Anthony L. Hall - international lawyer and political consultant

The Jamaicans are becoming to Track and Field what the Chinese are to Ping Pong. Because not only are they dominating the sprints for Jamaica at these Olympic Games, but, like the Chinese, they are also providing the best results for other countries by competing under non-Jamaican flags, including the American flag.

(Incidentally, this trend gained farcical notoriety when quadrennial Olympic bridesmaid Merlene Ottey began competing for Slovenia in 2002.)

But one has to wonder if it’s a testament to their national training methods or the herbs they use to flavor their sports drinks that make these Jamaicans so incredibly fast….

Whatever the case, there’s no denying the extraordinary talent of Usain Bolt who struck Olympic gold twice. Of course, given the way he dominated and teased the field on the way to a new world record in the Men’s 100m, his victory in the 200m was never in doubt. The only question was whether, instead of his now trademark showboating, he would stay focused long enough to break American Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old world record of 19.32 seconds.

Indeed, perhaps it was just wishful thinking but Johnson, in his capacity as an analyst for the BBC, previewed the race by observing that, although he had the natural ability, Bolt lacked the mental focus to break this record.

Well, so much for Johnson’s expert analysis; because Bolt crossed the finish line in 19.30 seconds - with the largest margin of victory in Olympic history.

You’re back there giving it everything you’ve got -- it’s brutal. He’s doing it and making it look so simple. Michael Johnson did it, and it didn’t look that easy.
[Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis who finished sixth]

Now that he has become the first sprinter since Carl Lewis in 1984 to complete the elusive double of winning gold in the 100 and 200 at one Olympics, Bolt comes as close as any athlete will to challenging American Michael Phelps as the star of the Beijing Games.

No doubt, for Jamaicans, Bolt has already soared way above Phelps. But this swimming phenom gets my vote for becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time by winning eight gold medals (seven of them in world-record time).

Then, of course, there are the sports commentators, including NBC’s Ato Bolden of Trinidad and Tobago, who immediately proclaimed Bolt’s performance the “best in Olympic history”. But I disagree. Because I believe that honour goes to Florence Griffith-Joyner who set world records in the Women’s 100m and 200m at the 1988 Seoul Games that have yet to be broken. And, in both cases, she won by even greater margins than Bolt did in his races.

Nevertheless, Bolt is merely the most striking personification of Jamaican prominence and dominance at these Games. And nothing demonstrated this fact quite like the way Jamaicans swept the Women’s 100m – with Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart winning gold, silver and bronze respectively; thereby shutting out the Americans for the first time in modern Olympic history.

Remarkably, this was the first time a Jamaican had won Olympic gold in the men’s or women’s 100m. And, given that none of these Jamaican women or Bolt is over 21, chances are very good that they will dominate the sprint events for years to come.

Then along came Melaine Walker winning in the 400m Hurdles; Shericka Williams snagging silver in the open 400m; and, not to be outdone, Veronica Campbell-Brown avenging recent losses to her young American nemesis, Alyson Felix, to win gold the Women’s 200m.

Now all that remains is for the Jamaicans to collect more gold in the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays to complete the first sweep of all sprint events at one Olympics since the Americans did it 20 years ago. And this seems even more assured after the Americans (on both relay teams) evidently decided that there was less shame in disqualifying themselves - by dropping the baton in the prelims - than there would be in coming across the finish line way behind the Jamaicans in the final.
But who would've thought this tiny island nation would outperform the mighty United States in the premier events of these Olympic Games…?

Congratulations Jamaica…you’ve made all Caribbean nations exceedingly proud!

NOTE: The quizzical thought about what makes them run so fast belies my true admiration for these Jamaican athletes. In fact, I sympathize with the fact that some of them complained about being tested for performance-enhancing drugs so much that the loss of blood might affect their performance at these Games. So just imagine how much better they might have performed if their veins were not so sapped….

ENDNOTE: It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Chinese for doing such a first-rate job as hosts of these Olympic Games. And I imagine they’re bursting with pride to have won more gold medals than any other country (nearly doubling the haul taken by the once-dominant Americans). Never mind the underage Chinese girls who captured so many of them in women’s gymnastics….

Yet their national disappointment was palpable when Liu Xiang, China’s only hope for a gold medal in Track and Field, pulled up lame in his first qualifying race of the Men’s 110 Hurdles. After all, Xiang’s gold medal in this race was to have been the crowning achievement of these Olympics Games for over 1.3 billion Chinese.

But, in the American spirit cited above, I suspect Xiang decided it was better to claim injury, which might inspire sympathy, than to lose this race, which would incite national shame. Frankly, the fact that Dayron Robles of Cuba recently broke Xiang’s world record in this event might have inspired his dramatic passion play on this world stage….

To be fair, however, reports are that Xiang suffered a torn Achilles tendon several months ago. Yet, given the national interest vested in his performance, one wonders why China's best doctors - renowned for practicing traditional Chinese medicine like acupuncture - did not ensure that he was fully rehabilitated for this big occasion

At any rate, leave it to Xiang's American sponsor, Nike, to help the Chinese people put his failure into perspective and preserve his marketability:

Love sport even when it breaks your heart.