Sarah Robles won the United States’ first weightlifting medal for 16 years Sunday with bronze in the women’s over-75-kilogram category.
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The legendary sprinter’s race attracted 369,000 live streams – a new streaming record which smashed last week’s epic Olympics basketball battle between the Aussie Boomers and USA Dream Team, which peaked at 342,000 concurrent streams.
Like Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, Bolt is a magnetic performer. James, the defending Olympic champion, finished with the silver and Merritt, who won gold eight years ago in Beijing, hung on for bronze as he staggered across the line.
Justin Gatlin now has a full set of Olympic medals in the 100 metres and the American was pleased to finish second at Rio 2016. That is without even bringing the 200m into it.
Bolt received a hero’s reception as he walked out into Rio’s Olympic Stadium before the race, and the crowd chanted his name after his victory. And while Bolt was celebrating with anyone he could find, Gatlin was parading the American flag around the track virtually alone.
Running from Lane 6, Bolt was behind Gatlin’s strong start but came on in the second half of the race, eventually moving ahead for the final 30 meters or so on the Rio Olympic Stadium’s azure track.
Gatlin got the better start and led early but could not hold out Bolt.
Working his way past his rivals, the now seven-time Olympic gold medallist clocked a season’s best to again deny Gatlin, who ran 9.89, and De Grasse, who clocked a 9.91 PB, while his fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake was fourth with 9.93.
But this was not Bolt at his fastest.
The 29-year-old crossed the line in a time of 9.81secs to seal the seventh gold medal of his Olympic career and third in the 100m discipline.
Bolt always is must-see, and he rarely disappoints.
Bolt is so often dubbed the saviour of athletics in his battle with Gatlin, who has become the personification, rightly or wrongly, of all that is wrong with the sport. For him the head-to-head rivalry that engrossed the rest of the world was a side issue.
Asked for his thoughts on Gatlin’s reception, gold medal-winner Bolt said: “I was surprised”.
For many he is already that.
If that is truly the end, as Bolt has said it will be, he will go into the record books as the greatest sprinter ever.
“That’s the first time I’ve gone into a stadium and they’ve started to boo”, Bolt said.
Somebody said I can become immortal. “I am so proud to be a Jamaican and I am proud of Usain”, she said.
Gatlin got the opposite.
Bolt wanted to win for his legacy, but he also did it for what it meant for his country.
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“Jamaica stand up. This for you my people”.
