Although track and field and the sprints are always big at any Olympic Games, Usain Bolt’s world records at the Beijing Olympic Games and especially his 100m run was the most memorable hundred since Armin Harry of Germany ran a World Record at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960.
To run a hundred at ten flat in 1960 was as unbelievable time as it was to break the ten second barrier number of years later.
I recall the 1960 sprints at the Rome Olympics also on the women’s side because they were dominated by Wilma Rudolph, an American sprinter. It was not just that she won three gold medals and that she was the fastest woman at the time but that she achieved what she did having overcome a serious bout of polio in her early childhood that resulted in her having to wear a brace for a number of years.
But it was not just Bolt why the sprints in Beijing were exceptional, but the fact that six sprinters ran the hundred under ten seconds and three sprinters did the two hundred under twenty seconds and you realize the two events were truly phenomenal.
Although swimmers such as Michael Phelps in Beijing and Mark Spitz in Munich had made the Olympic Games unforgettable because of their record breaking and stunning collection of gold medals, the track and field and namely sprints seemed to have often stolen the show at the games.
Just think back to times of Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis!
So I wonder what will 2012 games in London bring in sprints and how about the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio? I believe Usain Bolt can still win in London but can he also win in Brazil?
Can the Jamaican continue to dominate this far into the future?
