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Relics, Uncle Ato and Seb Coe
published: Wednesday | August 27, 2008
The Editor, Sir:
We must be careful in our defence of Usain Bolt. I have heard many people saying that the Americans have done it in the past, and even that black people are exuberant; this is how we celebrate. This is misleading.
The most memorable "I-am-number-one!" gesture ever made was not by any black American. It came from a white Briton, Sebastian Coe, (now an IOC member). After he had decimated the 1500 field in Los Angeles (1984), Seb Coe broadly and insistently declared it, both index fingers raised to the crowd and then specifically to the (British) press who had predicted that he would not even medal. He, incidentally, did not first tap on their shoulders, his British colleagues whom he had beaten.
Usually don't
On another note, I heard Juliet Cuthbert say on TV, "Gail Devers never congratulated me!" when Devers beat her in the Olympic 100 metres. She is correct, but, as I am sure she would agree, winners usually don't. What you expect of them is to accept it graciously when those who have been beaten congratulate them.
And this is where the magic of Usain Bolt comes into focus. The dinosauric members of IOC (and Uncle Ato) would see Bolt's celebration as disrespectful to his competitors. But listen to what his competitors, people like Shawn Crawford and Tyson Gay, say about him! It is all positive. Listen to Asafa Powell spring to his defence! But most of all, recall the image of Bolt, having shattered the 200-metre world record, being lifted high, in congratulatory celebration by, yes, Wallace Spearmon, his American rival, whom he had just defeated.
This is track and field in the 21st century. It is the era of Bolt and Spearmon and Shelley-Ann Fraser (who, try as she may, couldn't stop herself grinning all through the playing of the Jamaican national anthem - and so endearing herself to us by this expression of unbridled, youthful joy).
I love football and find cricket the most magnificent team sport. But there can be nothing like modern track and field.
I am, etc.,
KEITH NOEL
Kingston 8
published: Wednesday | August 27, 2008
The Editor, Sir:
We must be careful in our defence of Usain Bolt. I have heard many people saying that the Americans have done it in the past, and even that black people are exuberant; this is how we celebrate. This is misleading.
The most memorable "I-am-number-one!" gesture ever made was not by any black American. It came from a white Briton, Sebastian Coe, (now an IOC member). After he had decimated the 1500 field in Los Angeles (1984), Seb Coe broadly and insistently declared it, both index fingers raised to the crowd and then specifically to the (British) press who had predicted that he would not even medal. He, incidentally, did not first tap on their shoulders, his British colleagues whom he had beaten.
Usually don't
On another note, I heard Juliet Cuthbert say on TV, "Gail Devers never congratulated me!" when Devers beat her in the Olympic 100 metres. She is correct, but, as I am sure she would agree, winners usually don't. What you expect of them is to accept it graciously when those who have been beaten congratulate them.
And this is where the magic of Usain Bolt comes into focus. The dinosauric members of IOC (and Uncle Ato) would see Bolt's celebration as disrespectful to his competitors. But listen to what his competitors, people like Shawn Crawford and Tyson Gay, say about him! It is all positive. Listen to Asafa Powell spring to his defence! But most of all, recall the image of Bolt, having shattered the 200-metre world record, being lifted high, in congratulatory celebration by, yes, Wallace Spearmon, his American rival, whom he had just defeated.
This is track and field in the 21st century. It is the era of Bolt and Spearmon and Shelley-Ann Fraser (who, try as she may, couldn't stop herself grinning all through the playing of the Jamaican national anthem - and so endearing herself to us by this expression of unbridled, youthful joy).
I love football and find cricket the most magnificent team sport. But there can be nothing like modern track and field.
I am, etc.,
KEITH NOEL
Kingston 8
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