Writes Matthew Dailey: “As Michael Phelps finished capturing his 8th Olympic gold medal of these Beijing Games, another significant athletic accomplishment unfolded. While Phelps certainly deserves recognition for his remarkable accomplishments in Beijing’s ‘Watercube,’ Usain Bolt out of Jamaica has been sidelined amidst NBC’s nationalistic hysteria over Phelps.
“On Saturday night in Beijing, Bolt won the 100m dash in spectacular fashion. Pounding his chest before he even crossed the finish line, Bolt shattered his own world record. The icing on the cake: photos taken immediately after Bolt’s finish show his laces had become untied during the race!
“Compared to the overabundance of swimming events to which medals are awarded, events on the track are much less decorated. This leads one to wonder… If they had a 100M sprint, skip, jog, and hop, and a 200M sprint, skip, jog, and hop, perhaps Phelps’s record would not seem so untouchable and Jamaica’s Usain Bolt would cast some shadow upon NBC’s hysterical nationalism.”
8:46 am on August 17, 2008
