Usain Bolt win vital to Olympics’ credibility: if Justin Gatlin takes 100m gold, Games will be tarnished

RIO might be home to Christ the Redeemer but right now Olympic officials are putting their faith in Bolt the Saviour. For the sake of sport he has to deliver.

Usain Bolt’s joyful charisma is as vital to these Games as he exploits on the track.

RIO might be home to Christ the Redeemer but right now Olympic officials are putting their faith in Bolt the Saviour.

Usain Bolt, who is aiming for a historic third straight 100-200 metres double when the track and field competition gets underway next Friday night, is far more than just an athlete in the eyes of those who fear for the future of the Games.

On his flashing smile, and even flashier feet, rests the credibility of an organisation currently suffering its worst slump of public confidence in 120 years of existence.

A slump that could go into complete free fall if Bolt loses to convicted drug cheat Justin Gatlin of the USA in Tuesday week’s 100m final.

The Jamaican superstar is no stranger to “carrying” a major competition. That’s why event organisers pay him huge sums just to turn up, and why corporations pay even more to put his name and image on their products.

While he was a virtual unknown to the non-athletics fraternity prior to his Olympic debut at Beijing in 2008, by the time he arrived in London as the undisputed “face of the Games” four years later, the Olympic city was in the grip of Boltmania.

At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, his influence was even more pronounced. Although he ran only a relay leg, his very presence gave the event relevance.

But nothing Bolt has done in the past can compare with what he is now doing right now in Rio. To say that these Games, and the Olympic movement itself, have had a rough few months would be an understatement of, well, Olympic proportion.

The Russian doping scandal and criticism of the way the IOC reacted to it; the Zika threat; problems at the athletes’ village and venues; the public relations black-eye of international media being threatened and robbed … if ever an Olympics needed salvation this is it.

Respected commentator Bruce McAvaney, who is covering his ninth Summer Olympics for 7, 7TWO and the ‘Olympics on 7’ app, believes the importance of Bolt to these Games cannot be overstated.

“In my time of covering Olympic sport I cannot think of any other single athlete who has had so many people around the world wanting him to win,” he said. “[Cathy] Freeman did it in Sydney for Australians, but Bolt does it internationally.

“I’ve always felt with Bolt that it’s not only how fast he runs or what he wins, but how he does it. The joy he expresses as an athlete inspires all of us and we go along for the ride.”

That being the case, Bolt has been spreading the joy with gusto in Rio. Unlike other millionaire sports stars such as the US basketballers and some tennis players, Bolt has been living in the athletes’ village.

Usain Bolt was the undisputed star of the Beijing and London Games.

When not training or posing for selfies with members of other teams he has been out and about. Photographs have appeared on his Facebook page of him with children at one of Rio’s urban slums, and chatting with a group of soldiers.

It is the sort of feel-good PR that the under-siege IOC must love, but there is another thing they would love to see Bolt do even more: win the 100 metres.

The greatest threat to Bolt — and the Olympic movement — is two-time convicted drug cheat Gatlin. The last thing the IOC needs after the Russian debacle is for a doper to win the most coveted race in world sport.

“Gatlin is a colossal runner,” McAvaney said. “He won in Athens and at the world championships and he was second behind Bolt in London.

“He’s been world No. 1 for the past two years, but no-one wants him to be there. We want our sport to be clean.

“Now he can argue, and his supporters can argue, that he hasn’t infringed for the past four or five years, but there’s always that stigma and that’s part of the story.

“Just like (disgraced drug cheat) Ben Johnson was part of the Carl Lewis story, Justin Gatlin has become part of the Usain Bolt story. It’s like you’ve got one on the white horse and one in the black hat.

“If everything goes the way it is expected to go and they both line up for the final I think around the world there will be a collective deep breath and a little prayer before the gun goes off.”

And nowhere will the breaths be deeper or the prayers more heartfelt than in the IOC section of Rio’s Olympic Stadium.

Originally published as Usain Bolt win vital to Olympics’ credibility: if Justin Gatlin takes 100m gold, Games will be tarnished