The allure of Usain Bolt is that he’s always being chased, whether on the track or on the streets. The fastest man in the world can’t be caught. His management company, Pace Sports, just released a video “Chasing Bolt: Episode 1, Paris” which shows how the fans flock to him as he travels between meets. The video shows the fans running after Bolt in his team van while in Paris for the Diamond League meet, a 100m race in which he beat countryman Asafa Powell, and training partners Yohan Blake and Daniel Bailey, with the fourth fastest time this season at 9.84.
What’s amazing to me is that these crowds don’t seem to fluster Bolt. It wouldn’t be extraordinary if he started to believe the hype and think he’s the greatest athlete ever and maybe that’s happened, I don’t know. For the most part I think he’s pretty grounded. To some extent I would have thought the fans constant expectations that he break his records every time he’s at the line would have affected his performance in some way, but it doesn’t seem to. Although he’s still overcoming an injury to his Achilles tendon and has only raced five times this year in the 100m and 200m he’s still clocking times that would be personal best for most sprinters.
His closest rivals, Powell and Tyson Gay can’t catch Bolt and that’s a great part of the obsession with Bolt. That two world champions can’t catch the 6’5” dancehall fanatic. In another era Powell and Gay would be chased around as the fans in the video are chasing Bolt. But all three have peaked at the same time and unfortunately only one mountain is higher than the rest.
For the sake of track and field, I can only hope that Bolt stays healthy. That he continues to win races (with fast times), strike his pose and bust a move on the track so that fans continue to run after him; but that he saves the records for the World Championship and Olympics.
-- Connie Aitcheson
2 comments:
Nothing funnier in the video clip than the man wearing a suit impression of Usain's trademark lightning bolt!
I hope Bolt's seeming humility stays with him throughout his career and beyond.
Can you imagine how insane the crowd response will be at the next Olympics....London 2012.
Bolt is a once in a lifetime phenomenon, he will only get better.
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