Lightning Bolt

Wow, Usain Bolt won 3 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics. And along with those golds came three new world records. Amazing!

There has been a lot of talk about how Usain is very disrespectful to other runners by his showboating. And generally, I don't really root for athletes who are arrogant and full of themselves. Which makes me wonder why I became a big fan of his.

For some reason, there was something strangely engaging about his flamboyance and brash demeanor. His in-your-face chest-thumping as he crossed the finish line in the 100m (he even slowed down in like the last 15 meters and was still so far ahead of everyone else!) threw off so many other people, but then again it also seemed to earn him a lot of fans.

Of course, he might have learned something from that, as he made sure that he remained completely focused in the 200m from start to finish. He beat the field by two-thirds of a second. In a sport where many medals have been won by hundredths of a second, his 200m run simply left his competition eating his dust.

And to top it all off, he and the rest of the Jamaican 4x100m relay team won gold too. And not only did they break the record, but they also beat their nearest rivals, Trinidad and Tobago, by almost a full second!!

Still makes me wonder how someone who has seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way due to his supposed arrogance actually makes me want to root for him. Maybe it's the way he celebrates his victories. He always seems jubilant and overjoyed whenever he wins. It's almost like, no one who truly believes he is completely and totally dominant over all his competition can celebrate his triumphs as joyfully as Usain. Add to this the fact that even his competitors, such as American Shawn Crawford, have said that they don't believe that he showboats.

It's amazing to think what else Usain can do in the future. He is still in his early twenties and may have at least a couple more Olympics in him. Who knows, maybe he wins a few more golds and breaks a few more records...