Why Usain Bolt, not Michael Phelps, is the greatest Olympian of all time
SPORTS fans were ready to crown Michael Phelps as the greatest Olympian of all time - then Usain Bolt stepped on the track. VOTE: Who do you think is the greatest Olympian?
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MICHAEL Phelps is stiff.
He’s had one of the most remarkable swimming careers and deserves every accolade that comes his way, except one.
The greatest Olympian of all-time just got taken away from him.
Phelps and his incredible 23 gold medals owned it for a couple of days but Usain Bolt snatched it away from him in the blink of an eye, literally.
The swimming versus athletics argument has raged forever and will continue to do so but what Bolt has done to sport in general sets him apart.
He is the most loved sporting figure on the planet who has conducted himself with humour, class and dignity since he announced his arrival at the 2008 Beijing Games.
From a purely track and field perspective Bolt has had some decent challengers for the greatest Olympian title.
American Jesse Owens, distance great Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis are a fairly handy trio who did extraordinary things. But Bolt has been simply better.
No man had ever won three consecutive 100m Olympic titles and no man has ever run faster.
Funnily enough the 29-year-old is actually slowing down in his old age.
His Rio victory time of 9.81sec was the slowest he’s run to win a major title.
He set his first world record of 9.69sec in the Beijing final and then lowered it at the 2009 Berlin world championships to 9.58sec.
At London 2012 he improved his Olympic record time to 9.63sec before winning his next two world titles in 9.77sec and 9.79sec.
While he’s been doing all this Bolt was actually also saving his sport.
Track and field is on its knees and has never been in worse shape – except for Bolt.
The spectre of drugs has strangled it over the past couple of years, reaching a new low at these Games when Russia was kicked out because of a systematic government-backed doping system involving its track and field team.
What Bolt does is bring sunshine to a sport that is covered in darkness.
While history hasn’t been kind to the 100m event given the amount of former champions who have been proven to be drug cheats, the Jamaican has managed to stand above everything.
He is one of the most tested athletes and has been throughout his eight-year domination.
That’s why this victory was so important given the man who was most likely to take his crown.
Justin Gatlin was booed every time he stepped foot in the Olympic stadium over the past 24 hours. The Brazilian fans clearly know their stuff and they didn’t want to have a bar of the two-time drug cheat.
If he’d won, the sport would have plunged into a hole it may not have ever recovered from.
But Gatlin has become Bolt’s bunny in recent years.
He had his best chance at last year’s world championships in Beijing but blew it.
Bolt knew it. He played on it and exposed it when it mattered.
That’s what the greats do. That’s what the greatest ever did.
Originally published as Why Usain Bolt, not Michael Phelps, is the greatest Olympian of all time
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