On the Run: Bolt wins the 200 meters. Photo by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

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's Wallace 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."

After the bronze-medal disaster of the U.S. men's basketball team in Athens four years ago, there was a consensus that the American men seem to lack some fundamental understanding of the concept of T-E-A-M. If you wanted to see American squads with real team values, you went and watched our women play sports. While Kobe and company have done much to rehabilitate our nation's basketball reputation here in Beijing, the American women have been the absolute bomb. And Thursday will witness perhaps the biggest day in Olympic history for the American women's teams. From 9 a.m. to midnight, six women's teams—beach volleyball, volleyball, water polo, softball, soccer and basketball—will play for gold medals or to reach the finals and the chance to play for gold medals. Here's a preview of those six contests in Beijing chronological order:

11 a.m.—Beach Volleyball: U.S. beach queens Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh face a home-sand disadvantage when they play China's favorite duo of Wang Jie and Tian Jia for the gold medal. The Chinese got the #1 seed here, which is a bit of a puzzlement since the California gals are defending Olympic champions and haven't lost a match since Aug 19th—of last year! Their winning streak now totals 106 matches and they have plowed through the Olympic field without losing a set. (The Chinese, by contrast, have been pushed to a third set three times in six matches.) Misty and Kerri may be the most well-respect and -liked athletes by the press. They are courteous to opponents, thank every official after each match and are exceptionally patient with the press, acutely aware that they are both building their brand and their sport. I wrote a NEWSWEEK article on them before the Athens Game and, after their gold-medal performance, they sent me a signed card thanking me for the coverage and with a pouch of sand from the Olympic beach attached. That is unprecedented—the “thank you" as well as the sand—in my experience through 10 Olympics. Beach volleyball is "hot" and is the only one of the Thursday's six contests that will rate live coverage on NBC prime time.

12:20—Volleyball: Women’s volleyball has been contested at the Olympics since Tokyo 1964 and the Americans have a silver and bronze to show for all their floor burns. But after a fifth-place finish in Athens, the volleyball brass brought in a living legend to coach the team—at least a living legend in China. “Jenny” Lang Ping was known as the “Iron Hammer” when she played on the 1984 Chinese Olympic team in Los Angeles, where China defeated the United States for the gold medal. She returned to the States 12 years later, for Atlanta ’96, as coach of the Chinese team that won a silver medal. Now she is trying to take the Americans to new heights. The dream final would be the United States vs. China. But first "Jenny" has to get the American ladies past Cuba, the only team to beat them in the preliminary round.

6:20 p.m.—Water Polo: Coach Guy Baker won a host of national collegiate championships at UCLA before taking over the women’s national water polo team for the first Olympic competition in Sydney. In a thrilling and controversial ending, the team lost to Australia 4-3 on a goal in the final second. Four years later, the U.S. got its revenge on Australia 6-5—but that only garnered the team a bronze medal. But last year the U.S. women’s team won the world championship—beating Australia in Australia. So guess what country the undefeated Americans have to beat to win the gold medal Thursday night? Probably not. That’s because the American women already dispatched Australia 9-8 in the semis and now will face the Netherlands, the country where women’s water polo was first competed a little more than a century ago.

6:30 p.m.—Softball: No matter the result, this will certainly be the most emotional of all these games. It may be the final softball game in Olympic history. The powers that be have thrown softball out of the Games for sins both real and imagined. One of its concerns is apparently the lack of top-flight competition to challenge the Americans, though American domination in women’s basketball is at least as pronounced. And as the ladies point out, nobody gets upset when Michael Phelps dominates. The softballers will be bidding for a clean sweep of the four Olympics in which the sport has been competed. In Beijing, the team is undefeated and has allowed only two runs in its eight games. Next year softball will apply to the International Olympic Committee for reinstatement for the 2016 Olympics, competing against six other sports for a coveted spot in the Games. It can’t hurt that IOC president Jacques Rogge was in the stands Wednesday for what turned out to be one of the most dramatic days in the game’s brief Olympic history. First the United States and Japan played eight scoreless innings—regulation games are seven—before the U.S. won 4-1. Then Japan, which could still reach the gold medal game with a win over Australia and leading 2-1 in the top of the 7^th, one out away from a rematch with the Americans, surrendered the tying run on a homer, then had the winning run thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the inning. Australia went ahead 3-2 in the 11th, but Japan tied the game in the bottom of the inning before winning it in the 12th. Now it can try to end America's softball dynasty on a doubly sour note.

8 p.m.—Basketball: Much has been made of the show being put on by the American men’s team, with Kobe and company winning its first five games by an average of 32 points. But those are close games by the standards of the undefeated American women who have won all six of their games by an average of 42 points. The U.S. has not lost a game since the Barcelona Olympics in 1992--30-0 with three gold medals--and this may be its strongest squad yet. The Beijing team combines Olympic veterans like Lisa Leslie and Diana Taurasi with a pair of dynamic, young WNBA superstars—Candace Parker, a two-time national player of the year at the University of Tennessee and 6’6” former LSU star Sylvia Fowles, who is leading the team in both scoring and rebounding. The U.S. faces Russia in the semis and, if victorious, the winner of China-Australia in the finals. While the men's team could still get clipped by a Spain or a Lithuania on an off day, there is no team that can stop this American juggernaut.

9 p.m.—Soccer: Women’s soccer captivated American fans in one glorious summer fling back in 1999. Five years later in Athens, Mia Hamm and her soccer sisters left the Olympics and the game on a high—with an overtime victory over Brazil. Tonight the U.S. women will play Brazil again for the gold medal, but the shoe is decidedly on the other foot. In truth, Brazil was the better team in Athens and the American team needed all its savvy, pluck and opportunism to escape with the gold medal. With the exodus of the starry veterans—Hamm, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly—and an injury to the team’s high scorer, Abby Wambach, the U.S. team is a big underdog to the speedy and creative Brazilians. (The Brazilian women play a far more “beautiful game” than the Brazilian men’s team, which resorted to total thuggery to try to slow down arch-rival Argentina in their 3-0 semi-final defeat.) In the 2007 women’s World Cup, Brazil eviscerated the Americans 4-0 in the semis, a loss that cost the U.S. coach his job, before losing to Germany in the finals. Here in Beijing they mauled Germany 4-1 to reach the finals. The Americans had a much softer path to the final and had it not been for a bizarre Japanese 5-1 romp over favored Norway would have met Brazil—and likely its demise without a medal—in the quarterfinals. In the semis, the U.S. team played its best game of the tournament, ousting Japan 4-2. The team now plays a far more attractive game under its new coach, former Swedish star Pia Sundhage, with fewer long, futile boots and more ball control through the midfield. But it has not found a breakout star who can change the game with a single rush or a moment of creative genius. At last year’s World Cup, starting goalkeeper Hope Solo was benched for the Brazil game in favor of the veteran Briana Scurry. After Brazil's victory, Solo violated all the sacred trusts of the soccer sisterhood by not only grousing about it, but by insisting she would have done better in the nets. The comments got her booted off the team and she was reinstated for the Olympics over the objects of some teammates. We will all get to see if she does any better. Actually, better may not be good enough.

Contributor Jennifer Conrad ran into Michael Phelps, posed for photos with a Ferarri, and didn't eat Italian food while doing a circuit of the National Houses. Her report:

     At each Olympics, governments set up National Houses to provide a home base for their athletes and supporters. Some are frenetic party zones where medalists stop by to scribble autographs for adoring fans. Others are showcases for their respective nations. Some are pretty dull venues for networking. And while some let just about anyone (me) breeze through the door, others are almost impossible to access. Still, I did my best to check out the Olympic action.

     Let's start with the good ones: The Heineken-sponsored Holland House, a tradition since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, served up one of the best parties, with Dutch food (weird croquettes and fries with mayo) and hordes of orange-clad Dutch fans (seriously, for a small country, they have a lot of people in town). The tricky door policy means that if you get there early enough, you can enter by showing your passport. Once it gets too crowded, only Dutch passports are allowed in. Set up in the massive Agricultural Exhibition Center, besides big indoor and outdoor party spaces, there was a small area with exercise equipment. Which made it possible for my friend to get a computerized health analysis while I was taking a photo with a Chinese visitor who asked if I was an athlete.

...Club Bud promotes the five elements of feng shui

From the moment Hu Jintao chirped the Chinese version of "Let the Games begin!" China’s Communist leaders have loomed on the sidelines. Party royals have had their ritual moments in the spotlight. And the most prominent came during the Opening Ceremony, when the cameras of China Central Television focused on China's leaders in the customary order of rank. "Old Jiang" -- Hu’s retired predecessor Jiang Zemin -- squeezed in at number two, a routine cameo, along with his visibly frail wife. At the restaurant where I watched the extravaganza, diners guffawed loudly each time they were shown.

But not all of the leadership's air time has been colorless boilerplate. We inadvertently learned, for instance, how one Party potentate meddled behind the scenes of Zhang Yimou's Opening Ceremony. It was an unidentified Politburo member who infamously vetoed televising the little girl Yang Peiyi who sang the theme song. In came a cuter child actor, Lin Miaoke, who lip-synched it instead, as music director Chen Qigang soon revealed on Beijing Radio: “When we rehearsed on site, there were spectators from various divisions -- especially a leader from the Politburo, who gave us his opinion: it must be changed," Chen said. "The reason was it was in the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects, but with respect to voice, Yang Peiyi is flawless, in the view of each member of our team."

Chen's revelation fuelled gossip about an ongoing mystery: which Politburo member (allegedly) made the casting call? No one seems to have confirmed who, but there are several possible candidates. They include the propaganda chief, Liu Yunshan; the head of the Beijing Games' organizing committee, Liu Qi; the leadership’s culture and media czar, Li Changchun; and even Vice President Xi Jinping, the leadership’s Olympics point-man, and Hu's putative successor.

Then this week, it was Xi who cabled condolences to the fallen track hero Liu Xiang after he hobbled off the Olympic stage without completing a single hurdle. "We all understand that Liu quit the race due to injury," Xi said. "We hope he will relax and focus on recovery. We hope that after he recovers, he will continue to train hard and struggle harder for the national glory."

So that’s the Party line on a guy with a bum heel, in case you were wondering. It was quite an out-of-the-ordinary official statement. But then again, Liu's an athlete of extraordinary status. It's another reflection of the leadership’s impulse to set the tone quickly and compassionately on a matter plaguing people’s minds, lest they question the turn of events or blame the state for it. Xinhua added in its account: “Liu and his coach were greatly moved when they learnt the content of the telegraph from the top officials of the General Administration of Sport. They thanked the state leaders for their concern and encouragement.” (But why telegraph? After all, China's got the world's biggest population of mobile-phone users.)

Many reigning cadres have been getting out to the Games to root on the home team. In an atypically detailed puff piece, the quasi-official China News Service dubbed them “super-fans”. Xi and his wife, the patriotic pop star Peng Liyuan, helped cheer on Yao Ming and posse to a big hoops win over Germany. So did General Guo Boxiong, among other Politburo members. Retired party elder Li Ruihuan was on-hand as Li Na bowed out in the semifinals of women’s tennis. The current Number Four man in the country's top leadership, Jia Qinglin, went to watch China play Chinese Taipei in baseball – and win in a wild 12 innings. Jia's guests from the other side of the Taiwan Strait included chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, Wu Po-hsiung, and People First Chairman James Soong.

Among the crowds, China's leaders shed their Western suits and neckties in favor of casual shirts or tees and really got into the game, displaying a “cute side” as “ordinary people”, the China News Service noted. At China’s “peaceful battle” with the United States in women’s volleyball, Hu and first lady Liu Yongqing put their hands together in support. The Chinese leader was a paragon of fan diplomacy, according to the account. The keen observer could see that applause from Hu, dressed in a blue a shirt, was carefully “targeted”: “When the U.S. made a mistake and gave up a point, Hu did not immediately applaud. But whenever the Chinese girls struggled for a dig and won a tough point, they earned claps from Hu Jintao straight away.”

Are they ordinary fans, or “super fans”? It’s all relative. In Tuesday’s China Youth Daily, Renmin University political scientist Zhang Ming offered this commentary on the subject: