Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has made a successful comeback. He looked out of form merely a few months ago with many reports suggesting that he couldn’t run due to severe pain in his thighs. But he appeared again in the Olympic trials and won the nomination along with Yohan Blake, who beat Bolt to retain the top spot in the Olympic trial.
Yohan Blake, in the meantime, became the media darling that wrote off Usain Bolt, the same way media had done with Michael Phelps. Phelps was written off long before he made an entry into Olympic Village. Instead media had a new swimming hero Ryan Lochte who had been in forefront and had won many titles following Beijing Olympic 2008.
Ryan Lochte, emboldened by media highlight declared that he was the superman of London Olympics 2012. But to be true two Phelps cannot be born in such a quick succession and a Phelps cannot be written off so easily. Both the swimmers won five gold medals each with Michael Phelps winning two gold medals too. The same was the case with Bolt and Blake. Bolt was written off and Blake was highlighted so much that everyone thought Bolt cannot do what he did four years ago in Beijing.
But Bolt not just won, he won the 100 meter shoot-out rather easily. Blake came second and won silver. He too was impressive on the track, but when you are competing with Usain Bolt you should be more than content with a silver medal.
The international media that had highlighted Blake is now going all out to praise Bolt. London’s Guardian always wondered prior to the beginning of Olympic and later in course of the London Games said that Bolt was not ready for Olympics. The newspaper ran speculating reports about his commitment to training and his ‘pathetic’ form.
Meanwhile people are wondering as to why most of the top-class sprinters come from Jamaica. A report says, “A combination of nature and nurture. Runners of West African descent—which includes Jamaicans as well as most African-Americans—seem to be built for speed: In 2004, they held all but five of the 500 best times in the 100-meter dash. (East Africans, such as Kenyans and Ethiopians, rule the long-distance field.) Several biological factors may be coming into play here. One study conducted in Quebec in the 1980s found that black West African students had significantly higher amounts of “fast-twitch” muscle fibers—the kind that are responsible for short, explosive bursts of action—than white French Canadians did. (So far, there is no evidence that even extensive training can turn slow-twitch muscles into fast-twitch ones, though moving in the other direction is possible.)”
Following his magical win Usan Bolt was all happy for his accomplishment. He also showered fulsome praise on his teammate Blake too. “It was wonderful. I knew it would be like this (out here). I knew it would be loud and it would be great. I could feel the energy…You have to give credit to Blake. He works harder than me but when it comes to business I know what to do. He is going to do better next time…Last time in the worlds there wasn’t a lot of names. Now there were a lot of names, so he’s going to do better next time. He beat almost everybody.” We must know that while Bolt and Phelps are around, they cannot be eclipsed by others. So wait till they retire and then go and get that elusive gold (medal).
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