Pure Domination…

Usain Bolt: The most dominant athlete in the world?

Despite relatively brief resume, sprinter boldly enters conversation

By Matt Stroup | Posted: May 26, 8:38a ET | Updated: May 27, 5:38a ET

When it comes to Olympic gold medals, Michael Phelps has him beat, 14-3.

Expand it to include world titles, and the tally jumps to 31-6 in favor of Phelps.

Elsewhere, Roger Federer holds 16 Grand Slam victories, a number that also notably out-stacks his collection of major titles.

Putting aside any inherent flaws in comparing swimming and tennis resumes with one from track and field – and it admittedly isn’t a perfect comparison – it’s still safe to say that Usain Bolt’s career accomplishments do not measure up to Phelps and Federer, two striking benchmarks for achievement in individual sports.

But make no mistake, in the here and now – at this precise moment – and in terms of pure individual dominance, Usain Bolt is as formidable an entity as exists in the world of sports.

With Bolt in the midst of a dizzying nine-day 100m/200m/300m triple and chasing the 300m world record in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on Thursday, here’s a closer look at his competitive credentials:

In the 100m (which he has only run in earnest as a pro since 2008), Bolt is already the Olympic champion, world champion and world record-holder, having set the world record three times in just over a year between May 2008 and Aug. 2009. The last of those, as you may have seen, was a staggering 9.58 at the 2009 Worlds in Berlin.

The scary thing: That’s the weaker of his two individual events. At his longtime signature distance – the 200m – Bolt is also the reigning Olympic champion, world champion and world record-holder, but that’s just the beginning of it.

In 2008, he had the five fastest times in the world, including a 19.30 in Beijing to break what had long been thought the unbreakable track and field world record – Michael Johnson’s sublime 19.32 from the 1996 Atlanta Games. (For frame of reference, prior to Bolt’s world record, no one had come closer than Tyson Gay’s 19.62 in 2007.)

Then, in 2009, Bolt took an unthinkable world record and made it absurd. En route to etching four of the year’s five fastest times, Bolt threw down a clock-bending 19.19 at the World Championships in Berlin.

If you’re keeping track (and frankly, it’s difficult not to), that gives Bolt nine of the 10 fastest 200m times over the last two full seasons, and it gives him a place atop a striking leaderboard in that event. Here are the top-10 200m times in history (as of May 2010):

19.19 – Usain Bolt, Aug. 2009
19.30 – Usain Bolt, Aug. 2008
19.32 – Michael Johnson, Aug. 1996
19.56 – Usain Bolt, May 2010
19.57 – Usain Bolt, Sept. 2009
19.58 – Tyson Gay, May 2009
19.59 – Usain Bolt, July 2009
19.62 – Tyson Gay, June 2007
19.63 – Xavier Carter, July 2006
19.63 – Usain Bolt, Sept. 2008

Other than Johnson and an early peak from a now irrelevant Carter, the only person to step into the top-10 all-time is Gay, a terrific sprinter who lately hasn’t been so much a rival as he has been a flashing light to remind Bolt to keep moving swiftly.

As NBC analyst Ato Boldon said after Bolt’s 100m title in Beijing, “They have now gone into the realm of video game times.” And that’s essentially what Bolt has done – he has turned the art of sprinting into an arcade game, the equivalent of Contra with the 30-man trick (a reference that incidentally would have flown well during Johnson’s heyday).

So where does Bolt rank among the best in individual sports? On one fundamental level, it remains too soon to answer. Unlike Phelps (who won his first world title in 2001 and has competed at eight major championships in total) and Federer (who’s 28 and had played 42 Grand Slams entering 2010), Bolt is 23, having only appeared at five major championships, and just two (the Beijing Games and Berlin Worlds) since he truly became a force.

Again, it’s not 100 percent logical to compare Bolt to Phelps and Federer. Not only are there different competitive landscapes (Phelps competes in more events and Federer has more major tournaments on his annual calendar), but they’re also at different junctures of their respective careers.

And that’s just the point. Though it may seem like he’s been around for ages, the Bolt phenomenon is just now beginning. How far it could ascend in the years to come is truly a mesmerizing prospect to ponder.

Compliments of www.univerisalsports.com

Go Get’Em!!!