Bolt, Seeking Gold, Dresses the Part

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

BEIJING, Aug. 5 -- As much as Jamaican Usain Bolt loves his nation's reggae and dancehall music, you won't find him bobbing to tunes fed through the headphones of his MP3 player before his races.

Bolt wouldn't dare do that. It is, quite simply, against the rules. His coach, Glen Mills, bans the practice.

"I'm not allowed," Bolt said, "because my coach say I have to concentrate."

Bolt, 21, might be the world's fastest man, having set the world record of 9.72 seconds in the 100 meters in a stunning race in late May, but he is not a speedster who can't be reined in. In his first news conference after arriving in Beijing, Bolt donned a gold watch and gold shoes -- and later a circular gold sack that hung around his neck like a gold medal -- and professed the hope of winning a pair of gold medals in the Aug. 13-24 Olympic track and field competition.

He noted, however, that he was only 80 percent certain he would compete in the 100 along with his specialty, the 200. Mills, Bolt insisted, would make the final call.

"My coach hasn't told me exactly," he said. "I'm just guessing, really."

Informed that Mills had, in fact, revealed to reporters last weekend that Bolt would compete in both events, despite his initial concerns about overtaxing his young star, Bolt expressed surprise. After gathering his thoughts, he revised his position about attempting the sprint double that Carl Lewis won at the 1984 Summer Games.

"I guess I'll be doubling," he said. "I thought I was 80 percent sure I was doubling, now I'm 100 percent sure."

Bolt arrived at Tuesday's news conference in an oversize polo shirt, shoes and necklace, all bearing the logo of his shoe sponsor, and lumbered without a hint of a smile to a stage lit by strobe lights. He dropped his lanky, 6-foot-5 frame into a maroon suede chair next to Scottish music star Paolo Nutini -- who has suddenly become a business associate -- looking like a cross between a big kid and a commercial success. Bolt, it soon became clear, is both.

The centerpiece of Puma's Olympic advertising campaign and the gold medal favorite in the 100 and 200, Bolt is just a year removed from being the upstart from Kingston who showed promise in the sprints but couldn't match his more acclaimed countryman Asafa Powell. He couldn't match American Tyson Gay, either, losing to him in the 200 at the world championships in Osaka last August.

But just as the track and field community began murmuring about the anticipated matchup between Powell and Gay in the Beijing Olympics, Bolt pushed both out of the spotlight. On May 31 in New York, he ran faster than both ever had in the 100, an event he said he started running only to avoid the hard workouts associated with the 400.

The 200, he said, has been his preferred race for years, especially since he won the world junior title in the 200 at age 15.

"I love the 200," he said. "The 200 is closer to my heart. I've been doing the 200 forever."

The 100, he said, actually needs work, hard to figure since he also ran the distance in 9.76 seconds this year. The 200, in which his personal best of 19.75 seconds is well off Michael Johnson's 1996 world record of 19.32 seconds, he considers far more refined.

So, apparently, does Johnson.

"It's pretty ridiculous what Bolt is running," Johnson said during the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., last month. "I'm ready to kiss it [the 200 world record] goodbye at this point."

Bolt has already taken Powell's place as a world record holder, bettering his best of 9.74. Immediately after Bolt surpassed him, Powell seemed to realize he had passed some sort of mantle. Or, perhaps more accurately, an albatross. As the world record holder last summer, Powell faltered thoroughly and famously in the 100, not only losing to Gay, but also fading to third.

"He told me 'thanks,' I took the pressure off him," Bolt said.

Bolt insisted Tuesday he welcomes the pressure and thrives on it. Because of that, he said, he sorely hopes for a return to full health of Gay, known for his big-time performances. Gay suffered a muscle cramp at the Olympic trials in the 200, causing him to pull up lame and preventing him from qualifying in that event.

Gay's handlers say he is ready to contest for the 100 gold medal, and that, Bolt said, is the way he wants it.

"I wish him all the best," Bolt said. "I want to beat him when he's 100 percent."