On the Run: Bolt wins the 200 meters. Photo by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
It has not been the best of summers for the legacy of Michael Johnson,
the greatest American track star of the previous decade. Earlier he
lost a gold medal, the inevitable outcome when Antonio Pettigrew, one
of his relay-mates on the U.S.'s winning 4X400 team in Sydney, admitted he had been using performance-enhancing drugs. Then Wednesday night, Usain Bolt broke Johnson's record in the 200 meters, a record that had seemed built to last.
When Johnson set his record at the '96 Atlanta Olympics, he
staggered in disbelief after the finish line when he saw his own time
of 19.32. Almost immediately the stadium loud speakers blasted a pop
song with the refrain "Unbelievable." And there was really no other
word for it. Johnson had shattered one of the longest surviving records
in his sport--and by a margin of more than a half second.
Bolt only shaved .02 seconds off Johnson's mark, but "unbelievable"
seemed the right word choice once again. When Michael Phelps closed out
his Olympics with a record eight gold medals, it was hard to imagine
any other Olympic athlete giving a performance to rival his. Phelps
remains the standout of these Games, but Bolt is giving him a run for
his money--at the very least a #2 with a bullet on the Olympic charts.
The Jamaican flash, who is essentially a rookie at the elite levels
of sprinting--he turned 22 years old a few hours after his gold-medal
race--had already broken the world record in the 100 meters last
Saturday. The Olympics, with multiple heats in both the 100 and 200, is
supposed to be a challenging place in which to set a world record let
alone two. In his winning 200, he ran .35 seconds faster than his own
personal best and more than a half second faster than the second-place
finisher, Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles. America'sWallace Spearmon
finished third. Later, both would be disqualified for running out of
their lanes, and Americans Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix were awarded
the silver and bronze medals.
But numbers don't quite tell the story of Bolt's magical runs here.
Just like in the 100, there was remarkably little appearance of effort
in his race. Bolt appears to glide over the track, as sweet a stride as
the sport may have ever witnessed. If he ever decides that the 400
meters is a good race for him, Johnson's last world record would almost
certainly fall quickly.
Then again neither the records nor his running style quite explain
why he has emerged here as such a monumental star. Bolt has a playful
quality--he danced and mugged and "I'm numbered oned" during his
victory lap--and celebrated his latest victory with such infectious joy
that not only the Chinese, but fans from every nation seemed to embrace
him like a fellow countryman. The two universal rhythms of Jamaica: reggae and now Bolt.
At a press conference in Beijing before the Games, Bolt said he
didn't know if he would run both races. When reporters informed him
that his coach had already said he would, Bolt wasn't the least
non-plussed. Apparently he likes surprises. So do sportswriters and
Bolt delivered a beauty tonight. ("No way, no how," was my prescient
pronouncement before the race on his prospects for another record.)
In a sport plagued by doping scandals, Bolt appears a breath of
fresh air. But after his stunning performance every true fan, burned so
many times by champions who turned out to be cheats, offered the same
silent prayer: "Oh God, I hope he's clean."
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