Even a slower Usain Bolt is still faster than every other man on Earth. Greeted by those boos, Gatlin then saw Bolt race past him to an historic third Olympic title in the 100 meters. And last night was no different.
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Jamaica’s Usain Bolt prepares to compete in the men’s 100-meter final during the athletics competitions in the Olympic stadium of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. We’re joined now by the photographer who took that photo.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hi, Renee.
“When you’re shooting slow there’s a lot of movement in the picture and ideally I wanted to get his head and torso sharp”, he said. And where I was – I was sitting, an usher came over and reminded us not to jump up in excitement because so many people behind us had iPhones and cameras poised. On Saturday, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson won the women’s 100m while training partner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clinched bronze.
MONTAGNE: And afterwards, what did the athletes have to say? This was a race viewed by many as good versus evil, though in track nothing is ever as simple as it looks.
One can only imagine the discipline and strength of mind needed to follow this schedule, but clearly, this workout and diet, coupled with Bolt’s natural talent, have taken him to the pinnacel of his sport. Bolt has said he will hang up his spikes after next year’s World Championships in London. And that showed, as Gatlin got off to the better start. The rest was a matter of how hard he wanted to run to the line.
Churning his legs to gradually build up speed, he eventually caught Gatlin with about 40 meters left and took it to warp speed. In the recent past, 100-meter sprinters have been given more than two hours between semifinals and finals. “I told you guys I was going to do it”, joked Bolt amid back slapping and hand pumping from his Jamaican brothers.
He knew exactly how this night was going to go.
GOLDMAN: Yeah, even Usain Bolt – just an athlete, right? “With Bolt, we know that we will easily fill the Stade de France”, Laurent Boquillet, the Paris Diamond League event director, told Forbes, explaining his $300,000 appearance fee in 2013. The cheering starts when he appears on the track.
And as a runner who has never tested positive for anything, he may be the only thing holding together a sport so decimated by doping that the entire country of Russian Federation was banned from track and field at these Olympics. And with so much talk about doping at these games, Gatlin has become a lightning rod.
“We all have respect for each other”, Gatlin said of himself and his fellow competitors.
“I just said, ‘Take your time, and chip away”, he said. Gatlin has several more events, so the situation may continue.
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Dietzen made the final kill of the third set and provided a big lift off the bench, helping the top-ranked Americans (5-0) put themselves in prime position in this Olympic tournament.
