Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 8-16-16 Online Edition

Sports
Usain Bolt Is Still The World’s Fastest Man
Simone Manuel's Historic
As befit the king of sprint- ing and the biggest global star at the Rio Olympics, Usain Bolt of Jamaica pre- pared theatrically on Sunday night for the 9.81 seconds that it would take to insure another coronation.
He struck his familiar pose, called To Di World, leaning back, cocking an elbow and pointing his index fingers skyward as if launch- ing an arrow or a bolt of lightning.
He crossed the line first, pounding his chest with his fist twice and securing his place as the greatest sprinter of all time. Justin Gatlin of the United States was second in 9.89, and Andre de Grasse of Canada was third in 9.91. Bolt celebrated after his win while carrying a plush Vinicius, the Games mascot.
Bolt became the only sprinter, man or woman, to win the 100 three times. He is also favored for a third straight gold medal at 200 meters and as the most vital member of Jamaica’s 4x100- meter relay team.
Olympic Gold Was A Moment
saved the beleaguered sport of track and field from an ex- tremely awkward moment – handing another gold medal to Gatlin, who served a four- year suspension for doping from 2006 to 2010, after the entire Russian track team had been banned from the Rio Games for state-spon- sored use of performance en- hancing drugs.
Sunday’s victory carried both a sense of celebration and farewell for Bolt, who will turn 30 next Sunday as the Rio Olympics end. He has said repeatedly that these will be his final Games.
year after the world track and field championships in London, with one transcen- dent career goal remaining: to take his world record of 19.19 seconds at 200 meters below the 19-second barrier.
When Bolt crossed the line on Sunday, it was not with the same astonishment as that night eight years ago at the Beijing Games, when he was new to the public and the 100 and he finished in 9.69 seconds, easing up and celebrating before the tape but still shattering the world record. How fast he could have run that night, we will never know.
In victory, Bolt also
Ryan Lochte Among 4 Robbed In Rio;
He plans to retire next
USAIN BOLT
The look on Simone Manuel’s face as she glanced back at the screen and realized she had won gold in the 100m freestyle will go down in Olympic history.
Not only did she set an Olympic record time, but the 20-year old Texan also be- came the first African Ameri- can woman to win individual Olympic gold in swimming.
It was a tight race, and Manuel, 20, was not sup- posed to win. The Australian sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, the latter holding the world record, began as firm favorites. But after trail- ing on the turn, Manuel pow- ered through the final meters to tie with Canadian Penny Oleksiak for the gold.
It was a moment long in the making.
“I wouldn’t say last night surprised a lot of people,” Al- lison Beebe, who coached the Stanford student for seven years when she was a teenager, told the Guardian. “She’s an incredible athlete but it just pales in the compar- ison to the person she is.”
Manuel’s mother, Shar- ron, knew her daughter had a future in the sport when she was four years old. On her sec- ond day of swimming, she swam all the way across a 15m pool. She was hooked. She began competing in local recreational leagues in Sugar
SIMONE MANUEL
Land and Houston, Texas.
It took a few years before Manuel realized that there weren’t many other competi- tors who looked like her. One day she reportedly asked her mother to explain. They began
researching to find out why. “I think it was really help- ful for her, because it enlight- ened her that the reason a lot of blacks haven’t been in- volved in swimming was that in the past we didn’t have ac- cess to facilities,” Sharron Manuel told the Washington
Post last year.
A USA Swimming report
from 2010 found that 69% of black children can’t swim, compared with 42% of white children. The rate at which black children drown is also three times higher than that of white children. Access to pools, having parents who can swim, and looking up to swim- mers are all important factors in whether or not a child can swim, a 2008 survey by USA Swimming Foundation found.
Long In The Making
Says Gun Cocked, Put To Forehead
Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday by thieves posing as police officers who stopped their taxi and took their money and belongings, the U.S. Olympic Committee said.
In the latest security inci- dent to hit the Rio de Janeiro Games, Lochte told NBC that one of the robbers put a gun to his forehead before taking his wallet. No one was injured.
Lochte, in a statement posted on social media de- scribing the incident, also said he will aim to qualify for the Tokyo Games in 2020.
Lochte and his teammates were returning to the athletes village by taxi after a night out at the French Olympic team's hospitality house in the Rodrigo de Freitas area in the upscale south zone of the city. The outing was several hours after Olympic swim- ming ended Saturday night at the Rio Games.
"Their taxi was stopped by individuals posing as armed police officers who demanded the athletes' money and other personal belongings," USOC spokesman Patrick San- dusky said in a statement. "All four athletes are safe and cooperating with authorities."
Sandusky told The Asso- ciated Press the robbers took
Michael Phelps Ends Career
With 23rd Olympic Gold Medal
As U. S. Wins Medley Rela
cash and credit cards only, and that no Olympic medals were lost.
Traveling with Lochte were Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen. Lochte swam in two events at the Rio Games, winning gold in the 4x200- meter freestyle relay. He is a 12-time Olympic medalist.
"We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over," Lochte told NBC's "Today" show . "They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground -- they got down on the ground. I re- fused, I was like we didn't do anything wrong, so -- I'm not getting down on the ground.
"And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, 'Get down,' and I put my
hands up, I was like 'what- ever.' He took our money, he took my wallet -- he left my cellphone, he left my creden- tials."
USA Today and Fox Sports Australia first reported the news, citing Lochte's mother, Ileana Lochte.
Word of the robbery touched off a chain of confu- sion between Olympic and U.S. officials. An Interna- tional Olympic Committee spokesman said reports of the robbery were "absolutely not true," then reversed himself, apologized and said he was relying on initial information from the USOC that was wrong.
"I couldn't believe it,'' said Michael Phelps, a good friend of Lochte's and one of his roommates in the athletes village. Phelps spent the evening with his family and wasn't out with his team- mates.
MICHAEL PHELPS
Boomer Phelps is not old enough to remember what he’s witnessed here this week. He’ll have to listen to stories of his father’s leg- endary swimming. He’ll have to watch videos of the five gold medals and one silver he earned at these Olympics, at age 31, in front of skeptics who had believed even great- ness has its limits.
Three-month-old Boomer will eventually see the medals — all 23 shiny gold ones of 28 total — and understand. And, if he’s lucky, he’ll get to bring one to school.
“I’ll probably let him take
RYAN LOCHTE
one for show and tell,” said Michael Phelps after win- ning his 23rd and final gold medal as part of the U. S. men’s medley relay Saturday night. “I might have to go with him and take every step with him when he goes to share it. ...
“The other night when he was on FaceTime, he was cry- ing as soon as I called. I started moving the medal around, and his eyes just locked right on it. He’s al- ready eyeing them.”
Phelps chuckled. This is the life he is looking forward to, the time spent with his family, the moments he’ll spend raising his son. It’s the first time in five Olympics that he’s got something this meaningful on the horizon.
“This is special because I’m just able to start the next chapter of my life,” Phelps said. “I’m retiring, but I’m not done done with swimming. This is just the start of some- thing new.”
PAGE 14 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016