Usain Bolt To The Rescue
I am not the least bit surprised. In case you haven’t heard, Michael Phelps won SI’s “Sportsman of the Year” this year for winning 8 gold medals in Beijing. Usain Bolt deserved to win the title but apparently was not even close to winning for his riveting performances.
Sports Illustrated Group editor Terry McDonell called the selection of Phelps “the easiest choice I have made.”
Seriously?
But we all know the deal here. Track and field is far from being popular having been riddled with doping allegations and the fact that some of the sport’s former stars are currently serving jail time.
The Olympic Games became the “Michael Phelps Show,” setting a world record every time he dipped his toe in the pool and in the process winning over America.
Television ratings shot through the roof to watch the made-for-tv movie series that played out featuring Michael Phelps.
No one had heard of Usain Bolt prior to 8-8-08. But all of a sudden people were talking about the sport again and what a 6 foot, 5 inch sprinter from Jamaica was doing in Beijing.
For that reason, Usain Bolt is my Athlete of the Year - make that the galaxy.
Jay Hicks for Prerace Jitters.
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Agreed with your last comment. Definitely Phelps was most popular in the USA…Track & Field isn't all that popular there is it? In the Rest of the Planet however, certainly in Europe and many other places, Track & Field is much more popular than swimming and therefore Bolt is the true star. If a poll was done worldwide I am sure Bolt would beat the fiels in a wider margin than he won his sprint events.
Michael Phelps performances were incredible and no one can take that from him.
What Bolt did is still difficult to comprehend when you consider the performances to Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, and Jesse Owens.
It was historic to say the least.
Jay Hicks
Editor
PreraceJitters.com
with due respect as much as i admire bolt’s performance i dont think it was greater than phelps…let’s face it UB did ONE THING better than anyone else, he ran fast over a short distance. I emphasized the word One because that’s what he did, ONE THING. he is a ONE trick pony (no pun intended.) so did the weightlifters who lifted weights over their heads, or the bikers or the table tennis players or, well you know what i mean. they all did ONE thing better than others (and let’s face it the 100 and 200 are practically the same event, especially if you dominate the 100 the way he did. AT least MP swam in different styles, and of course over different distances with world records and gold, EIGHT TIMES over against top-notch world competitors. of course UB won 3 events in an impressive fashion, but that’s not the first time that this has ever happened. and the competition in those events did not seem well up to par either, with some well known missing in action, which only helped him look better.
regards
lou conci
Swimming and Track and Field. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. One sport is performed in water and the other on dry land meaning that there are different stresses placed on the body. Both men deserve a huge applause for their performances but many people are definately BLINDED by the 8 gold medals of Phelps. If you’re going to judge people on medals, Bolt would have had to run AND WON the:
100m
200m
400m
800m
1500m
3000m
4×100m
4×400m
INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!