Michael Johnson Gives His Take On Usain Bolt's 100m Mid-Race Celebration

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

And it generated more positive interest in our sport then anything else has done in the past decade.

No, his amazing performances did that! His taunting simply perpetuated a stereotype about the arrogance of elite athletes as a whole, and sprinters in particular.

Folks, although Bolt was probably confident of winning gold, do you think in his wildest dreams he thought he'd have the race put away that early? His reaction was an instantaneous, and very brief, natural response to an amazing and surprising set of circumstances. By all accounts, he's a good guy.

He's the only track and field person the "general public" even noticed in 2008. Without him, the spot is dead.

Actually, most non-runners I knew that brought it up didn't mention the time or how far ahead he was-they mention his celebration.

And to be fair, he didn't celebrate in the 200 much and was rewarded by breaking the "untouchable" world record while running into a headwind.

And yet people talked about the 100m race much, much more even though the 200m was a great run...because of the celebration. And Bolt didn't come across as arrogant...more just excited to be an Olympic Gold medalist.

...if you don't classify taunting as an arrogant thing to do.

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

And Bolt didn't come across as arrogant...

I don't think any of you who are condemning him have any idea what it might be like to win an Olympic Gold Medal. I have won one race in my entire life, and it was about the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, I went nuts. I can't even imagine how exciting it would be to achieve something like that. You're telling me you would've kept your emotions entirely in check? You don't think about what you're doing in moments like that...I remember after the Giants won the Super Bowl I tackled one of my best friends who was a Patriots fan, just because I couldn't think. So Bolt pounded his chest..so f*cking what?? Was it nice? Maybe not. Is it a big f*cking deal? No.

And if you think people outside of the track community care about Bolt because of how amazing his running is, you're crazy. They all know about him and love him because of his personality, the type of personality that you don't see much at Olympic sports. People love it.

And as the great Mohammad Ali said, it ain't cocky if you can back it up. If a runner feels like Bolt is showing them up, they should either figure out a way to beat him, stop being so damn sensitive, or find a new career. I would hope that world class athletes are mentally tough enough not to have their feelings hurt by a guy celebrating.

jack343 wrote:

So Bolt pounded his chest..so f*cking what?? Was it nice? Maybe not. Is it a big f*cking deal? No.

And as the great Mohammad Ali said, it ain't cocky if you can back it up.

It's tough to debate with someone who is so eloquent and articulate when they make their point! In other words, you feel that there isn't anything wrong with champions who act like condescending a-holes. Noted for future reference. However, I certainly hope that you don't plan on becoming a COACH any time in the near future!

If you haven't seen it yet, Usain Bolt early celebration video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSpPaCIG0g

Bolt perpetuated the myth of the arrogant, flagrantly disrespectful of their competition, black athlete to most if not all of the entire world.

While he may have run fast, and shown amazing athleticism, unmatched in any explosive event, he set back the sport of track and field if not entirely for his own actions.

The behavior he embodied was not one of sportsmanship expected on a track. It was more something I'd expect to see on a doped up Football field, a doped up, fake WWF match, or on a street corner.

This 22 year old is a grown man, he has run the 100 meter and 200 meter hundreds of times since he was young. He knew better, and to say he did not understand the setting is worse than wrong.

The worst thing he could have done was to celebrate before the end of his races in the manner he did, it marred what would have been an angelic perfect performance. Instead of transcending the sport and placing Bolt in the pantheon of Olympic Super Humans, he showed that he couldn't even compose himself for 9 seconds, not even 7. No, he couldn't respect his competition even that long.

He made us all look like gloating, selfish, disrespectful assholes.

He made us all look like gloating, selfish, disrespectful assholes.

Good God, could you be anymore melodramatic?

OK, he didn't transcend the sport. He didn't secure a place in the pantheon of whatever. He didn't put down an angelic perfect performance. He DID win an Olympic medal and set a WR.

I'm sure Bolt is sorry he didn't live up to your standards.

And Bolt did not make you look like an asshole. You took care of that all by yourself.

And I am not of the Dyestat generation.

^lol at this above^

i dont think he was being cocky, he was just celebrating. i agree with MJ. but i think Bolt may regret doing this when his record get broken by one one-hundredth

There is NO excuse! wrote:

[quote]Djork wrote:

Last year in the NBA Finals, the Celtics put on quite a show. They dominated a very talented Lakers team and regained the championship after a 20-year absence. In the last game, they were up by 29 points at the end of the third quarter. Obviously they had good reason to celebrate! But how would people have reacted if the Celtics who were still on the court had started clowning around like the Harlem Globetrotters for the duration of the fourth quarter, blatantly rubbing it in the Lakers' face? They would have been crucified, and you know it!

Bolt is a remarkable talent, but he acted like an immature jerk in the 100m final.

Yeah because I'm sure the Celtics played their very hardest every second of the 4th quarter. I guess by your logic, they should have kept the starters in, set up a press defense, and run the fast break every single play trying to win by as much as possible. He won the 100 meters. He did what he had to do...just like the Celtics did.

I suppose you are NOT right... wrote:

It's tough to debate with someone who is so eloquent and articulate when they make their point! In other words, you feel that there isn't anything wrong with champions who act like condescending a-holes. Noted for future reference. However, I certainly hope that you don't plan on becoming a COACH any time in the near future!

If I do become a coach, I sure as hell won't crucify my athletes for enjoying themselves. I know poor sportsmanship when I see it, my coach in high school was about the greatest teacher of sportsmanship you could ever meet, classiest guy, and I've always followed his model, can't think of a race I've run where I didn't shake hands with the guys I was running against, win or lose. I haven't heard a single one of Usain Bolt's opponents complain, in fact, from everything I've seen, they all love the guy. In his post-race interview after the 200, they said to him "people thought this record might never be broken, did you think you would break it?" and he said "no, I never thought I would break this record." That sounds like arrogance to you?

Dancing around because you're happy isn't showing up your opponents, all right? The guy has demonstrated class to me a number of times I've seen him, but you guys probably don't take the time to actually look at him and appreciate his character and personality, you just see one chest-bump and pronounce him a selfish prick. I think the people who are hating on the way Bolt celebrated the 100 meters are in some ways more arrogant than he is, arrogant enough to think that everyone should follow their exact model of how people should behave.

great post! If his competitor don't care and even praise him, why should an anonymous poster on letsrun?

There is NO excuse! wrote:

Seriously? That’s like saying that Hitler was a bit anti-Semitic! Don’t make excuses for this arrogant clown’s immaturity. Personally, I hope that he never sets another PR in the 100m. When he gets a bit older and actually decides to grow up, he will finally realize what an amazing opportunity he forfeited because of his childish antics.

I disagree. He was not cocky in the least bit, nor did he taunt his opponents.

He was celebrating out of pure joy, with no arrogance or malintentions whatsoever

There is NO excuse! wrote:

In the middle of the race, he chose to act like a condescending a-hole in front of the entire world and disrespect his peers. That's truly pathetic.

Wrong. He celebrated his victory. Good sportsmanship allows us to understand that this isn't the celebration of everyone else's defeat. At least it allowed Bolt's peers to understand this -- every single comment from them is contrary to your opinion.

If respect for Bolt's peers really concerns you so much, why do you let *them* be the judge of how "pathetic" Bolt is? What's more important, the views of Asafa Powell, Walter Dix and Kim Collins, or those of a never-was like yourself?

Time for an eye exam! wrote:

The Celtics/Lakers analogy is much more appropriate.

No, it's not.

For one thing, the Celtics/Lakers "analogy" uses a "game" rather than a "race."

You imbecile.

I disagree with just about everything in this post. I agree that condemning him as a "bad person" or anything of that nature is being cruelly judgmental, but I see why people are upset about it. Yeah, emotion took over and he only celebrated for a couple of seconds (therefore the celebration can't be compared to celebrating for an entire quarter of a basketball game). Not a huge deal...

That said, I strongly reject the claim that people are interested in Bolt largely because of his personality. They are interested in him because he is a freak who destroyed the field in both the 100m and 200m and set two very impressive world records in the process. I guarantee you that if he had run 9.62 in the hundred, even more people would have discussed his running, and many more of those who did would still be talking about it (with a few breaks along the way for eating and sleeping, of course :P). Running 9.60-9.64 would have taken his already-legendary run and launched it into the stratosphere of otherworldly, once-in-a-lifetime type achievements in a given sport. It would have been "the jump" of sprinting, the 1996 Fiesta Bowl in which Nebraska thrashed Florida, the number one performance on so many lists of greatests and the subject of thousands of articles over the decades that would have followed it. As it actually was, though, it was just a memorable Olympic performance by a very talented young sprinter.

And you seriously tackled someone after the Super Bowl? I think we are pretty different people, although I can admit there was a time when I probably would have done something similar. Not trying to be snide, but that was many years ago.

great post!