Jamaica Golden at Track

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Jamaica Golden at Track

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The United States track & field team has a rich history of sprint success at the Olympic Games. But you need to have a very short memory to succeed at Olympic betting. As far as men’s sprinting goes, it’s all about Jamaica now.

Usain Bolt, from the same Trelawny Parish section of Jamaica that produced Ben Johnson, is the new World’s Fastest Man. He won the 100-meter dash in a record 9.69 seconds, even while celebrating before the finish line (again, reminiscent of Johnson’s performance in 1988). Then Bolt doubled up by breaking Michael Johnson’s world record in the 200m, taking the gold with a time of 19.30 seconds – while running into a headwind, no less.

Bolt will get a chance at a third gold medal as part of the Jamaican men’s 4x100 meter relay team, which includes former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and 2003 Pan American Games champion Michael Frater. They finished fifth and sixth respectively in Beijing. All that speed has Jamaica pegged as a –400 favorite to win relay gold; Team USA is second at +250, with “Any Other Country” at a collective +700.

The U.S. won the gold in 15 of the 21 Olympics that featured the 100m relay. The team was disqualified on three occasions (passing the baton at full flight is not easy) and didn’t participate in 1980. That left the U.S. “undefeated” in a sense until 1996, when Donavan Bailey led Canada to victory in Atlanta. The Americans had to settle for silver again in Athens after a botched baton handoff allowed Great Britain to pull off the upset. The good times were over.

The general globalization of sports suggests the United States will never be that dominant again. However, the face of modern American athletics has a lot to do with what’s happening on the track. The fastest Americans are drawn to other, potentially more lucrative sports like football and baseball. Track still enjoys an international audience, but sponsorship dollars back home are not what they used to be – steroids being a primary cause.

Meanwhile, in Jamaica, sprinters like Bolt are still treated like kings. Track still holds a prominent place in their sports culture – giving Jamaican athletes who study and train at American universities less incentive to seek American citizenship. If the Olympic odds are any indication, Bolt’s legacy will grow that much bigger on Friday. The final is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. Eastern.