Dream Run

When the 100m final is run at an Olympics,the stadium literally rocks. The moment the athletes take off,the stands glitter with camera flashes going off and,for those nine and a bit seconds,the rolling cheer transforms the gathering into a single entity. And then,after that sub-10-second race has played out as if in slow motion,all eyes shift to the clock: is it a world record?

It was a world record that August 16 in 2008,as Bolt appeared to effortlessly cover the distance in 9.69 seconds. Johnson ran one of the most memorable races ever — the 200m final at the Atlanta Games in 1996,shattering the world record so decisively that many thought it would be decades before another would get past his 19.32 seconds,and also taking the gold in the 400m. His 400m record,set subsequently,still holds,but Bolt had a successful go at Johnson’s 200m too in Beijing.

So,listen to Johnson,who now runs a training facility and reports on sport,as he inquires into the making of an Olympic champion: “‘Can Bolt be faster?’ everyone asks. Absolutely. Having studied his technique — or lack thereof — I know this unequivocally. His lateral movement is horrible as he gets out and up into his maximum velocity. During a race his thigh actually points into his competitor’s lane…” This means he has to expend some energy and,crucially,lose time in keeping himself in his allotted lane. And: “He also gets a lot of sway in his shoulder motion. You want some rotation (sprints are as much about upper body,as leg,strength) but you want it to be stabilised. What you’re seeing is some side bending. Each time the side of his body collapses,he has to actually strike and recover. That causes him to lose a lot of time.” Therefore: “It’s almost scary to think about how fast Usain could go if he cleaned up some of his running and brought his technique up to the level of his congenital gift.”

Incidentally,Bolt started out wanting to be a cricketer. At a time when we are plunged into regular bouts of despair for the five-day and even one-day games,that biographical detail is a hook for what-could-have-been theorising: if only the Caribbean could lock youngsters like Bolt in cricket’s embrace,imagine how rich the sport could be!

But Bolt’s team sport background would,instead,be validation for a lament Johnson makes earlier in the book. Recalling his own childhood of playing different sports before he straightened into sprints,he worries about the tendency of children to find — or perhaps be led to — specialisation early in life. For instance: “Most of the kids who come in to my sports performance training centre… have already started to specialise in one sport as early as age 10,so they lack the athleticism that we kids from the Seventies developed from playing multiple sports. I developed my speed from sprinting,for example. But I also developed explosive power,which helped me to be a better sprinter,from playing basketball. I developed my quickness — the ability to make short bursts of speed in different directions — from playing football… The kids who specialise early also never get to search out what really stirs them.”

So watch the new champions of 2012 and roll back to the life stories that sustained their extraordinary journeys. And do keep an eye out for Bolt.

mini.kapoor@expressindia.com