WHERE’S THE AGGRO?
When Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay finally settled into their blocks for the eagerly awaited confrontation at the World Championships last Sunday, there was something missing.
Everybody, including myself had been saying that the lead up to the final was going to be the equivalent in rising anticipation to the Ben Johnson-Carl Lewis match-up at the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988.
But there was one crucial element missing. Aggravation!
Johnson and Lewis hated each other. Their antipathy was visceral. Johnson who was never good with words, having unconciously inherited an elder brother’s stammer, would simply snort when Lewis’s name came up. Carl would roll his eyes at the mention of Ben.
Their fans were equally polarised. Even though there had to be a huge percentage of followers who suspected that Johnson’s yellow-eyed bullishness betrayed something more than a dislike of Toronto winters, Lewis’ arrogance and petulance turned off equal numbers. So that when that totemic pair sank into their starting blocks for the Seoul 100 metres, the atmosphere was electric.
One half of the world wanted to see Ben blasted back into the ranks, the other half devoutly wished Carl to be crushed. And that partizanship informed the whole match.
But Usain Bolt has not only transformed the event in terms of how fast it is now run, he has made it into a comedy show.
Gone is the lip-licking, muscle-flexing, eye-rolling, swaggering and grimacing which characterised the Maurice Greene era, gone too is the polite indifference which underwrote the Justin Gatlin-Asafa Powell period. We now have eight guys mugging for the camera. Well, seven, and Tyson Gay, who seems genuinely bemused by the whole enterprise. But not so much that he’s going to spoil the show. He seems as mystified by Bolt (and now, the others’) behaviour as he is by his incapacity to match the young Jamaican when the race gets underway.
There is another element, and it’s that I suspect the majority of people, myself included thought Bolt could not and cannot be beaten. At the moment.
The corollary to that is that, in Seoul, we genuinely didn’t know who was going to win. Johnson hadn’t looked good in the rounds, and like Powell who decelerated too much in the heats here in Berlin, almost went out of the competition. But then the Canadian (or for the benefit of the Cannucks, the Jamaican-born Canadian) ran 10.03sec into a headwind in his semi. Lewis then clocked 9.99sec in his semi, but with a tailwind, a fact overlooked by many.
Notwithstanding what happened later, nor forgetting that Lewis had failed a dope test at the US Olympic Trials (which was covered up), and should not even have been selected for Seoul, Big Bad Ben blew Carlito away.
Canadian angst was never better expressed than in the legend scrawled on the wall of the team accomodation in the Athletes’ Village two days later - From Hero to Zero in 9.79sec!
But what we have now is a guy to whom an Olympic final is an excuse to have fun. Of all sorts. A colleague’s son who was working in the call-room in Beijing reported back that Bolt was exchanging phone numbers with one of the young hostesses just prior to going out for the final. Nothing wrong with having an eye for the main chance, of course. But this was an Olympic final, after all.
And prior to his semi-final on Sunday, he was chatting to the youngster who was collecting the kit, and to her great delight, after pasting on his number, he invited her to fist-bump before he turned back to the action.
Most of the finalists in Berlin seem to have taken their cue from him. Even Powell, who was nervousness personified prior to this year, got in on the act. When he was introduced to the crowd with a TV close-up for the final, he took the lane number off his leg, pasted it over his mouth, and leaned, leering into the lens.
Excuse me, but this is all a bit too much. Instead of pre-race tension, these guys are acting like a bunch of short-haired hippies at a love-in.
Enough of the fist-bumping, let’s get back to the sock on the jaw.
Metaphorically of course!
August 18th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Lewis did not fail a drug test in 1988.Lewis never tested positive for steroids.Where do you guys get that crap from.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
whats with the maurice greene hating.I’ve never understood that.When Bolt clowns before a race it’s for the good of the sport,but when maurice greene paced before a race that made him public enemy number one.maurice was respectful,signed autographs,was approachable,never bad-mouthed his competition.Maurice was as likable as bolt.Why are bolts antics so adorable,but maurice the villian.posing is posing.It’s cute when bolt does it,buffoonery when Maurice did it.whats the difference?
August 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
T.Bone - many people did not fail drug test(s). Sadly, these days that does not proclaim your innocence. Mariam Jones never failed a test and stood up in front of the cameras and made that annoucement. We all know what happen later…
I find it unfortunate that Athletics is the only sport taking a strong position against drug use and suffering the consequences. I pray Bolt is clean - because our sport would suffer greatly if he was not.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
T.Bone - Yes he did test positive: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/17/1050172709693.html
August 18th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Be more specific about the supposed blood test Carl Lewis flunked! Where did he flunk it? What meet and the date of the meet he flunked the test in question? Who can verify that he flunked it? If the author cannot furnish these facts, then he’s spreading lies!
CJohnson
August 19th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Actually, Marion Jones failed multiple drug tests. If you followed the BALCO scandal you saw documents posted online that showed Marion Jones had her urine tested for PEDs twice weekly for extended periods of time, it was done privately and discreetly and BALCO let her know the results. If she was positive, she had “pulled hamstring” or “fatigue” or “ankle injury” or went out of town for the weekend, avoiding drug testers
August 19th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Lewis tested positive for pseudo-ephedrine at the 1988 US Olympic Trials. It has been documented and reported by Dr Wade Exum. Even so, T-Bone, you are missing the point; namely that the anodyne inter-play between Bolt and Gay - both great athletes and great people - not to mention their peers, while entertaining, does nothing to heighten the drama of a world championships final. Johnson v Lewis was fraught with drama. Bolt v Gay was entertainment such as you would find on Jay Leno. - James O’Brien
August 19th, 2009 at 1:34 am
It is true that carl did contain banned substinces within a urine sample, but the dosage was so minor, he was able to compete. And besides to all you track fans who are talkin smack! ALL TRACK ATHLETES TAKE SOMETHING AT SOME EXTENT!!!!I know this because i am part of a professional training group consisiting of sprinters to marathoners. So there is no PURE athlete, and Mr.Bolt is indeed on something, and it is either minor, or he is fortunate.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Of course Ben and Carl had aggression…It’s called ROID-RAGE.
They both were juicing!!!
August 25th, 2009 at 9:17 am
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/usoc-testing-athletes-2515888-positive-drug
Carl Lewis did test positive in 1984. Sorry TBone
February 20th, 2010 at 3:30 am
To T-Bone and johnny, please get your facts straight before you come on these boards talking crap. Carl tested postive. Carl himself has admitted it. It was not a small or minute amount so that he was allowed to compete. It was because he said he ingested it by accident. That it was in a supplement he thought was okay. Yeah right. Who cares how it ends up in your body once it’s in there, you have an unfair advantage over the competition, and when he blew the whistle on Ben, he knew himself to be “accidentally” doped up and both he and USOC hid it from WADA and the IOC. Carl is just as dirty as Ben and Justin Gatlin. T-Bone get over it, Carl is no hero and Maurice is questionable also. He was caught buying drugs but claimed it he was buying it for his colleagues not for himself. So he admitted that he helped others to knowingly cheat but that he didn’t cheat himself. He “just” facilitated the cheating and he thought that was ok, he should have been severely punished for that.