SUPERSTAR FOCUS (Olympics)

Micheal Phelps









Usain Bolt







The greatest sportsman ever?

The 2008 Beijing Olympic has come to an end after the wonderful closing ceremony at the Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium. Next is London 2012. Many world records have been broken in this thrilling 16-days of competition. The US superstar Micheal Phelps, won 8 gold medal in the pool, with 7 world record and 1 Olympic record. He has done something phenomenal in the pool and has broken Mark Spitz record of 7 gold back in year 1972. I believe this achievement will be hard to emulate in the future. After the swimming events, the track & field events begin. Guess who.... Usain Bolt, coming out of nowhere and he is still even an unknown before this year, became the fastest man in the world with 3 gold medals and 3 world records in 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay. He became the first ever man to win the sprint double with world record time. Even the great legend Carl Lewis did not manage to do that.

So, who is better? Who achieved the best in 2008 Olympic?
For me, I personally think that Usain Bolt deserves more than Phelps. Yes, Phelps has achieved his target of 8 gold medal in a single Olympic, but a couple of the gold medal were very fortunate. Indeed, we can say that was miracle. We first look at his 4 x 100m relay, how on earth can Jason Lezak come from behind and brings down the world record holder- Alain Bernard? His relay split time of 46.06, is about 1.5 seconds faster than his personal best. That was really uncomprehending, he can never beat the great Bernard by his standard. While in the 100 m butterfly event, Serbian swimmer Cavic was leading all the way even until moments before they touch but the final result came out with Phelps edging Cavic by just 0.01 second! When you win a race by so little margin after thrilling behind all the time, you have to say thats luck. It will still remain as a debate in years to come on how the race was won by Phelps. I am not saying that he is a fluke and don't deserve but what he deserves was a silver, not a gold.

Lets look at what Usain Bolt had done. The luck element never comes in for this guy, he just doesn't need that at all! First, he ran an amazing 9.69 for the 100m to renew his own world record. He even had time to celebrate and slap his chest with 20 metres to go, knowing a gold medal is certain for him and that was enough to leave his competitors far behind him. In the 200m, Micheal Johnson's 12 year-old world record of 19.32 was initially said to be the humans limit. However, Bolt came up and showed to the whole world that he can beat that! He proved that on the track and lead from the start to the finish and broke Johnson's 12 year-old world record with a time of 19.30. The whole stadium were stunned at that moment. He than completes his domination in sprinting events when he helped Jamaica to win their 4 x 100 m relay. Again, it was done in world record time, again, he won it with a big margin.