Projo Sports Blog

By George Vecsey
The New York Times

BEIJING - Early Wednesday evening, Michael Johnson contemplated the phenomenon of Usain Bolt. The new man could not take it all, right here, in one Summer Games, could he?

"I don't think he'll break it here, although I wouldn't be shocked at anything he did," said Johnson, who would own the world record in the 200 meters for another five hours and change.

Johnson did say that as soon as Bolt trained his lanky 6-foot 5 frame in the fine points of the 200 meters, "I will be able to kiss my record goodbye."

It happened fast - 19.30 seconds' worth of fast, breaking Johnson's world and Olympic record of 19.32 - but at least Bolt had to work hard at this one, perhaps losing style points. He did not thump his chest once or look around for his playmates, the way he did in his stroll to a world record of 9.69 in the 100 meters last Saturday night.

Less than two hours before his 22nd birthday, Bolt had the full attention of Johnson, who was here to watch his world record be threatened by the lightning streak out of the Jamaican sky.

On Aug. 1, 1996, in Atlanta, Johnson set that record, and it had stood ever since, even in an age when athletes were running on illegal rocket fuel. Tests were made, athletes tested positive for one thing or another and were thrown out of the sport. Now along comes Usain Bolt, the tallest, freshest, fastest sprinter ever.

Last Saturday night, Bolt cut three-hundredths of a second off his previous record in the 100, set May 31. He might have done it considerably faster had he not begun celebrating early, as if to say, "Hey, guys, where is everybody?" In the NFL, such an expression of self-love would gain a 15-yard taunting penalty. In this sport, it is considered confidence.

"It was the most impressive athletic performance I have ever seen in my life," Johnson said Wednesday, before the next one. "It was amazing to watch - especially since I didn't have to watch from behind."

Johnson, who runs a sports performance school in Dallas, coaching athletes to run faster, expressed high expectations for Bolt in the 200. He noted that Bolt is a work in progress. Whereas Johnson was an intimidating blend of sprinter in the 200 and power runner in the 400, Bolt is a special blend for the 100 and 200.

"In the past, if somebody 6-5 walked into the coach's office, the coach would have said, `You're a 400-meter runner,"' Johnson said. Just as basketball coaches had to overcome resistance to chunkier packages like Charles Barkley, so track coaches have had to recognize that a man as tall as Bolt can be a sprinter, long legs, long frame and all.

"Obviously he's been working on his start," Johnson said. "He's going to have to hold that speed - and run through the finish line and tie up his shoes."

Bolt tied his shoes Wednesday night. And he wanted to win, and maybe set a record, badly enough to grind out his victory.

Johnson reminded people that Carl Lewis, the last double winner of the Olympic 100 and 200 until Wednesday night, was rarely the best at coming out of the blocks, but that Lewis usually cut down the field in the final 30 meters. Bolt just muscled himself to the front and stayed there. And he is here to stay.

Needless to say, the subject of performance-enhancing drugs came up in the news conference before the race. The subject is inevitable, what with Ukraine's Olympic heptathlon silver medalist, Lyudmila Blonska, very likely to be banned for life as a second offender after apparently testing positive Wednesday.

Somebody asked Johnson if he thought Bolt had any cloud over him. "If somebody wants to believe that, it's his prerogative, but I'm giving you another reason," Johnson said, meaning that Bolt may just be a force of nature, who is mastering the technique while he breaks records.

Lamine Diack of Senegal, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federation, acknowledged that runners in smaller countries like Jamaica and Kenya do not have drug-testing laboratories.

"We must help them and be prepared to pay the price," Diack said in the same news conference. He added that the current crop of great Jamaican runners are being tested steadily at major meets, and said Bolt had been tested four times at these games.

Johnson added later: "There is far too much attention on records. Nobody knows who's going to win. Get the focus away from records."

That is hard to do when Usain Bolt is dominating the sport. The Bird's Nest did not seem to rumble quite as much as the Olympic stadium did in Atlanta in 1996; the stadium would have quivered more if the injured Liu Zhang of China had been able to compete in the hurdles.

Usain Bolt has made this a two-athlete Olympics. In two bursts of speed, he has matched much of the buzz for Michael Phelps, who won eight medals in the pool. Bolt's two gold medals were won out in the open, on two feet. The first one was play. The second was work. But both are records. Kiss the old ones goodbye.

 Tags  Olympics track and field Usain Bolt

2 Comments

boss said:

Usain Bolt is Amazing ! Unbelievable he broke the worldrecord again.

Just like the 100 meter, I can watch this movie over and over again!

The video: http://sportvideo.zideo.nl

Link | August 20, 2008 3:22 PM
Report Abuse

---

dr. g said:

michael johnson haffi nyam him words like patty. suck yuh madda puci

Link | September 8, 2008 3:38 PM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.