Usain Bolt brought the curtain down on his Olympic career with a record-equalling ninth gold medal on Friday, anchoring Jamaica to relay glory in a perfectly-scripted finale to complete his unprecedented “triple triple”. “I feel like if my federation wants to go out and protest they’ll do that, but I’m proud to compete with my guys”.
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“There you go, I am the greatest”, Bolt said.
For Bolt, it was a particular pleasure to sign off with former world record holder Asafa Powell, his training partner Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade as part of a team representing their country. “All that work just crumbles”. “As long as we got the baton round, it was never in doubt”.
Bolt spoke to reporters after his 200-meter win about the prospect of being put on the same sporting pedestal as soccer’s Pelé, swimming’s Michael Phelps or boxing’s Muhammed Ali.
After crossing the line for the last time, Bolt pumped his fist in the air, slowed down and took off those famous gold spikes.
Japan took silver with a time of 37.60 seconds, and originally the US was in bronze position with a time of 37.62 seconds.
“I told the guys if it [the triple triple] didn’t come true then I’d beat them up”, Bolt joked afterwards.
“I’m just happy to have done what I came here to do”. He has now won the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 4×100-meter relay in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
Japan finished in 37.60 seconds to claim the silver medal.
Asked why he thinks the Americans have so much trouble with baton exchanges, Powell said: “Pressure”. Her main rival, two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva, is one of 67 Russian track and field athletes who were barred from the Rio Games by the IAAF following allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia.
Two hours later, carrying portable speakers, Bolt and his teammates danced to reggae music as they entered the news conference.
Counting all the preliminaries, finals and his approximately nine-second blast down the stretch in Friday’s final race, Bolt has spent 325 seconds ” a tad less than 5 1/2 minutes ” running on the track at the Olympics since he made his debut in Beijing eight years ago. Then, a final, luxurious lap around the track.
“I’ll stay up late tonight”.
Even the full moon was peeking into Olympic Stadium on Friday night.
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There was better news for the United States women’s sprint relay team, who retained their title, in the process Allyson Felix becoming the first woman to win five Olympic gold medals in athletics.
