Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 1. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. Encores happen in sport, this we know. Michael Jordan kept winning NBA titles. Joe Montana kept winning Super Bowls. Lance Armstrong kept winning Tours de France. Greatness once established is proved again and solidified, and a legend's resume grows longer. But in 2009, Usain Bolt did something far more remarkable -- he improved on the impossible.
BERLIN -- Usain Bolt spent the week telling everyone not to expect another world record in the 200 meters. Don't listen to the man. Not even he knows how fast he can run. Bolt beat another world record into submission on Thursday night, lowering his mark in the 200 meters from the dizzying 19.30 he ran at the Beijing Olympics to 19.19, a mark that sounds more like fantasy than logic.
On Thursday, Usain Bolt smashed another world record by finishing the 200 meters in 19.19 seconds at the world championships. SI.com caught up with senior writer Tim Layden to get his thoughts on the Jamaican sprinter's historic performance.
BERLIN -- On a night when Jamaica's women's speedsters confirmed the country's sprinting preeminence at the world championships in Berlin, the top female athlete in track and field was a stunning disappointment. Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart went one-two in the women's 100 meters on Monday, leaving no doubt as to which country has the world's fastest humans just 24 hours after Usain Bolt decimated the world record in the men's hundred. On the same track, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, the sport's female athlete of the year in three of the past five years, no-heighted, allowing Poland's Anna Rogowska to capture a surprise gold medal and U.S. vaulter Chelsea Johnson to sneak in for a silver.
BERLIN -- The world's fastest man is now even faster, swifter still than the Usain Bolt who sprinted and danced to an Olympic victory at the Beijing Olympics last year. The Jamaican superstar fired off another world record at the world championships in Berlin Sunday, lowering his own 100-meter mark to 9.58 seconds from the 9.69 he ran in winning the Olympics. Unlike last summer, Bolt ran through the finish line, waiting until after his moment in history to celebrate. He was gamely chased by a rejuvenated Tyson Gay, the U.S. rival and defending world champion who was felled by a hamstring injury last year and established himself as a worthy challenger to Bolt with some strong early-season performances. Gay finished in a solid 9.71 seconds, a time only Bolt has ever surpassed in history. Jamaica's Asafa Powell finished third in 9.84.
With two races down and two to go in the marquee event of the IAAF world Championships in Berlin, one man is all smiles and the other is all business. Olympic champ Usain Bolt of Jamaica sprinted with such ease and confidence in the first two rounds of the 100 meters at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, he motioned for his friend and training partner, Daniel Bailey of Antigua, to go past him and win the quarterfinal heat by a hundredth of a second as he waved Bailey across the line. Bailey crossed in 10.02 seconds; Bolt was next to him in 10.03. Call it showing off. Call it bravado. Or if you're Bolt, the man who looked around for his competition before cruising across the finish line at the Beijing Olympics in world-record time last summer, simply call it confidence.
The IAAF World Championships in track and field kick off on Saturday morning in Berlin and run through Sunday Aug. 23. Here are five things to look for at the upcoming championships:
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
Just what is it that separates a champion athlete from the also-rans? Natural talent, hard work and determination are all essential, but athletes and coaches are becoming increasingly aware of the crucial role diet plays in sporting success.
The most amazing thing I saw in this most amazing sports year was not especially important or historic or even decisive. No one won a medal at the end of it, no trophy, no championship, no world record. There were no playbooks involved, no chalkboards, no swimsuits, no balls, no bats, no clubs, no rackets. The man who performed the miracle was only doing what every child does, and at the end of it he seemed utterly unimpressed with himself. He would become world famous, but that was later.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 1. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. Encores happen in sport, this we know. Michael Jordan kept winning NBA titles. Joe Montana kept winning Super Bowls. Lance Armstrong kept winning Tours de France. Greatness once established is proved again and solidified, and a legend's resume grows longer. But in 2009, Usain Bolt did something far more remarkable -- he improved on the impossible.
BERLIN -- Usain Bolt spent the week telling everyone not to expect another world record in the 200 meters. Don't listen to the man. Not even he knows how fast he can run. Bolt beat another world record into submission on Thursday night, lowering his mark in the 200 meters from the dizzying 19.30 he ran at the Beijing Olympics to 19.19, a mark that sounds more like fantasy than logic.
On Thursday, Usain Bolt smashed another world record by finishing the 200 meters in 19.19 seconds at the world championships. SI.com caught up with senior writer Tim Layden to get his thoughts on the Jamaican sprinter's historic performance.
BERLIN -- On a night when Jamaica's women's speedsters confirmed the country's sprinting preeminence at the world championships in Berlin, the top female athlete in track and field was a stunning disappointment. Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart went one-two in the women's 100 meters on Monday, leaving no doubt as to which country has the world's fastest humans just 24 hours after Usain Bolt decimated the world record in the men's hundred. On the same track, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, the sport's female athlete of the year in three of the past five years, no-heighted, allowing Poland's Anna Rogowska to capture a surprise gold medal and U.S. vaulter Chelsea Johnson to sneak in for a silver.
BERLIN -- The world's fastest man is now even faster, swifter still than the Usain Bolt who sprinted and danced to an Olympic victory at the Beijing Olympics last year. The Jamaican superstar fired off another world record at the world championships in Berlin Sunday, lowering his own 100-meter mark to 9.58 seconds from the 9.69 he ran in winning the Olympics. Unlike last summer, Bolt ran through the finish line, waiting until after his moment in history to celebrate. He was gamely chased by a rejuvenated Tyson Gay, the U.S. rival and defending world champion who was felled by a hamstring injury last year and established himself as a worthy challenger to Bolt with some strong early-season performances. Gay finished in a solid 9.71 seconds, a time only Bolt has ever surpassed in history. Jamaica's Asafa Powell finished third in 9.84.
With two races down and two to go in the marquee event of the IAAF world Championships in Berlin, one man is all smiles and the other is all business. Olympic champ Usain Bolt of Jamaica sprinted with such ease and confidence in the first two rounds of the 100 meters at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, he motioned for his friend and training partner, Daniel Bailey of Antigua, to go past him and win the quarterfinal heat by a hundredth of a second as he waved Bailey across the line. Bailey crossed in 10.02 seconds; Bolt was next to him in 10.03. Call it showing off. Call it bravado. Or if you're Bolt, the man who looked around for his competition before cruising across the finish line at the Beijing Olympics in world-record time last summer, simply call it confidence.
The IAAF World Championships in track and field kick off on Saturday morning in Berlin and run through Sunday Aug. 23. Here are five things to look for at the upcoming championships:
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
Just what is it that separates a champion athlete from the also-rans? Natural talent, hard work and determination are all essential, but athletes and coaches are becoming increasingly aware of the crucial role diet plays in sporting success.
The most amazing thing I saw in this most amazing sports year was not especially important or historic or even decisive. No one won a medal at the end of it, no trophy, no championship, no world record. There were no playbooks involved, no chalkboards, no swimsuits, no balls, no bats, no clubs, no rackets. The man who performed the miracle was only doing what every child does, and at the end of it he seemed utterly unimpressed with himself. He would become world famous, but that was later.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 2. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. For more essays, click here.
Last week, SI.com caught up with nine-time gold medalist Carl Lewis at the Audi Best Buddies Challenge, a charity bicycle tour and fundraising event to help people with intellectual disabilities. Lewis weighed in on everything from Usain Bolt's record-breaking performance in Beijing to Team USA fumbling the baton in the relays.
Some back-in-the-U.S, jet-legged final thoughts after the Olympic track meet in Beijing:
Running is a sport where relative success matters. A single group of striving runners can contain an individual for whom running at the pace of the pack is an act of utter laziness, and next to him or her, an individual for whom keeping up with that same pack is a heroic effort.
We asked the Sports Illustrated writers who covered the Beijing Olympics to leave us with their indelible memory of the Games.
BEIJING -- That's why they run the races, and throw the disks and jump the bars. So that, with the taste of gold on their tongues, Lolo Jones can heartbreakingly hit the ninth hurdle, and Sanya Richards can tie up with 80 meters to go in the 400. So that Tyson Gay can get knocked out in the semifinals and miss the baton in the 4x100, and so that Stephanie Brown Trafton, who finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials, can use her first throw to win the first U.S. gold in women's discus in 76 years.
Bolt annihilated two world speed records at these Olympic Games. Can he go faster? Can anyone?
Usain Bolt helped Jamaica win the 400-meter relay final in 37.10 seconds Friday night for his third gold medal and third world record of the Olympics
The gold medal winner says when he saw his race played on TV he thought, 'That guy is fast'
BEIJING -- There will always be another. This is the eternal lesson of track and field. On a sweltering August night 12 years ago, Michael Johnson lashed the 200-meter world record to his back and seemed to drag it deep into the future. He ran 19.32 seconds, so fast that young men accepted that they would not see the record broken again in their lifetimes.
It's another race with history at the Bird's Nest, as the free-spirit Jamaican sprinter sets his second world mark
BEIJING -- It remains the most arresting track and field moment I have ever witnessed live.
BEIJING -- Bernard Lagat looked like his old self again on Wednesday night. Granted, it was only a semifinal heat of the 5,000 meters, but after failing to qualify earlier in the week for the final of the 1,500, a race he called his priority, Lagat needed a good showing in the 5,000 semis -- maybe to boost his confidence, maybe to regain his form.
Usain Bolt makes the impossible seem commonplace. His running has been so spectacular here that he has forced hard-traveled track scribes to consider the question: Can Bolt break Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record in the 200? The time to beat is 19.32.
BEIJING -- In the belly of the Bird's Nest past midnight, Usain Bolt emerged from a room where drug testing is done, having delivered the samples that might someday say as much about his performance as his winning time. He stepped into a wide hallway where giddy Olympic volunteers beseeched his autograph and his picture. He scribbled again and again, attaching his name to scraps of paper and to shirts, to programs and to credentials hanging from lanyards and surely they would have stayed all night with him.
Jamaica's Usain Bolt broke the 100m world record with ease. With two races to go, he might take over the Olympics
Bolt crosses the finish line with a chest-pumping victory
Usain Bolt of Jamaica easily broke his own world record in the 100 meters to win the Olympic gold medal Saturday
BEIJING -- Do the eyes lie or do the eyes tell the truth? If they tell the truth, the Olympic 100 meters is over. Break out the gold medal, give it to 21-year-old Jamaican world record holder Usain Bolt and run the race for silver and bronze. Check that; give the silver to his countryman, Asafa Powell and run the race for bronze.
BEIJING -- The track meet starts Friday morning at the Bird's Nest. Ten things I'm most intrigued by at the beginning:
Here was a metaphor screaming to be expressed. Asafa Powell, sweating.
BEIJING -- At 10:13 Monday morning in an Olympic swim stadium called the Water Cube, a world record was broken. Kirsty Coventry, a 24-year-old from Zimbabwe, touched first in a semifinal heat of the 100-meter backstroke, and the towering scoreboard froze numbers and letters next to her name: 58.77 WR. Three people in the audience clapped politely while yawning and checking spectator bus schedules.
To the interloper, the Olympic 100 meters is but a 10-second event. What's shorter? A drag race? Bull-riding?
The Beijing games beckoned, far in the distance, as three sprinters aligned themselves last winter for a run at the grandest title in track and field -- Olympic 100-meter champion. They had clearly defined roles: the favorite, the record holder, the upstart.
The U.S. Olympic track and field team was dramatically changed in a period of five seconds early Saturday afternoon during the team trials at Hayward Field.
EUGENE, Ore. -- The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials resume Thursday at Hayward Field. Thoughts, past and future.
EUGENE, Ore -- On Saturday morning, no less an authority on track and field than Michael Johnson conceded the future of the 100- and 200-meter races to 21-year-old Jamaican Usain Bolt. There is evidence to support Johnson's theory.
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