He may have taken a tumble courtesy a careless cameraman, but for the most part Usain Bolt has been on top of things this past week. Wins in the 100m and 200m at the Beijing World Championships have meant that since 2008, Bolt has won 16 of the 17 sprint gold medals on offer at the world and Olympic level. The sole blip occurred in the 2011 World Championships, after he had false-started in the final. He now has 10 golds at the World Championships — two more than Carl Lewis in second place — and he has the chance to add another in the 4x100m relay.
While Bolt’s dominance now seems assured, the king’s crown appeared to be slipping prior to the start of the championships. American Justin Gatlin, meanwhile, held the fastest time of the year in both sprint events. Bolt’s rivalry with Gatlin has been styled as a morality play: The rigorously tested but still resolutely clean Jamaican versus the American who has twice been banned for drug use. The likelihood of the former drug cheat becoming world champion would have been unpalatable for fans. In a sport racked by doping scandals, Bolt’s sprint double was the happy ending that athletics needed.
