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The next wave of world-class talent is emerging at the Tokyo Olympics
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
You could sense it was coming, that something spectacular was about to go down. Back in 2008, camera phones weren’t fully established as a thing yet, and I wasn’t cool enough to have one, so I stood in the press box at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium with a regular handheld at the ready.
Right when the gun sounded, Usain Bolt took off like a cheetah, scorching down the track, eviscerating a world-class field and pounding his chest as he crossed the line in a world-record time of 9.69 that heralded a new champion and a fresh superstar.
Ever since then, I have always wondered about "the guy."
Looking back later at my camera footage, I noticed the strangest thing. The moment before Bolt’s race began, the eyes of the globe upon it, an Olympic volunteer stood up, turned around from his seat a few rows ahead of me with a calm smile and headed up the stairwell, his back to the historic action taking place on the track.
Did he not realize what was happening? Was he not interested? Did he have somewhere to be, and if so, could it not have waited for slightly less than 10 seconds? I never did find out.
Anyway, that was the start of Bolt’s Olympic legacy, and my reason for thinking back to it is that this past weekend marked the first Games track program since the end of the Jamaican’s glittering career. After Beijing, of course, Bolt went on to win golds in London and Rio, dominating the 100, the 200 and the 4x100 relay.
His departure left a giant hole and sparked a significant change. On each night of track in which he participated, Bolt was the star of the show. The crowd would yell as one every time his face appeared on the big screen. Smart souls at Rio in 2016 would venture to a small balcony behind the stands, where you could watch him go through his majestic paces on the warm-up track in peace and silence, a stark contrast to what would come later.
When a sports legend moves on, it creates a void, and we are seeing that in Tokyo. Bolt is gone from the track program, Michael Phelps retired from swimming post-Rio, and the Olympic beach volleyball tournament is taking place without Kerri Walsh-Jennings for the first time since 1996.
Each was so good that they dominated every part of every storyline. The competition they were in was seen through a prism of their world.
Would Bolt claim another gold … or could someone unexpectedly topple him? Would Phelps add yet more gold to his extraordinary collection, or would someone take on and tackle the maestro? Would Walsh-Jennings complete Olympic perfection, or would a rival team find the antidote to her sparkling skill set, alongside first Misty-May Treanor and then April Ross?
It is not like that now, and it has opened the door in a fascinating and refreshing way. Sports loves its big stars, those willing to wear the burden of their own greatness, prepared to shoulder the reality that they’re who everyone wants to beat, every time.
"It’s someone else’s turn," Bolt said when he exited stage right in 2016. "Good luck."
On the track this year, no one was about to jump into the Bolt position of being the undisputed alpha male, king of all he surveyed. But in swimming, Caeleb Dressel has made some moves to replicate the star power of Phelps, albeit not quite on the same extraordinary level.
Dressel grabbed five gold medals from six events to shine in the pool but admitted to being uncomfortable in the spotlight, a challenge Phelps had to manage for nearly two decades on his way to a ludicrous haul of 23 golds and 28 overall medals.
"Some parts were extremely enjoyable," Dressel told reporters. "I would say the majority of them were not. You can’t sleep right. You can’t nap, shaking all the time."
On the beach, Walsh-Jennings was defeated only once in 28 Olympic matches, as she clinched bronze alongside Ross in Rio to follow three straight golds in 2004, 2008 and 2012.
Her absence this time – now 42, she and partner Brooke Sweat did not qualify for Tokyo – has led to an open field primed for new stars to step in. Rio champion Laura Ludwig of Germany is bidding to repeat with current partner Maggie Kozuch, while Ross and Alix Klineman are hungrily seeking to top the podium, with those pairs due to meet Monday in a mouth-watering quarterfinal. The winners will be red-hot favorites for gold and will be afforded the opportunity to become the figureheads of the sport.
Sometimes, however, the successor to a champion comes in an unexpected way. No one could ever match Bolt in terms of personality and charisma, so what better than for his title to be assumed by an unknown with a wonderfully poignant story?
Lamont Marcell Jacobs wasn’t expected to do much even in the semifinals of the 100. Representing Italy – he was born in Texas to an American father and Italian mother but has spent virtually his whole life in Europe – he wasn’t particularly well known among the other competitors in the field.
Yet Jacobs, a former long jumper who fully dedicated himself to sprinting only in the past couple of years, had an inner peace to keep him calm when the nerves were jangling in all others.
A year ago, he reconnected with his father, whom he had no prior recollection of. His dad, an American serviceman, had been posted to South Korea when Jacobs was young, at which point his parents split and his mother returned with her son to Italy.
On the advice of a performance coach, Jacobs tracked down his father and established a connection that has led to regular contact. "It was my missing piece," he said.
After American Trayvon Bromell was surprisingly eliminated in the semis, Jacobs was flawless in the final, thundering to a personal best of 9.80 for one of the most surprising track golds of all time.
It is possible that Jacobs now becomes a beacon for sprint races. More likely, perhaps, is that this was a beautiful, wondrous one-off. The chance for glory beckoned, and he was the one to grasp it on a glorious night when everything went right.
"It is a dream," he said. "A dream."
It is a dream that came true because he produced the race of his life when it mattered. When everyone was watching, hundreds of millions on television, Bolt from his home in Jamaica, Jacobs’ dad during the Texas night and maybe, this time, a former volunteer from Beijing.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
