It would take something out of the ordinary to argue with him as he became the first man to win three Olympic golds at three different Olympic Games – Beijing, London and now Rio.
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And while Bolt’s brilliance should be praised, so too should the rest of Jamaican sprinting team.
Usain Bolt made it a ideal nine for nine in Olympic finals, completing a unique “triple-triple” of sprinting gold, as he anchored Jamaica to victory in the men’s 4×100 meters relay in Rio.
Along for his final trip down the track were Nickel Ashmeade, training partner Yohan Blake and the Jamaican elder statesman, former world-record holder Asafa Powell.
He later told BBC Sports, “I’m going to stay up late and have fun”.
From the 2008 Beijing Games onwards, the 29-year-old has dominated sprinting, winning every Olympic gold in the 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m to make history as he eliminated other nations’ chances of standing atop the podium. “I think they are more focused on beating Jamaica than running a proper race”.
Bolt’s joy was in stark contrast to the United States, who had just about completed their lap of honour after coming home third when they looked up at the scoreboard and discovered they had been disqualified.
“I love competing. So I’m going to miss all of that”. I’ve proven to the world I’m the greatest. I’ve done it. I never knew from the start that this was going to happen to me.
“I hope for my next Olympics I could do something he’s done before which is win triple gold”.
Added Gay: “They said Justin got the stick before the exchange zone”.
For Bolt, who will retire in 2017, the relay gold was the final act of an incredible Olympic career that redefined athletics and often left commentators scrambling to find a new vocabulary of superlatives as each new milestone came and went.
Canada were elevated to bronze after their run of 37.64, a national record which gave Andre de Grasse his third medal of the Games after a bronze in the 100m and silver in the 200m.
Were Carter to be confirmed as a drugs cheat, all four members of the Jamaican team would be stripped of their medals. I ran my last Olympic run, thanks.. She won the bronze medal, while Kenyans Jepkemoi Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri took gold and silver, respectively.
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Bolt meanwhile joked that he had given his team-mates an ominous warning not to let him down: “I told the guys I’d beat them up”.
