by Hagana Kim

Created on: January 02, 2009

Usain Bolt finished miles ahead of the competition in a sport that only stretched a hundred meters. What is usually an intense ten-second competition was over after five, and no one will forget the image of Usain Bolt slowing down to celebrate, long before the finish line. This was a particularly compelling statement, considering that the 100m dash was only his second best event.

Comparing athletes from different sports is always somewhat subjective, but one way to do it is to look at the gap between the top athlete in a sport, and his closest competitors.

By this standard, Usain Bolt was by far the best athlete of 2008. In the 200m dash, Bolt ran so much faster than everyone else that he literally cropped them out of the picture, leaving both viewers and commentators clueless as to who had finished second and third.

I would be remiss in my assessment if I didn't mention Michael Phelps's eight gold medals, which many consider an equal or greater accomplishment. And while I favor Bolt's quality of wins over Phelps' quantity of wins, I certainly won't say that Phelps wasn't the Best Athlete of the year. But I have to admit I've always been confused by the breakdown of swimming events. Why are there different strokes in the first place? Shouldn't the competition be to swim as fast as possible? Then, there are the medleys and relays shuffling around almost every possible combination of those strokes. I don't mean to diminish Phelps's accomplishments, but the number of medals he won shouldn't be the decisive factor in the debate.

I'm willing to bet that if there was a 100m backwards dash, a 100m sideways dash, and a 100m hop on one foot dash, Usain would win them all, along with the 200m individual medley, of the backwards dash and the sideways dash.

I'm being facetious about the variety of swimming events available, but I think that in choosing "Best Athlete," the actual sport of the athletes should play a tie-breaking role, especially when differentiating between two such superb candidates.

The 100m dash is one of the Summer Olympics' signature events, and the winner gets more than a gold medal; he is proclaimed the fastest man in the world. This event has always had special resonance with the public because of its visceral appeal. Most sports demand that an athlete combine their natural abilities with a highly specialized skill, strategic knowledge, mental fortitude, and in many cases, teamwork. But the 100m dash minimizes those sporting factors, demanding only one thing; to dash to the finish line as fast as possible. The event, by its nature, rewards the fastest, most explosive athlete in the world, and Usain Bolt was the fastest the event had ever seen.

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