Rio de Janeiro: The fastest man on earth, made his final Olympic bow here in Rio on Friday with the pleasure of remembering all that has come before tinged with regret that there will be no more.Three Olympics, three gold medals in each.
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A third straight 100m, 200m and 4x100m clean sweep put Bolt alongside Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on nine track and field Olympic golds.
Recent 2016 Rio Olympics results revealed that Usain Bolt has earned the ninth gold medal of his career.
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.
The runners who have lost to Usain Bolt for the past dozen years showered the Jamaican superstar with praise on Friday, after he completed his historic “triple-triple” in what he has said will be his final Olympics.
The time, 37.27, may not have been quite as impressive as in the past; the first two relay wins were both world records.
This last gold medal means that Bolt has won nine golds in 114 seconds. Another great, Michael Phelps, had made the vow at London but he came out of it to win a slew of medals here.
First Bolt turned to flash a cheeky grin to the cameras on his way to winning the 100-meter semifinal then, in the 200m semis, he had time for a chat with Canadian rival Andre De Grasse as they took the line.
The handover between lead-off runner Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin was adjudged to have started before the exchange zone and the Americans were disqualified as they were on their lap of honour. Relieved because he had a mission and that mission was accomplished; sad because this was the last time he was racing in the Olympics.
The Jamaicans had been favourites to win the race but Bolt said it was not a foregone conclusion.
The Germany-Brazil soccer featured almost entirely different rosters from the 2014 World Cup that marked a low point for Brazilian sports. “I am just happy, proud of myself”.
USA Track and Field, the body that governs the sport in America immediately filed an appeal against the disqualification, USA Today reports.
“I’m going to stay up late and have fun”, he told BBC Sport. As long as we got the baton round, it was never in doubt.
Time after time, I saw him burst out of those blocks in the 100 and wondered, how’s he going to pull this off?
It was only nearly single-handedly, though, as his three Olympic relay titles, two in world record times, always required the input of his fellow Jamaican speedsters.
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The male relay team was disqualified in Beijing (2008) and London (2012) whiles the female team has suffered a similar fate in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). “I’ve told him he should come back for 2020!”
