Olympics search for new heroes
BOLT AND PHELPS LEAVE BIG VOIDS TO FILL Track icon and swimming legend reaped all of 32 gold medals combined at the Games.
Twin titans Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps have mined a trove of Olympic gold, changed the sporting landscape and left a huge hole that starts in Rio and goes around the world.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach hailed the two superstars as “icons”. But he will leave the 31st Olympic Games wondering how to fill their places.
There is no one in sight with the sporting power nor the charisma to take the place of Phelps and Bolt – who have 32 gold medals between them – in the swimming pool or on the running track.
“The Greatest” may just be Muhammad Ali-style hyperbole that Bolt likes to throw about, but his nine golds over three Olympics cannot be countered.
Phelps won five golds in Rio at the age of 31 having retired once and come back – and crashed a car under the influence along the way.
“We have seen athletes who were icons even before they arrived here, they have strengthened their position as icons, like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt,” Bach said at the weekend.
From Beijing in 2008 through London 2012 and, finally, in Rio, Bolt and Phelps captivated diehard fans of their sports and casual spectators attracted like moths to the Olympic flame.
Both presaged their mature exploits with precocious Olympic debuts, Phelps as a 15-year-old contesting the 200m butterfly in 2000, and Bolt, at 17, finishing fifth in his heat in the 200m in 2004.
“I’ll have to make a new bucket list now,” Bolt said. “I’ve achieved all I wanted to in track and field.”
Bolt has a wealth of riches to carry out his wishes. The Olympic hopes may not be answered by the time Tokyo 2020 starts. – AFP