BEIJING -- One flew through the Bird's Nest.
Usain Bolt is his name. Track and field is his game. He comes from Jamaica, man. He runs like lightning. The wind can't catch him. No man can, either, man.
Oh, what a show. Oh, what a showoff too. How fast can a guy go? This is not the question to ask the U-Bolt. The question is this: How fast could U have gone if U hadn't hit the brakes? If U hadn't slowed down? If U hadn't clowned around?
"Nine-point-six-two?" guessed Michael Frater, Bolt's fellow Jamaican who finished sixth.
"It could have been 9.54," said Trinidad's Marc Burns, who ran seventh.
Patton was eighth.
He ran a 10.03 and got smoked.
Jesse Owens ran slower in Berlin and won. A 10.03 would have been good for a gold medal at Rome in 1960 or at Munich in 1972. In this race, it put Patton dead last.
A 30-year-old American, oldest dog in this hunt, Patton has seen a few times in his time. But none like this.
"He's a freak of nature, that's all I can say," he repeated. "Have you ever seen anything like that before? Did you ever think you'd see anything like that?
"Freak of nature. You guys come up with a better word and I'll use it, I promise."
Us guys have seen a few things ourselves.
Ben Johnson, for one. Those of us who were in South Korea on that day 20 years ago when the Jamaica-born Canadian looked up and saw "9.79" on the clock doubted we would ever again see a human run that fast.
We found out
why he ran that fast when Johnson's drug test came back. It proved him to be a cheater rather than a cheetah. A lowdown, no good stinkin' skunk.
Chemical warfare, that's all that was.
But we also got to see Carl Lewis win lean and clean. We got to see Donovan Bailey wave the Maple Leaf and erase Johnson's disgrace with an Olympic-record 9.84.
A couple months ago, a sweet guy by the name of Tyson Gay put a mind-boggling 9.68 on the board. He had wings beneath his feet but a too-strong wind at his back. So his record didn't count.
Gay came to Beijing hoping that lightning would strike twice.
Instead, he got hit by a Bolt.
A sore hamstring handicapped Gay. He tried to run with it anyway, but he couldn't get beyond a semifinal heat.
"I just didn't have nothin' in me today," Gay said. "I'm pretty upset."
He needn't be. Each semi went so fast, they eliminated from the finals the 2007 world champion (Gay), the '07 world runner-up (Derrick Atkins), the 2004 Olympic silver medalist (Francis Obikwelu) and the 2003 world champion (Kim Collins).
These feet were fleet.
In the dash for the gold, though, Bolt was way ahead of the field. Ridiculously so. He won this race by the kind of margin that reminded you of Secretariat in a Belmont.
And he won it with style.
What a character. Bolt came out to the track kissing his fingertips. He got to the starting blocks and clapped with stiff and extended arms, like a seal. Then he struck an archer's pose and pretended to shoot an arrow toward the moon.
He did all kinds of crazy hand jive, gestures we can't even describe. It felt like watching a third-base coach at a baseball game.
Walter Dix stood two lanes over, wearing a pair of shades for a race that went off at 10:30 at night. He was the best American hope in this race. But even with the sunglasses, he could see there was trouble afoot.
"The first 40 meters, I ran like I'd been coached," Dix said. "Then I looked over and saw Bolt was gone."
He and everybody else in the Bird's Nest also saw Bolt look around, a few steps shy of the finish line, see no one else close, slap his chest and spread his arms.
He decelerated and still ran a 9.69. Good heavens. 
Usain Bolt of Jamaica, arms at side as he begins to celebrate, nears the finish line in the 100 meters Saturday in Beijing, where he won the gold medal in a world record of 9.69 seconds. 
The rest of the field gets a good view of Usain Bolt crossing the finish line in winning the men's 100 meter in a world record of 9.69 seconds on Saturday in Beijing.
How good is he?
"Like a world record holder, that's how good he is," Dix could not deny.
Bolt ended his run and went into his strut.
He waded into the crowd. He took off his gold shoes and kissed them. He took a cock-of-the-walk stroll around the track, barefoot, flapping his arms like wings, then posing like Superman with his hands on his hips.
"I'd have done the same thing," Patton said. "He just broke the world record on the big stage. I'd have done a backflip. I'd have scored a perfect 10.
"It's the Olympics, man. He deserves the attention. He's the talk of the town. He's the talk of the world."
And the fastest man in it.
<table width="580" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td align="center">
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td style="padding-top: 8px;" align="center"> Chart: 100 meter Usain Bolt
</td> </tr></tbody></table>
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Source: Los Angeles Times, August 17, 2008 
