Bolt shines on the track in 2008

LONDON — Usain Bolt let those long legs loose at the Bird's Nest, and he left Beijing with three Olympic gold medals, three world records and hundreds of millions of new fans around the world. Virtually unknown at the start of the year, the Jamaican sprinter was the star of the track in 2008, first setting a world record in the 100 meters at the end of May and then lowering the mark to 9.69 seconds at the Olympics. A few days later, he set a 200 record of 19.30, taking two hundredths of a second off the mark set by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Atlanta Games. To cap it off, the 1.96-meter (6-foot-5) Bolt helped Jamaica win gold in the 4x100 relay — again in world-record time. "I'm Lightning Bolt. I'm not Flash Gordon or anybody," Bolt said after the 200. "My name is Lightning Bolt." Two of the greatest distance runners of all time also had stellar years, with Kenenisa Bekele winning both the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Olympics. In the longer race, the Ethiopian great beat 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000 champion Haile Gebrselassie, who only competed in that event after opting out of the marathon because of pollution fears. But Gebrselassie's sixth-place finish in Beijing didn't stop him from breaking his own world record in the marathon, lowering that mark to 2:03:59 in Berlin in September. "I knew I can do something here in Berlin because since I started running, Berlin is my lucky city," said Gebrselassie, a three-time Berlin Marathon champion who had set the previous world record at the race in 2007. In women's competition, Yelena Isinbayeva was undefeated outdoors in 2008, defending her Olympic pole vault title in Beijing with one of her four world records this year — three outside and one inside. "I love to be alone at the top," Isinbayeva said after raising the outdoor world record to 5.05 meters in Beijing. Tirunesh Dibaba emulated Bekele on the track, completing an Olympic long-distance double by winning both the 5,000 and 10,000, and Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo won the women's 800 in Beijing and collected the $1 million Golden League jackpot by winning her event at all six participating meetings. Paula Radcliffe, the marathon world-record holder, had another disappointing Olympics, finishing only 23rd four years after dropping out of the 42.2-kilometer (26.2-mile) race at the 2004 Athens Games. But the season wasn't ruined for the British runner, who came back to competitive running in 2007 after giving birth to her daughter and won her third New York Marathon title this year. "It does make it frustrating because you think, 'Why can I get it right all the time in New York and I can't get it right there?'" Radcliffe said of the Olympics. "But sometimes you have to take what life gives you." Doping again had an effect in 2008, with seven Russian women getting busted only a week before the Beijing Games for tampering with their urine samples. Marion Jones, who gave back her five medals from the Sydney Olympics after finally admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, served six months in jail for lying about her steroid use. Four track-and-field athletes were disqualified for doping at the Beijing Games, including Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska, who was stripped of her silver medal in the heptathlon. But none of that overshadowed the towering Bolt, who totally eclipsed Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell in 2008. Although Powell had lowered his own 100 record to 9.74 in 2007, he again failed to shine at the big event, finishing fifth in the short sprint in Beijing. But together, Bolt and Powell formed a formidable team. Running along with Nesta Carter and Michael Frater in the 4x100, Jamaica set a world record of 37.10 to complete a sweep of the three sprint events, leaving the United States without a gold in the fast events that Americans have dominated since the first modern Olympics in 1896. Bolt's records didn't come without criticism, however, and it was International Olympic Committee president Jacque Rogge leading the way after the Jamaican's showboating. Bolt slowed over the final meters of the 100, looking around and even banging his fist off his chest, leaving fans to wonder just how fast he could have gone. Before the start of the 200, Bolt did a small dance as his name was announced over the public address system. "That's not the way we perceive being a champion," said Rogge, who also made sure to laud Bolt's running achievements. "I have no problem with him doing a show. I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 meters." Bolt said he wouldn't change his character. "I don't see any problem with it, because people enjoy watching me," Bolt said. "I'll stay the way I am — that's my personality." Bolt's incredible running made him only the fourth man — and first since Carl Lewis in 1984 — to win all three Olympic sprint events. "I have a motto that anything is possible," Bolt said after winning the IAAF's athlete of the year award in November. To prove that, Bolt is already considering an attempt at Johnson's 9-year-old 400-meter record, which stands at 43.18. "The training for 400 meters is so much harder," Bolt said, "but I'm thinking about it." – AP