Even on drugs he is doing things no human has ever done with or without drugs. He was lapping world class athletes.
I think that's the reason. There's no suspense - especially since his main competitor withdrew from the race earlier in the week (not that it would've mattered). The space shuttle launching on any given day is one of the most impressive feats of mankind, but we've all seen it. Hardly anyone even notices it anymore. I love track, but even I didn't care that much about this race especially since the result was a foregone conclusion.
Yeah, I "get it". I know most sports fans don't care about track. Why they could care about GOLF and not track is beyond me. But yeah I understand, which is why on Sunday whenever Bolt broke the 100M record, I could accept that Tiger getting beat on by Yao Yang or whatever was the top story. I just can't process 7-6 Notre Dame being the top headline over Bolt easily doing something that nobody in the history of the sport has ever been able to do.
Yeah, I think the novelty has kind of worn off now. Him winning (and setting a new world record in the process) is kind of a given now. If anything, he's gotten himself into Tiger's category....where him LOSING would be a bigger story than him winning.
It's still a huge achievement,and deserves greater coverage. The 200 meter race that he ran today,was awesome. Sorry for the repost,didn't edit the first one properly. The mods should delete this last post.
Man, i've been avoiding this thread all day - glad I held out because this kid is just sick ! /just saw it on vs I really, really hope this kid is clean -- he is a blast to watch.
Interesting article about how Bolt is unusual for a sprinter being that tall, plus a Yao Ming reference but I hope to all that is Holy that we never seen Yao trying to run a 100m race. http://www.slate.com/id/2225866/?GT1=38001 Taking Sprinting to New Heights The 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt set two more world records. Why haven't there been more tall sprinters? By Edward McClelland Posted Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009, at 5:19 PM ET On Thursday, Jamaica's Usain Bolt set his second world record of the week, breaking his own mark by running the 200 meters in 19.19 seconds. Bolt, who stands 6-foot-5, has been leaving short sprinters in his dust for the last two years. In 2008, after Bolt rewrote the record book at the Beijing Olympics, Edward McClelland explained how the Jamaican's huge frame helps him run so fast and pondered why tall sprinters had never succeeded before. The original article is reprinted below. Usain Bolt, the 21-year-old Jamaican who set a world record in winning the Olympic 100-meter dash this weekend, is the most extraordinary sprinter in track-and-field history. Not because he's so fast, but because he's so big. At 6-foot-5, Bolt has been called by Sports Illustrated "the tallest world-class sprinter in history." He's easy to spot on the track, Goliath-ing over his human-scale opponents. The starting blocks cramp his frame. As he kneels for the gun, his rump rises high above his competitors'. Once the race starts, he looks like a high-schooler who lied about his age to win a Field Day ribbon. Bolt takes 40 to 41 strides in a 100-meter race. Walter Dix, the 5-foot-9 bronze medalist, takes 47. If Bolt's long legs give him such an edge, why haven't there been more tall sprinters? Traditionally, height has been seen as a detriment to sprinting. The formula for speed is stride length times stride rate. If the longest legs always won the race, then Yao Ming would have the world record in the 100, and lions wouldn't eat giraffes. Gangly guys, the thinking has always gone, don't win short races because they can't master the smooth form required to generate rapid leg turnover. Sprinters are supposed to be compact and muscular: Think Ben Johnson or Ato Boldon. Big guys have physics working against them. According to the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, "[T]he acceleration of the body is proportional to the force produced but inversely proportional to the body mass, according to Newton's second law. … This implies an inverse relationship between height and performance in disciplines such as sprint running." In other words, it's hard to produce enough power to overcome the drag of a big body. Usain Bolt, science tells us, is a top-heavy minivan racing against a field full of Suzuki Hayabusas. That Journal of Sports Science & Medicine study, which may now need to be rewritten, found that world champion sprinters ranged between 5-foot-9 at the low end to 6-foot-3 at the absolute max. (Unlike distance runners, sprinters do need to be big and strong enough to generate explosive speed. That's why 5-foot-9 has traditionally been the minimum height, whereas the elite distance runner Haile Gebrselassie is a mere 5-foot-3.) That range covers all the recent gold medalists, from Maurice Greene to Linford Christie. But not Usain Bolt. Yet on Saturday night, the tall guy ran away from his classically designed competitors, winning by such a wide margin that he had time to wing out his arms, pound his heart … and still set a world record. If he stays healthy, Bolt could not only lower the mark to a science-fiction-y 9.6 seconds; he could change the look of future sprinters. He is a hybrid never before seen in track and field: a spidery giant whose legs generate the propulsive power of a cannonball-thighed running back. When Bolt first took up track, he suffered from tall man's maladies. For one thing, he ran as if he were wearing seven-league boots. His coach, Glen Mills, sped him up by shortening his stride. "Biomechanically, his body placement was not ideal for sprinting," Mills told the Jamaica Gleaner. "His head was back, his shoulders were well behind his center of gravity, this resulted in him spending too much time in the air and over-striding." Now, Mills says, "his length of stride is compatible with his height. One of the reasons he has such a long but efficient stride is because he lifts his knees so well." Good news for tall sprinters of the future: Bolt and Mills have developed the ideal gait for a 6-foot-5 runner. It allows Bolt to use his size as a motor rather than a brake. Still, he doesn't have a classic sprinter's carriage. In the 100, he sometimes looks rickety, wobbling back and forth on the track; a less-coordinated athlete with the same dimensions might topple over as he bounds down the straightaway. Sometimes, he still lifts himself too high in the air, especially on the turn in the 200 meters. (It's hard to see how that flaw will keep him from winning a second gold medal, though.) So will the starting blocks at the 2012 Olympics be filled by giants? Probably not. One reason we've never seen such a tall sprinter is that athletes who combine height and coordination usually go out for more glamorous, high-paying sports. Usain Bolt would make a sensational wide receiver or a great rebounding forward. In the United States, at least, a lot of guys started running track because they got cut from teams with cheerleaders. But Jamaicans regard sprinters the way the French regard wine: as a leading export, and a source of national identity. Asafa Powell, who held the world record before Bolt (and who finished fifth in Beijing, continuing a string of big-race washouts), owns six cars and has been awarded the country's Order of Distinction. America's Tyson Gay, by contrast, is less well-known than pretty much every NBA benchwarmer. While Bolt's amazing feat likely won't inspire the next generation of Kobe Bryants to exchange their hightops for track spikes, he will undoubtedly be an inspiration to his fellow countrymen. Bolt has confessed that his first love was cricket, but his victory in the 100 made him a hero in a way the bat and ball never could have. He could be a one-off athletic freak, defying Newtonian physics, or the prototype for a new breed of bigger, faster sprinters. I'm guessing we'll find out in years to come, as long-legged Jamaicans drop their cricket bats and head for the track.
