 It was the same yellow jersey flashing down the track, those same lanky legs beating a path to glory.
But the Usain Bolt who thrilled us with a world record-setting run in the 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday night was different from the one who did the same thing four days earlier in the 100.
"I have been saying all season that the 200 meters means a lot more to me than the 100 meters," Jamaica's newest hero told a packed press conference a few hours after the historic race.
"So this world record means a lot to me because I was dreaming about it since I was yay-high."
The margin was considerably larger than that in the 200.Bolt was probably seven or eight yards clear of the next man at the finish. And the next man was there illegally.
After seeing the numbers on the clock, Bolt raised his arms, yelled something to the sky, then lay on his back and let the crowd's thunder hit him. He had run into a 0.9-metres-per-second headwind, not terribly significant, but interesting, considering Johnson had a 1.7-mph tailwind in Atlanta.
"Incredible. A guy 6-5 should not be able to start like that," said the now 40-year-old Johnson, who had said, pre-race, that he knew his record was on borrowed time. He just didn't realize it would expire so soon.
"I don't think his training has given him enough speed endurance, but eventually it will have and then I will be able to kiss my record goodbye," Johnson said in the afternoon.
The 100, we would learn, was only about winning. But in the 200, he was on a higher mission. Determined and, in a way, desperate, it became the culmination of all his hard work in one spectacular package of raw speed, stamina and technique.
"I just blew my mind and blew the world's mind," Bolt, who turned 22 Thursday, so perfectly described it.
Only hours before the race, Michael Johnson, who had set the bar of his world record so high that no one had come close in 12 years, had said Bolt would break the record someday, but not on this night.
Bolt's time of 19.30 seconds beat Johnson's mark by .02.
"Anything is possible if I put my mind to it and work real hard like I did this season," Bolt said when asked to comment on Johnson's observation.
Bolt certainly has earned his place alongside Johnson among the sport's greats.
Tags: Sports Usain Bolt Olympic Games |
