicken Sandwiches.
The race was at 4:50am in Hong Kong, which may be the least convenient time for a race ever. I decided I was going to watch it, went to sleep at midnight and set an alarm for 4:30. Somehow though I set it for pm instead of am. I know right? However, amazingly I actually woke up on my own at 4:40am! No joke my body wanted to see the race. I was dead tired but I dragged myself to the computer and got the live stream and witnessed that fastest race ever.
Tonight's the 200m at 3:50am and I hope to do the same thing again. I expect Bolt to win again, it would be almost a tragedy if he didn't. In the 100m race he had a characteristic slow start and I think was 6th at the 50m mark. His last 50m showed that his top speed is so much faster than everyone else, and the 200 is where that is especially apparent. I was really really hoping that he would run in the 4x400, which he did not rule out. Jamaica's best 400m runner, Jermaine Gonzales, was injured and ran poorly in his individual 400m race. However he raced again the 4x400 and didn't even finish, disqualifying the team.
But it's all about Bolt. He's one of the reasons the others are so good - they're all chasing him. In a sport where the world record used to drop every few years .01 seconds at a time (and Carl Lewis' 100m record of 9.86s was a sacred number while I was growing up), Bolt chopped away tenths of seconds at a time and rewrote our entire conception of what is possible within the human species. He's tall, he's charismatic, he's got a trademark gesture "To De World" that both looks awesome when he does it and looks lame when someone else does it, and he's got a name for the ages. He's never had any association with steroids but rather more association with McDonald's Chicken Sandwiches.
The race was at 4:50am in Hong Kong, which may be the least convenient time for a race ever. I decided I was going to watch it, went to sleep at midnight and set an alarm for 4:30. Somehow though I set it for pm instead of am. I know right? However, amazingly I actually woke up on my own at 4:40am! No joke my body wanted to see the race. I was dead tired but I dragged myself to the computer and got the live stream and witnessed that fastest race ever.
Tonight's the 200m at 3:50am and I hope to do the same thing again. I expect Bolt to win again, it would be almost a tragedy if he didn't. In the 100m race he had a characteristic slow start and I think was 6th at the 50m mark. His last 50m showed that his top speed is so much faster than everyone else, and the 200 is where that is especially apparent. I was really really hoping that he would run in the 4x400, which he did not rule out. Jamaica's best 400m runner, Jermaine Gonzales, was injured and ran poorly in his individual 400m race. However he raced again the 4x400 and didn't even finish, disqualifying the team.
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