Usian Bolt.

I haven't written about the Olympics yet because I wanted to think about what I saw for a while instead of just giving a knee jerk reaction. After almost a week I feel the same way - watching Usain Bolt dominate the track was the single most dominant and amazing thing I have ever seen in all my years watching sports. It is simply unprecedented and unbelievable that one man could dominate the 100m, 200m and also a relay event the way Bolt did it. I was jumping up and down and cheering like an 8 year old watching it.

Winning the 100m in world record time while cruising the last 30m was a thing of beauty but watching him really bust his ass into a headwind to crush people in the 200m was even more impressive to me. To put what this guy did in perspective you need to understand the reaction of the guys he ran against. The egos of sprinters take a back seat to nobody. These guys make ARod look like the poster boy for modesty. Whenever a sprinter loses a race it's because he was sick, slow track, the other guy is on steroids, any excuse you can think of. There were absolutely no excuses made, just awe of Bolt.

After Bolt ran the quarterfinal of the 100m in 9.97 after pulling up at 50m and looking around the stadium Donovan Bailey, never at a loss for words, was asked if he could please put Bolt's performance in perspective. He simply said " Um, no I can't". After the 100 final Bailey, also not known for modesty, was asked how he would do against Bolt in his prime. His answer was "I'd be an audience. I can't compete with that guy". After the 200m quarter Canadian sprinter Jared Connauhgton was asked how Bolt would do to which he answered "everyone knows he's going to win this thing. He could do a cartwheel and still win gold" and the American sprinter near him simply nodded and said "yeah, he's right." That is completely unheard of in track.

Bolt winning by the distance he won by is the track equivalent of Tiger winning The Masters by about 25 strokes or the Red Sox going 140-22 in the regular season then 11-0 in the playoffs. I realize what Michael Phelps did was impressive and unbelievable but it has been done before. Mark Spitz won seven golds in '76 and had he known eight would have been a bigger deal he would have joined another relay and won eight. Bolt is the king of the Olympics and it's no contest. And he's only 22. Yikes!