'I Blew the World's Mind'

BEIJING

This one was for the clock, for the record book, for Olympic history and to stand these Games on their head. This victory in the 200-meter dash on Wednesday was to put the name Usain Bolt smack into the Michael Phelps conversation.

This was the night when a 21-year-old became the first man to break the world record in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in the same Olympics. Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis never pulled it off. But this Jamaican homebody just did.

"I blew my mind, and I blew the world's mind," Bolt said, beaming and laughing as he watched a replay of himself breaking a mark thought unassailable, even after his 100-meter record Saturday. "My name is Lightning Bolt."

Indeed, he had run the 200 in 19.30 seconds, beating Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark of 19.32.

"The prime minister told me, 'Everybody is in the streets,' " Bolt said. "I've written history. I'm just real proud."

When tempted to think too hard about Bolt, just remember his age. He turned 22 on Thursday, shortly after his record-setting run. He's a young 22, as well. He grew up running barefoot on grass tracks. His aunt burns down her sugar cane fields, machete in hand, ready to chop them up. When he leaves his island for meets, he still gets homesick.

Perhaps such extroversion goes hand in hand with some innocence. Let's take it. We don't get much of it anymore. And it never lasts long. Right now, Bolt is more relaxed, more at ease with his goofy, dancing, nickname-making self -- at least in public -- than self-protective Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan have been.

At his news conference, Bolt noticed a big television replay of himself striking his throw-a-lightning-bolt pose before he ran, mugging to the crowd, listening to his tunes, dancing to himself.

"I'm thinking, 'I look cool,' " said the son of a tiny-town grocery store owner and a dressmaker.

There, for Bolt to admire, was his own streaking image, devouring yards while other men ran in mere feet. Now he knew just what he had looked like two hours before to millions of stupefied viewers who had fantasized that he might break one of sport's more remote records, but never seriously expected that this 6-foot-5 kid could do it.

"That guy's fast," Bolt said, breaking up. Is he fully aware that no other sprinter has looked remotely like him, with gigantic strides and ridiculous hang time between each pace?