Friday’s race draws the curtains on a successful career for Usain Bolt who now has nine sprint gold medals from three successive Olympic games.
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Usain Bolt drew down the curtain on his brilliant Olympic career by securing a sweep of the sprint titles for a third successive Games when Jamaica successfully defended the 4×100 meters relay crown on Friday.
Carter ran the leadoff leg for Jamaica’s 4x100m team when Bolt anchored them to a gold medal at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium, where Bolt took the sport by storm with his first treble.
Japan took a surprise silver, while Canada was promoted to bronze after the United States, which came in third, was disqualified.
“I’m going to stay up late and have fun”, Bolt told the BBC. The first one (in Beijing in 2008) I was just happy, the second one (in London in 2012) was a challenge, and then to come here and do the third one is just unbelievable. “It’s just so many special feelings I’m feeling”.
After completing the triple triple he declared himself the greatest.
“The pressure is real, but I look at it as an accomplishment”.
On his Olympic retirement: I knew it was going to be done. I’ve proven to the world I’m the greatest.
Heavy.com noted that Usain Bolt is only planning to run the 100-m and 4×100-m relay in next year’s World Championships in London.
He missed last year’s World Championships but rebounded to qualify for the Olympics, where he narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100 metres when he finished fourth.
It was the ninth time since 1995 that the USA men have been disqualified or failed to get the baton around at an Olympics or world championships.
In an interview with AFP on Friday, Coe said Bolt had transcended his sport in a way that was comparable to boxing icon Muhammad Ali.
“I’ll continue doing that even after I retire from sport, I’ll continue to uplift my country”.
“I don’t think it would tarnish my legacy”, he said.
Off the track, six-gold medal swimmer Lochte apologized for inventing a story about an armed mugging to cover up an act of vandalism at a Rio gas station.
“Yeah, this is the last one, guys”, said the champion, who turns 30 on Sunday, the same day the Olympic cauldron is extinguished.
“I didn’t plan to keep running until I was 38, but it seems that I’ve got to to get another medal”, the American sprinter said.
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Reflecting on the fact that Rio 2016 was his final Olympic Games, Bolt told Brazilian television he had mixed emotions and thanked Brazilians for their support. I’m happy. There’s nothing else I can do but to push on and enjoy what I’ve done over the years.
