Friday 22 August 2008

Can Bolt be 'Rogged'?


Bolt thumps his chest to show who's the best in 100m sprint at Beijing.

IOC chief Jacques Rogge seems not to be enjoying the fervour of one Usain Bolt who's exuberance at winning the sprints men's double brought down the house on Wednesday. Last night I was listening to one FM station and this was a point of discussion about how an athlete should celebrate his win in the Olympics.
Has the world gone that low to start writing rules of how one should conduct him or herself on the tracks ?
Do officials know what's going through one's head before they start and after winning a race ?
Imagine all the rush when one crosses the line ? You just can't hold back !
A few years back I used to wonder why short races and in particular sprint athletes never spoke or even shook hands before their race. I understand their testirone levels are so high that they usually scream and shout in the changing rooms. Some even kick and throw things while in there.
Coming to the track the athletes are so built with tension they can only exhale once done with the race.
So for the 'Lightning Bolt'to act as he has it's not a wonder and no one should tell him what to do.

Winning margin for Usain Bolt in the 200m race
Images courtesy of Reuters

There are other more important things that top officials can tackle like under-age athletes or over-commercialised attributes of sports people but not how one cheers. Rogge though a former Olympian should not be drawn into this.
I can't wait to watch the relays this weekend. Go Jamaica go !

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cud not also believe it when Bolts celebration was something that he shud apparently be apologising for(according to the ioc fella).
all this polotical correctness is getting waaaay overboard.

Anonymous said...

True, too much political correctness is NOT always visible in sports + the current crop of athletes is so different from the past. What do they expect when we have X Games at the Olympics ?

Msanii_XL said...

Sheesh its only fair.

If the same official(s) got on US sprinters last Olympics, why should it shock anyone they are doing it to him.

Anonymous said...

When other sportsmen do all fancy things on their favoured grounds the IOC lets it fly BUT let one sprinter do something out of the ordinary, ....that's not the Olympic spirit & so on....'68-2 US sprinters are banned 4 life for putting up fists at the podium, 88-Ben Johnson is smoked out as a drug cheat(while I guess enough of those guys were on drugs too)...08' it's Bolt's turn to hear his master's voice !