Life without Usain Bolt looms as a nightmare waiting to happen for world athletics

FOR almost a decade Usain Bolt has been athletics’ safety blanket. In scandalous times he has single-handedly saved the sport. Now we face the reality of life without him.

There will never be another athlete like Usain Bolt.

SCARY is probably the best way to describe life without Usain Bolt.

For almost a decade he’s been athletics’ safety blanket, the one shining light who shone so brightly he put all the bad things in the shade.

And there have been many of those in recent times.

The shadow of doping innuendo has haunted the sport’s most famous event in particular, the 100m, ever since a steroid-fuelled Ben Johnson burnt up the track in Seoul in 1988.

Britain’s Linford Christie was the next champion four years later, he too would later get busted for drugs.

The Finale. Let's do this. #London2017 pic.twitter.com/9joLmLXrve

— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) August 4, 2017

Then in 2004 American Justin Gatlin won the Olympic crown in Athens and two years later was kicked out of the sport for his second doping infringement — only to return four years later after his ban was halved.

At the 2007 world championships Tyson Gay won the sprint double — beating Bolt in the 200m — and six years later he was banned for taking steroids.

Then Bolt came along and saved everything.

Usain Bolt standing on the podium during the medal ceremony in Rio

Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates following the Men's 100 metres

His performances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were mind-blowing. World records in the 100m and 200m initially came with the raised eyebrows that unfortunately is part of life in track and field.

But soon everyone fell in the love with the tall Jamaican with the scientists helping this by finding real physical reasons why he was so superior to the chasing pack.

And it wasn’t drugs.

Bolt was also an entertainer. He was a good person at heart who made people laugh and smile.

Importantly, he made them want to follow track and field. He made them take more notice of the Olympic Games.

Usain Bolt's career in numbers

9.58 seconds

Bolt’s 100m world record, set at the 2009 world championships in Berlin

19.19 seconds

His 200m record from the same championships

36.84 seconds

He holds a complete set of sprint world records after Jamaica’s relay efforts at the London 2012 Olympics

44.72 km/h

Bolt’s fastest recorded speed on the track. It was measured from his time of 1.61 seconds for the 60-to-80m split in his record 100m run in Berlin

8

Olympic gold medals on Bolt’s record. He lost another from the 4x100m relay at Beijing 2008 when team-mate Nesta Carter failed a retrospective drugs test

11

World titles

The more he succeeded the more drug tests he passed and as he moved into the statesman role which he now holds, his disgust at any drug cheats came straight from the heart.

Take the Rio 2016 Olympics as a perfect example of how Bolt saved the sport.

The biggest scandal to rock track and field had just gone down with Russia banned from the Games after a systematic doping regimen was exposed.

This was to athletics what Lance Armstrong was to cycling.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt wins the gold medal in a time of 9.63 seconds.

How could anyone possible watch track and field at the Olympics again and think it was clean? A whole nation had just been kicked out because they cheated across the board with the blessing of the highest people in the sport.

Well, they did still watch because of Bolt.

They liked him and trusted him so when he shrugged off Gatlin’s challenge for his titles, everyone was warm and fuzzy again.

Tim Layden from Sports Illustrated wonderfully described the Bolt legacy this week in the lead-up to his final race at the London world championships: “Usain Bolt gave the sport regular and euphoric reprieves from the drumbeat of doping investigation and reveals.

“When he ran, there was almost exclusively elation. His departure leaves only more room for the negative.”

Usain Bolt prepares to compete in the heats of the men's 100m athletics event at the 2017 IAAF World Championships at the London Stadium/

Sebastian Coe is the man who runs the sport and the IAAF president knows he has a battle on his hands when the lights go out in London and his Jamaican security blanket waves goodbye.

“If you look at the records he set, if you look at the Olympic championships he’s had — three in a row — I’m not sure I’m ever going to see that in my lifetime,” Coe said.

“So it’s a massive legacy and the most important legacy is that he has connected our sport to people who weren’t traditional track and field fans, that’s the measure of the man.”

Jamaica's Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt, Nesta Carter, and Michael Frater

Coe will make sure Bolt remains in the sport in an ambassador role but the reality is his appeal is on the track and not sitting in a grandstand signing autographs.

“He connects with all ages, he connects with all denominations, all cultures, all creeds, all politics and that’s a very unique breed and we need to maintain his involvement,” he said.

“I’m delighted that he has agreed to help us grow the sport and to help our sport remain relevant to young people.

“This guy has transformed our sport, he’s connected with young people, he’s connected with people that didn’t even think they liked track and field, he’s turned them into lifelong fans.

“So every single plaudit that he receives, he’s deserving of every syllable of it.”

Jamaica's Usain Bolt, right, jokes with United States' Justin Gatlin

Coe knows there will never be another Bolt but he’s hopeful there is another superstar around the corner to capture the world’s attention.

The man most likely at this stage is South African Wayde van Niekerk who broke Michael Johnson’s longstanding 400m record in the Rio final.

He’s a nice quietly-spoken young man but is the world going to stand still every time he is on their television?

Are they going to fill stadiums to watch him run and turn a blind eye to reports that a third of the athletes at the 2012 London Olympics were either dopers or associated with people who had connection to doping.

We don’t think so and that’s why for track and field life without Usain Bolt looms as a nightmare waiting to happen.

Originally published as Life without Usain Bolt looms as a nightmare waiting to happen for world athletics