Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won his third consecutive Olympic 100-meter gold medal with a stunning 9.81 performance in front of 60,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Carl Lewis is the only other man to have won back-to-back titles.
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With 23 gold medals Michael Phelps is unquestionably the most successful Olympian of all, but if Bolt can take out the 200m and relay in Rio, he’s in the argument about who’s the greatest.
If it were ever truly in doubt, Usain Bolt has again cemented his status as the fastest man on earth.
“I felt good”, said Bolt, who will turn 30 on the day of the Closing Ceremony, to NBC’s Lewis Johnson. He plans to compete at next summer’s world championships in London before retiring.
He won NCAA championships in the 100 and 200m for USC past year, then took gold in those two events before his home crowd in Toronto at the 2015 Pan American Games.
Bolt had made a major statement of intent in the semi-finals as he cruised into the final in 9.86 secs which was the fastest of the three races. Qualifying for the men’s 200, his favorite race, starts Tuesday, with the relay on Friday.
It was the USA’s 50th consecutive victory in a major global FIBA event and 22nd consecutive Olympic victory.
Already assured of his legendary status on the track, Bolt also added to his reputation as sport’s number-one crowd pleaser as he took a leisurely circuit of the stadium, posing for pictures and shaking a thousand hands before taking time to satisfy the demands of the world’s media.
Bolt beat American Justin Gatlin, who was greeted by the fans with raucous boos, by.08 seconds.
Usain Bolt says he will only achieve “immortal” status in athletics if he completes the “triple-triple” at Rio 2016.
Bolt, meanwhile, was left unimpressed by the welcome afforded to Gatlin.
The time was a long way off his 2009 world record of 9.58 but that was never the issue at stake. However Gatlin’s mental errors cost him.
Bolt was slow out of the gates and trailed for half of the race, but managed to reel in American Justin Gaitlin and win his third straight 100 meter gold.
It was a uniformly quick final, which was won relatively comfortably by Bolt in the end.
De Grasse is very familiar with Bolt.
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Gatlin’s successor in the sprints, 21-year-old Trayvon Bromell – who earned bronze at last year’s world championships – finished eighth in 10.06.
