Ummm, did you see the men's track & field 100 meter final in Beijing? I'm pretty sure it happened because I saw a scrolling line on ESPNEWS on Saturday stating that Jamaica's Usain Bolt won the event with a world record time of 9.69.
I've been attached to the television morning and night watching the Summer Games, but I still don't when the race occurred. I intentionally didn't find out for this posting to communicate how even an interested Olympics watcher didn't know when the 100 meter final began.
What's more confounding is that this race used to be a showcase event in the Olympics. What the big gymnastics event are to the female viewers, the 100 meter men's final is to the males. Or at least it used to be that way. According to a poll in the August 18-24 issue of Sports Business Journal, 65 percent of the 487 respondents would rather watch swimming or diving (diving!!!) than track and field.
It seems like people are alienated by the persistent doping stories that have accompanied track and field in recent years. Michael Phelps' amazing eight gold-medal performance surely took attention away from the 100 meter event, but that brings up another question: didn't the event used to be run on the Friday or Saturday night before closing ceremonies? Since closing ceremonies occur next weekend, why wasn't this event pushed to that time? Why was the final run concurrently with Phelps' final two quests for gold? These are questions of which I need answers.
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Good questions, but not the point. The point is that Usain Bolt is not human or on some extra super roids or something cool that I haven't even thought of yet. Seriously the guy looked like a 4th grader racing 1st graders, it was that easy. There is no way to describe it, you have to see it for yourself, especially if you are and have been a fan of the 100 meters. I remember when a Juiced Ben Johnson broke the world record in 1988. Bolt could have run that fast high stepping, oh wait, he did and did it faster!
You my boy Stack! I'm glad you have embraced blogging, look forward to your "real" work!
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