Were you as blown away as I was by Usain Bolt's performance in the men's 100m Olympic final? That performance reminded me of when Tiger Woods blasted on to the scene winning his first Masters in 1997 by 12 shots, or his 15-shot trouncing of the field in the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach. He seemed to easily and smoothly accelerate away from the rest of the field at the halfway point, making them look like high-school runners ... and the field included Asafa Powell, a former world record holder who had run 9.74! See video at: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0816_hd_atm_hl_l0686 (I had to install the Microsoft Silverlight player to get it to work).
I am as fired up about Michael Phelps winning 8 golds as anyone, and it gave me many awesome moments to remember from these Olympics ... but Bolt's performance was a little different. It had a somewhat shocking feeling to it. This 6'-5" 21-yr old kid who only took up this event a year ago just broke the WR in 9.69 while SLOWING DOWN TO CELEBRATE during the race!
I disagree with ESPN's Jim Caple, who posted a column ( http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3538723&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2 ) sort of sarcastically chiding Bolt for showing up his opponents. But I thought it was a really fun, spontaneous celebration reminiscent of the best Tiger Woods celebrations (think of the 13th hole 2008 US Open 3rd round eagle, or the 72nd hole birdie putt).
I can't wait to see the 200m final -- that's supposedly Bolt's specialty! Could he break Michael Johnson's record if he tries hard? For that matter, could he break 19 seconds? Or will he be content to just win and perhaps (as Caple suggests) moonwalk the last 20m, or pull a Sharpie out of his golden shoes, autograph one, and give it to a friend in the stands, a la TO?
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