Usain Bolt’s sprint double at the World Championships in Berlin has established him, unquestionably, as the greatest sprinter of all time. Yesterday, as he turned 23, there was nothing left to conquer. He is currently holding an unprecedented pair of Olympic and World Championship gold medals for the 100m and 200m, and the further distinction of having set new world records with each victory. He is closer than any athlete in history reaching human biomechanical limits for sprinting at the shorter distances, even though his great height and relative youth, leave open the prospect of the 400m and 800m – which ought to be his best distances – to further exploration. What he will accomplish there can hardly be imagined.
What makes Bolt’s absolute dominance of these marquee events so satisfying for the Caribbean is that he has raised the sport to a new level while being exhaustively tested for banned substances. Bolt’s achievements emphatically close an era in which new world records had to be looked at askance. It is no surprise then that in places like the USA, whose former dominance of sprinting (both male and female) relied heavily on intensive cheating, should respond to his success with bewilderment and cynicism. Against this there is the record of the young Bolt’s steady progress towards his current success: in 2004, at the age of 18, he became the first junior to break 20 seconds in the 200m; in 2008, he posted the second fasted 100m ever recorded, at the Jamaica Invitational, during one of his earliest attempts at the distance; a 100m world record at the Reebok Grand Prix (with the now comparatively slow time of 9.72), at his fifth attempt over the distance, before improving gradually for three gold medals in Beijing, setting a new world record with each comfortable victory. This inexorable sequence suggests, as CLR James said of George Headley’s similarly remarkable abilities, that Bolt’s unique athleticism is something nascitur non fit, born not made.
Before Bolt, sprinters were not meant to be tall. At six-foot-five, he shouldn’t be able to put as much force into the track as shorter, more compact men. But he has learned how to move his legs as quickly as they, and to avoid the rocking motion that comes with his greater height. Once he learned how to do that the rest flowed naturally. Slow motion replays show clearly that Bolt’s unassailable strength is the unprecedented length of his stride. Other top sprinters, such as Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay, are putting down the same number of strides in much the same time, but each time they hit the track Bolt gains several centimeters due to the remarkable reach of his legs. During each race, he is completing the distances with fewer strides, so unless the competition can devise a way of inserting two or three extra steps within the same time period (a biomechanical impossibility) Bolt cannot be caught by shorter men. Essentially invulnerable, so long as he matches his rivals stride-for-stride, Bolt’s only challenge from here on will be the limits of his frame and the daunting record of superfast times that he has already posted.
In an interview with the late-night television host David Letterman, Bolt recalled that he had originally hoped to have become a fast bowler, but went into athletics because he wasn’t good enough. Although the thought of Bolt with the new ball is enough to keep a West Indies fan up late at night imagining how delightful it would have been to watch Australia cowering in fear from his unplayable deliveries, this is probably the only occasion on which the Caribbean was better served by a diversion of talent away from cricket. Perhaps now that we have an athletic superstar on par with any other athlete in history – it seems historically just that Bolt’s second double took place in the same arena that Jesse Owens achieved his own astonishing feats – our cricketers will re-learn what it takes to be world-beaters, from the one that got away.
