BEIJING -- Clearly, Lightning can strike twice.
Usain "Lightning" Bolt won his second Olympic gold medal in his second world-record time. He won the 100 meters Saturday while goofing around. He won the 200 on Wednesday while running dead serious. He is a multipurpose, multievent, multimood ballistic missile.
For the first time since 1979, one man holds the world record in both events. He was a Jamaican then (Donald Quarrie), and he is a Jamaican now. A nation with an outsized sprinting heritage has found its biggest star yet.
"Everything came together tonight," Bolt said. "I just blew my mind. I blew the world's mind."
He certainly blew Michael Johnson's mind. Johnson had owned the 200 record until now: 19.32 seconds. He set it in 1996, making it the oldest sprint record in the books.
Bolt already owned the 100 record, which is why he commenced showboating in the final meters of that race and lowered it by "only" three-hundredths of a second when he could have come close to hacking away a full second. He badly wanted a matching set of sprint marks.
"I saw I could get the world record in the 200, so I said, 'I'm going to leave everything on the track,'" Bolt said. Then he went out and did it.
Usain Bolt Wins 200
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