Jamaican Gold Usain Bolt

From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Bolt is the fastest, but also the coolest, after another gold in 200," by Bryan Burwell, on August 2012 -- Usain Bolt deserves his own Olympic zip code, perhaps his own unique gold-medal category.

He is neither the London Games most decorated star (Michael Phelps) nor its most conflicted one (American hurdler Lolo Jones). On the Thursday night, when he electrified Olympic Stadium and its sold-out audience of 80,000 — many of them armed with flashing cell phone cameras flickering like so many stars in the London sky — he wasn't even the guy who broke a world record (Kenyan 800-meter flash David Rudisha), or the man who was crowned the world's greatest athlete (American decathlete gold medalist Ashton Eaton).

Nope, the long-legged Jamaican sprinter is simply the coolest, most dominant, most exciting and most entertaining athlete of the 30th Summer Olympic Games. He's the most wondrous blend of style and substance, shock and awe, jaw-dropping intimidation and knee-slapping delight that we've seen on an Olympic stage in a long time.

And oh yeah, he just might be the greatest sprinter the world has ever known, to boot.

He earned that last title with his stunning victory in the 200 meters that was nearly as impressive as his 100-meter gold-medal performance a few days ago. While his winning time of 19.32 seconds did not break his Olympic record from 2008 (19.30) or threaten his world record from 2009 (19.19), it did thrust him onto a rather narrow shelf in Olympic history with some of track and field's most honored names.

We'll get into that later. But for now, let's take time to heap on the superlatives for Usain the Entertainer. Did you check out his pre-race show as the stadium announcer was doing lane assignments and introductions?

As all the other sprinters stalked around the starting blocks like balls of nervous energy, Bolt was busy bouncing around here and there like he was at a family picnic. He sauntered over to one of the track-side volunteers and chatted with her, casually placing his hand on her shoulder, and watched her melt into a big grin.

As the stadium announcer finally introduced the race and the competitors, Bolt gave a cheesy Miss America wave to the crowd, then reached out to the millions of world-wide TV viewers by pointing into the TV camera; he always knows where that camera is. Then just before crawling into the starting blocks, he shushed the crowd, crossed himself, pointed to the heavens, then finally got ready for his 19 seconds of hard work.

And then the starter's pistol sounded and about eight seconds later — somewhere right before he came off the curve — the race was over, just like most of us suspected all along.

He was a long-striding blur, his 6-foot-5 body — most of it legs that seem to extend from his chest all the way down to his glimmering track spikes — just gobbled up ground twice as fast as the rest of the pack. This is what Bolt has done to the Olympic Games' most exciting races, reducing the 100 and 200 meter sprints into inevitable conclusions that not only confirm how good he is, but also leave us wondering how much better he might be if he actually ran all the way through the tape.

The only one still close to Bolt as he reached the straightaway was countryman Yohan Blake, who had defeated him in both the 100 and 200 in the Jamaican Olympic trials in late June. But on Thursday night, Blake was a mere bit player in Usain Bolt's spectacular reality show. Just as Blake seemed to be riding up on his hip to challenge Bolt, the defending champion in the 100 and 200, hit another unearthly gear and pulled away effortlessly, even slowing down over the last few strides.

As Bolt glided across the line, Blake was a few strides behind (19.44) with fellow countryman Warren Weir a distant third (19.84). So Bolt cast a glance to his left to make sure Blake wasn't close then held his index finger up to his mouth as though he was shushing the roar of crowd. In fact, it was more symbolic than that. It was a gesture to anyone who had started the groundswell of doubt about Bolt's sprinting invincibility after he lost to Blake and entertained the absurd notion that he might be taken down in London.

"That was for all that people that doubted me, all the people that was talking all kinds of stuff that I wasn't going to do it, I was going to be beaten," Bolt said of his "Shhhhhh" gesture at the finish. "I was just telling them: You can stop talking now, because I am a legend."

A legend indeed. Bolt became the fifth athlete to win five or more Olympic gold medals in track and field, joining Americans Carl Lewis (nine) and Ray Ewry (eight) and Finland's Paavo Nurmi (nine) and Ville Ritola (five). He is the first athlete to win five Olympic gold medals in track and field before turning 26. He also surpassed Lewis to become the first athlete to win four combined Olympic gold medals in the 100 and 200, surpassed 1996 Olympic hero Michael Johnson to become the first man with four 200-meter titles at the Olympic Games and world championships combined.

And by the end of the weekend, Bolt figures to add another gold to the collection in the 4x100 relay, where the Jamaicans are favored.

And now the entire intrigue from the Jamaican trials sort of feels like it was all just another well-scripted part of the Bolt reality show, a cheeky little plot twist orchestrated by Bolt himself to add a little intrigue to a rather inevitable saga. He removed all doubts during his London tour de force, becoming the first man in Olympic history to complete the 100-200 gold-medal sweep in back-to-back Games.

A few days ago, American Wallace Spearmon, who finished second to Bolt in the 200 in Beijing before being disqualified for stepping out of his lane, was rather dismissive of the notion that Bolt or Blake would run away with the gold and silver.

"Yeah man," Spearmon said. "That's why we are racing. If they weren't beatable, they would just hand them (gold and silver) medals and we'd race for third."

As it turned out, that's exactly what happened, a fact that brought the ultra-confident Spearmon to tears after the race when he ran 19.90 and finished fourth.

"People have run sub-20 seconds before and not gotten a medal. It has just never happened to me before," Spearmon said.

And of course, we leave the last word to Bolt, who possesses that rare quality that only folks like Charles Barkley possess: a way of saying the most arrogant thing and making it sound utterly charming.

"It's what I came here to do," he said. "I'm now a legend, I'm also the greatest athlete to live." (source: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch)