Bolt cruises to world record in 100-meters

BEIJING - Track and field needs a new hero.

It got one Saturday night who can fly.

In the most outrageous display of speed to ever burn across the Olympic Games, Usain Bolt of Jamaica rocketed to gold in winning the men's 100m dash in 9.69 seconds -- not only a new world record but the first time in the history of human beings a man has run the distance under 9.7 seconds without a significant tailwind.

Incredibly, Bolt, 21, could have gone faster.

With a full seven strides to go, he dropped his arms and let them fall outstretched to his sides, appearing almost to run sideways as he played to the sold-out crowd of 91,000 at the Bird's Nest. Just before the finish line, he started high-stepping and, for good measure, executed a chest-thump.

All that, and still — 9.69 seconds. Bolt simply ran away from the rest of the best of the world.

Basketball
The U.S. men's Olympic team is halfway back to the top of the basketball world.

And not even the world champions - on paper anyway - could give the Americans a game.

Unleashing a lethal 3-point barrage for the first time in Beijing, the Americans turned the marquee matchup of the preliminary round into another romp, beating Spain 119-82 Saturday night to clinch the top seed in their group.

LeBron James scored 18 points for the United States (4-0), which hit seven of its first 10 attempts from behind the arc after making only 29 percent in its first three games. They finished at 48 percent (12-of-25), an almost unfair total for a team with unmatched athleticism.

Every U.S. player scored - even Jason Kidd for the first time in Beijing - as the Americans turned the matchup of unbeatens into their easiest victory yet. Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony each finished with 16 points.

Manu Ginobili scored 32 and Luis Scola added 20, leading reigning Olympic champion Argentina past winless Iran 97-82, and Andrew Bogut had 22 and eight rebounds to help Australia past European champion Russia 95-80.

Mindaugas Lukauskis scored 20 points to keep Lithuania undefeated with an 86-73 victory against Croatia, and African champion Angola dropped to 0-4 with a 102-61 thrashing by Greece.

Swimming
Michael Phelps won the race and withstood the review, giving him joint custody of the record for most gold medals won at a single Olympics. Then he went off to rest up for his final swim, the butterfly leg of the 400-meter medley relay Sunday morning.

Considering the U.S. has never lost that race, his once-audacious quest to go 8-for-8 in Beijing is now practically a given.

Thus, let the debate begin over just how great he’s been.

Skip Olympic terms because he’s blown by that, and move into the realm of all sports. So, how does it compare to Lance Armstrong’s seven straight Tour de France wins? To Tiger Woods winning four straight major golf titles? To Roger Federer’s 4½-year reign in tennis?

Answers will vary. But the fact Phelps is in the conversation proves the bigger point, that his performance the last week has cemented a spot among the greatest athletes of the early 21st century.

“Epic,” said Mark Spitz, whose record of seven golds has held up since the 1972 Munich Olympics. “It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he’s maybe the greatest athlete of all time.”

The record-tying victory came in the 100-meter butterfly, and by the slimmest of margins: 0.01 second. An extra half-stroke at the end thrust him past Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, who was coasting the last few feet. The finish was too tight to be seen by the naked eye and too important for blind faith in the scoring equipment.

So the Serbian delegation filed a protest and swimming’s governing body had to review the tape down to the 10-thousandth of a second.

“There is no doubt the first arrival was Michael Phelps,” said Cornel Marculescu of Switzerland, the executive director of swimming’s international federation.

Olympics Michael Phelps' successful chase to a record eight gold medals Star breaks fellow American Mark Spitz's 36-year old Olympic record Day Event Result Saturday 400 individual medley Gold Sunday 400 free relay Gold Monday 200 free Gold Tuesday 200 butterfly Gold Tuesday 800 free relay Gold Thursday 200 individual medley Gold Friday 100 butterfly Gold Saturday 400 medley relay Gold

The other big event was the finals of the 100-meter dash Saturday night, featuring world record-holder Usain Bolt and the guy he took it from, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell. American record-holder Tyson Gay didn’t get out of the semifinals, his balky hamstring perhaps still bothering him. Walter Dix and Darvis Patton will represent the U.S. in the final instead.

“I did my best,” said Gay, who still has a chance for a medal in the relays. “I don’t have any excuses.”

Through 21 of Saturday’s finals, the United States was atop the medals table with 51. China was second with 45, but the hosts lead with 27 gold, more than the entire haul of any delegation except the Americans.

Sweden’s medal count dipped because the International Olympic Committee decided to strip two-time world champion Ara Abrahamian of his bronze for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony. Ya think? All he did was drop the medal on the mat after taking third in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division, still incensed over a penalty call that decided his semifinal loss to the eventual gold winner. The IOC executive board ruled Saturday his behavior was like a political demonstration and disrespectful to fellow athletes.

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