AFP
Rio de Janeiro, August 21: Twin titans Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps have mined a trove of Olympic golds, changed the sporting landscape but have left a huge hole that starts in here and goes around the world.
IOC 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 or the charisma to take the place of Phelps and Bolt – who have 32 gold medals between them.
‘The Greatest’ maybe just 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 told reporters here Saturday.
From Beijing in 2008 through London 2012 and, finally, in Rio, Bolt and Phelps captivated die-hard fans of their sports and casual spectators attracted like moths to the Olympic flame.
Although a burned-out Phelps flirted with retirement after London, it was fitting that his decision to return for one last, fifth, campaign, saw him bow out at the same time as Bolt. The Jamaican’s unprecedented third sweep of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m means debate will rage loud and long as to which can claim the status of ‘greatest Olympian’.
Phelps leads the medals table against Bolt by more than a mile. His five golds here took his already stunning tally to 23 golds among a total of 28.
Bolt, meanwhile, has dominated in the tests of speed that are the quintessential sporting contests, maintaining his supremacy over an unprecedented span of years.
“It’s a massive gap, but it’s not a gap that is insuperable,” IAAF president Sebastian Coe said of Bolt’s departure. When Muhammad Ali left Well, Floyd Mayweather, Marvin Hagler, Manny Pacquiao and Sugar Ray Leonard come along. Boxing retained its glory.”
