Bolt-O-Rama: 'I made it 'Me, to Di World'
 Here
is an exercise we must take together. Take a deep breath and get into an
act of concentration. Now focus on the seconds hand on your watch. Start
counting as you snap your fingers in rapid fire succession.
On your Marks, Set, Go! ...snap one, snap two; snap three; snap four,
snap five, snap six, snap seven, snap eight and snap nine and snap ten.
It took me under 10 seconds to do this. And that's what it took seven
of the eight competitors in the 100 meters dash at the Olympics. What's
your count? Well it took that marvel of a man, Usain Bolt just nine
snaps of your fingers - 9.63 secs-to cover 100 meters.
The 100 metres was the swiftest foot race ever run! Breathtaking and
dramatic as this is, here was Usain Bolt electrifying the world's power
grid, as it were, as no human has ever done in the 106 year history of
the Games.
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Bolt on his way to victory |
And just last Thursday he became the only athlete ever- on the
planet- who to have won gold at the 100 and 200 meters. It was Carl
Lewis and Bolt, the only men to take home back-to-back golds in 100
meters. Usain Bolt now became the only man to win two Olympic 200s. He
accomplished the 200m in 19.32 secs. And if one uses our formula of
snaps of fingers, in 19 snaps or less! This is notwithstanding Usain
having the time, in his last few strides, to put his left finger to his
lips and caution those who doubted him to "Shush"!
'Rocket Usain'
This is simply the stuff that mythology is made of: he hears 'times
winged chariot' hurrying at his back. He transforms himself into 'Rocket
Usain'. This rocket is 6ft 5 inches tall. It has an incredible stride of
10 feet. Yes, 10 feet! Myth transforms into human form and 80,000 people
see this unfold, unbelievingly with their own eyes in London, both in
the 100 and 200 meters. Hundreds of millions more view this on their
screens, breathless--for 9.63 seconds and dizzy for much longer. And for
19.32 secs in the 200. Lumps enter our throats rendering us -cough!
-breathless!!
US Bronze winning sprinter Gatlin, who ran in the lane next to Bolt,
captured the sparks from the grid well by saying: "when his legs start
lifting you feel his power!"
He is such fun and an entertainer. His pantomime acts before and
after his victories are now legendary. Bolt's signature finger-pointing
pose drawn from the Jamaican Tourism campaign, tells us all in a reggae
pantomime act "I made it 'Me, to Di World"
I visited Kingston and Montego Bay in Jamaica some months back. Who
is your Prime Minister, I asked my cab driver. And the answer was
spontaneous: hey man, its Usain Bolt!
Family of modest means
He was born in an agricultural hamlet east of Montego Bay. His
father, Wellesley Bolt, was a coffee-farmer; mother Jennifer a
dressmaker. There's was a family of modest means, hard working and
simple in outlook. Dad Wellesley, it was said, would complain that
something seemed to be wrong with 'my boy'. He just could not sit still;
always running rather than walking; and jumping when he was expected to
be sitting or standing.
But at high school he won prizes and broke records and then an
ailment struck him. He was diagnosed with Scoliosis, a curvature of the
spine that left his right leg half an inch shorter. He was asked to give
up athletics to protect his spine. But the Wellesleys are not the types
who give up. A new coach and a doctor from Germany put him back on
track.
And that track brings this 25-year-old, $ 2 million (Rs 260 million)
a second for the 10 seconds on the track from sponsorships! His sponsors
are Puma who give him around $10 million annually and then there are
others like Hublot the watchmaker, Visa, Soul Electronic, and Virgin
Media who play a secondary role. Big time!
Heavy betting
His feat in the 100 meters has also made some fans rich and some
bookmakers sulk. Ladbrokes the bookmaker in London had to pay out over
half a million pounds sterling to punters who bet against the odds. One
fan is reported to have bet British pounds 60,000 (Rs.13 million) on
Bolt with the odds at 1/4.
Throughout history sprints have captured the interest and
imaginations of sports fans world over and the 100 meters is regarded as
the crème de la crème of the Olympics with the 200 and the relays coming
next.
With speeds at stake it blows one's mind as to how the time-keeping
system works.
Many of us remember the days in the 1940s, or even later, when
Olympic sprinters took off from holes they dug themselves behind the
starting lines.
Contrast this with the latest starting blocks that now adjust for
different stride lengths and hip widths. The blocks not only signify to
the runner when to go but also whether he/she has jumped the gun!
Sound from individual speakers
As for the starting "gun", when it's triggered the sound comes from
individual speakers behind each runner. All runners hear it
simultaneously. In the past runners in lanes close to the starter would
hear the signal a fraction of a second before than others in the further
lanes. According to Omega: The Complete Book of the Olympics" a sprinter
usually takes off about 0.13 of a second after the gun sounds.
Humans it says cannot react to sound in less than 0.1 seconds, and so
a sprinter who takes off faster than that will be disqualified. Sensors
in the back of block detect a premature increase in pressure and signal
a false start.
Adding to all this innovation is the speed of recording the results.
Within as quickly as eight seconds after a race ends results can be
determined and posted!
As Usain Bolt defied and defined Olympic achievement his Bolt-O-Rama,
it may well herald another bout of innovation to keep pace with new
speed barriers as they are broken.
Before the Olympics someone wrote that the London Olympics has a
chance to be impossible, but also, impossibly glorious!
Usain Bolt made that happen. Prince William and Prince Harry were
present. Also 'Prince' Kobe Bryant and 'Prince' LeBron James of
Basketball heritage and many others from royalty were there too. Amidst
this Royal audience, there was only one King-Usain Bolt. And he "Made it
'Me to Di World.'
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