Who’s the most exciting athlete on the planet?
Hint: His last name rhymes with mine.
My friend told me he was in a bar the other night and saw a segment previewing the Usain Bolt-versus-Asafa Powell 100-meter race on ESPN’s pontificating talk show, “Pardon the Interruption” (PTI if you’re “with it”). Can anyone remember a time when any non-Olympic running event was featured on such a show? I certainly can’t.
This makes me wonder if Usain Bolt just might be the torch-courier for the sport of track and field in not only America, but the world. Bolt’s record-setting Olympic trifecta has effectively announced his arrival on the scene, not only as one fast man, but a marketable personality and surprisingly good dancer. During the Olympics, people tuned in faithfully to every one of Bolt’s races, eager to see just how badly he’d beat the competition and how much he’d celebrate afterwards. Michael Johnson was the last track and field athlete to elicit such a fever.
Now, this once-unknown youngster from a Carribbean island of under 3 million people is arguably the most exciting athlete in the world, having already ignited his track-happy nation and now exciting the world.