Gatlin vs Bolt: What happens to T&F if Gatlin beats bolt at world champs?

One doper beats another doper. Same as every other race Bolt has been in.

How and why wrote:

What will be the narrative around T&F if Gatlin takes down Bolt this summer? Age 33 running faster than when he was in his early 20's when he was doing steroids.

Bolt is the biggest star track has ever had, not saying he's clean... Or dirty. However we do know Gatlin did drugs 10 years ago and now is running faster "clean"????

Not if but when.

Bolt and Blake have avoided any competition for so long trying to avoid the inevitable.

By the way how DID Bolt run .11 seconds faster than the prior record? That margin is unbelievable, isn't it?

Forget drugs. Focusing on that is a waste of time and no one will know anyways. Seems to me there needs to be more focus on the rivalry and the world championships. If Gatlin wins, or in other words when he wins, there will be a totally new climate about the FASTEST man in the world, not the most publicised fastest man in the world. everyone really wants to see how second third of the season pans out where Gatlin doesn't run the dl races and bolt does. If bolt runs 9.85 or better (current best 10.09), then the race is on. If gatlin runs the 200m at world's, then bolt may end up without a gold in either race. He may not even be second behind gatlin in the 100m right now, but he definitely is in the 200m. I'd say host's 200m cutoff is 19.90. If bolt doesn't get around those two times before world's, it's gonna be really hard for him to beat gatlin confidence-wise at world's.

reader of the forums wrote:

One doper beats another doper. Same as every other race Bolt has been in.

In other words, a level playing field.

Gatlin was already athlete of the year last year for the entire sport.

If he beats Bolt to win Gold it wouldn't be too much different.

PEDs don't work on Africans. The same applies for African Americans, of course.

So far, there are few reasons to believe that Bolt will beat Gatlin this year. Doping aside, Gatlin is technically perfect right now. He is out of the blocks like a bullet. In the 200, he is crazy smooth around the turn. Bolt's start is terrible again and his form is nothing like it was in the WR year. He may be able to get it back by 2016, but it will not happen this year.

If Gatlin beats Bolt at worlds, it will not be a big deal because no one watches WCs. But if Bolt loses to Gatlin at the Olympics, we will finally see IAAF move to a lifetime ban on first drug offense. The idea of a doper "serving his time" will no longer be acceptable because it was always assumed that "serving time" meant being taken out of the sport for long enough to never be relevant again competitively. But Gatlin has shown that a 4 year ban is nothing.

Precious Roy wrote:

But if Bolt loses to Gatlin at the Olympics, we will finally see IAAF move to a lifetime ban on first drug offense.

Like it or not, Gatlin is the reason why people watch T&F meets. No one wants to see a Gebrewehit or some other Kenyans.

They want to see who is the BIGGEST (in terms of MUSCLE MASS) and fastest. And that his Gatlin right now.

Bolt will come back and I like him better because he puts on a better show. But Gatlin is a close second. I hope Gay can get back in the mix, too. After all, it wasn't his fault but the guy whom he trusted...

[quote]Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:

They want to see who is the BIGGEST (in terms of MUSCLE MASS) and fastest. And that his Gatlin right now.

Even a history major knows that this is true.

i'm no expert in sprints, but can someone chime in about Gatlin running so fast at this point in the season? I mean, the world championships are in about 10 weeks, right?It seems like he's too fast too early and will not be able to sustain a continued improvement for 10 more weeks. Bolt has A LOT of time to get into 9.70-ish form - seems like he should be able to get to the championships in peak condition if he's patient while Gatlin might be trailing off by then. Gatlin would have been running incredibly fast for, what, 16 weeks....which seems like too long. assuming there are no drugs involved, of course..Sprintgeezer or anyone else have any insight?

How and why wrote:

What will be the narrative around T&F if Gatlin takes down Bolt this summer? Age 33 running faster than when he was in his early 20's when he was doing steroids.

Bolt is the biggest star track has ever had, not saying he's clean... Or dirty. However we do know Gatlin did drugs 10 years ago and now is running faster "clean"????

i know!! I'm really interested in this too. i can peak for a 10k or half marathon (12 focused weeks training) and then take some time off and be in good shape 8 weeks later to run some very good times, but i'm not elite, not a sprinter and not racing championship races. how does the body handle running 9.75 at the start of june and presumably getting faster by the end of August?

coach d or sprintgeezer, i'd love to hear your thoughts on this

[quote]an honest sprint question wrote:

i'm no expert in sprints, but can someone chime in about Gatlin running so fast at this point in the season? I mean, the world championships are in about 10 weeks, right?

It seems like he's too fast too early and will not be able to sustain a continued improvement for 10 more weeks. Bolt has A LOT of time to get into 9.70-ish form - seems like he should be able to get to the championships in peak condition if he's patient while Gatlin might be trailing off by then. Gatlin would have been running incredibly fast for, what, 16 weeks....which seems like too long. assuming there are no drugs involved, of course..

Sprintgeezer or anyone else have any insight?

Didn't Usain Bolt run 9.76 and 9.72 in May in 2008 then went on to jog 9.69 in Beijing that year. I'm guessing Gatlin will still be fast when the World Champs come around

Gatlin (and his coach) probably think he can go a lot faster. He said he wants to go for the WR this year so 9.74 in May wouldn't be unusual if you're trying to reach 9.57 by August.

How and why wrote:

What will be the narrative around T&F if Gatlin takes down Bolt this summer? Age 33 running faster than when he was in his early 20's when he was doing steroids.

Bolt is the biggest star track has ever had, not saying he's clean... Or dirty. However we do know Gatlin did drugs 10 years ago and now is running faster "clean"????

I'm on the conspiracy that Gaitlin and Gay are being used as pawns to pump Bolt to set a new WR. They will apparently be "clean" for this world championships and this will mean that Bolt will actually have to put some serious training in because he had lost at worlds to JG.

For the 2016 Olympics, Bolt will run some impressive WR's and retire from track and field on the spot. Come 2017 to make Bolt's WR's even more impressive, Gaitlin and Gay get busted for doping (bio passport), have their silver and bronze stripped from them, Gaitlin's 2015 gold also stripped meanwhile Bolt remains "clean".

It's possible that the plan he's on is setup to have him faster by Worlds, and he's just really fast early. We don't know what his training load is right now, so we could see 9.6x out of Gatlin this year.

Bolt had better start serious training soon.

According to this item, it seems he’s been having regular parties that start in the afternoon and go on till 3am, 4am. the next morning!

Glad he doesn’t live next to me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3113977/Model-wife-rapper-Sean-Paul-claims-suffered-Usain-Bolt-moved-door-two-years-ago.html

What will the narrative be?

I could hope: a greater understanding of what it means to be a champion. That a champion needs to be the best at every aspect, not merely a higher red blood cell count or whatever.

Doping is not a guarantee. To be a champion an athlete must still put in the work to ensure total body preparedness. Doping can [almost?] provide a false sense of confidence; that is the athlete may wrongfully assume they don't need to put all the work in to be a champion since they are using PEDs.

If the narrative changed from good vs bad, to good, better, best, then the saga of justin gatlin would have stood for something more than just selfish greed.

And that would be beautiful thing.

No one is beating Bolt, Gatlin is the favorite for the SILVER medal, HUGE gap between Bolt and Gatlin.

Mark my words. If Bolt doesn't run 9.8x in the next month (Jamaican trials?), he is not going to participate at WC's this year.

Injured again, he will be a "not show" in Beijing, and after that, he will make another "cycle" before Olympics.

By Rio 2016 OG's, he will get a pass from WADA (it would be a financial mess if he doesn't go) and after another 3 gold medals (in 9.6/19.5 shape, with Gatlin probably banned), he's going to retire, as "the GOAT".

Ten years later, expect him to fall in disgrace (like Alberto), probably by an independent investigation.