Usain Bolt does it again – a truly talented young man. He’s exceptional – truly lives up to his name, he’s a thunderbolt. And don’t you love how he plays the crowd everytime he wins a race? What an entertainer, when he strikes his trademark “Arrow Pose”, you know it’s the mark of a man sitting on top of the world … no no … it’s the mark of a man sprinting all around the circumference of the world in much less than 802 days.
9.58 seconds …
That is no easy feat!!
Usain Bolt broke … no no …. SMASHED his own world record. He did in the exact stadium where Jesse Owens had From the days of Jesse Owens ran 91m (100 yards) in 9.4 seconds back in 1936 in front of Adolf Hitler … What a long history its been since then, we’ve seen many many great sprinters since that time: Ato Boldon, Frankie Fredericks, Carl Lewis, Donovan Bailey, Maurice Greene, Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay … but NONE are as great as this man … USAIN BOLT!!
With all this fan-fair around it’s well and good, but the world being as it is, one has to ask the perennial question when you’re an athlete …. DOPING… is he doping? I suppose only time will tell. I would like to think that he is NOT, for the sake of the sport. But I suppose it’s a valid question, seeing that MARION JONES had won 5 olympic medals in 2000, it later emerged that she had been doping, and had lied to federal agents. Now she’s been struck off the history books…. shiver . In women’s sprinting, the trends DO NOT make sense… Florence Griffith-Joyner recorded 10.49 seconds, a record which has been standing for almost 22 years. Many people think she doped and got away with it… Marion Jones came closest to breaking this record, but could only manage 10.65s, a whole 0.16 seconds behind, and she did that 10 years later, in 1998.
But having said all this, people like Usain constantly push the envelope… they show us that things are achievable … as the ADIDAS saying goes … “IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING”. We need people like that, to help us get past the slog of everyday life… get past our mediocrity; show us that “yes we can”. It’s beautiful. And I can proudly say: “I saw it live, in the comfort of my sofa at home, on 16 August 2009, round about 21h30 South African time. 9.58 seconds. Hats off for the best sprinter the world has ever seen … even Michael Johnson took his hat off for this young man.