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Help us Usain Bolt. You're our only hope.
The 26-year-old sprinter added yet another gold medal to his collection after he won in the 100 meters with a time of 9.77. It was far from the best Bolt has ever run. On a wet track with a lackluster field, it was more enough to give Bolt the win.
Try claiming the win wasn't significant to the church that felt Bolt's race was more important that its service (h/t Bolt's Instagram account).
Part of the reason the competition was lacking is one of the biggest problems plaguing the sport. Track and field, much like cycling, is racked with doping scandals. Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell had to miss the 2013 World Championships after testing positive for banned substances.
The silver medalist, Justin Gatlin, was suspended from 2006-2010.
It's a black cloud that hangs over sprinting.
Regardless, even the off-track issues couldn't cloud what was another dominant performance from Bolt. When he's up to it, the Jamaican star is the fastest man on the planet. He can only out-run the guys in front of him, and that's exactly what happened in Moscow.
You can't fault a runner for doing exactly what is expected of him.
What is even more astounding about Bolt is his longevity.
Most sprinters have a two- or three-year window where they're the fastest person in the world. Then it's time for somebody else to step up and carry the crown.
One of the worst things that doping has done to many sports is give fans that permanent skepticism.
Any time an athlete does something incredible, especially in track and cycling, there are plenty of critics who will immediately believe that athlete is doping.
It's not even a guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude.
That would imply that at some point the performance-enhancing drug speculation would stop. It's more a "You're guilty and it's only a matter of time before you're found guilty" type of attitude.
People forget that some superstar athletes are just different.
They have the kind of combination of God-given talent and training that makes them head-and-shoulders above than the competition. When you look at the history of any major sport, there were those transcendent athletes who hit more home runs, ran faster and scored more points—just did everything better than the players around them.
Bolt is one of those athletes.
He's wired differently than any other sprinter. His victory in Moscow continued to demonstrate that.
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