The Sincerest Form of Flattery

It's not unprecedented for a single track and field athlete to have an enormous impact on how other athletes train or compete. For example, after the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki where Emil Zatopek won the 5000, 10000, and marathon, many distance runners concluded that they had to emulate Zatopek's training methods, in particular, his heavy reliance on interval workouts.

When three New Zealand athletes from a single neighborhood won two golds and a bronze medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960, many people wanted to know how they achieved such dramatic success. The interest in the methods of their coach, Arthur Lydiard, sparked a surge of interest in high mileage training, even for middle distance runners.

There's no question that Usain Bolt is the iconic figure of the Beijing Olympics and Berlin World Championships. But instead of emulating his training (is there anything special about his training?), athletes are beginning to emulate his mannerisms, in particular his goofiness.

It was amazing to me to watch the 100m final at the World Championships and see the normally tense Asafa Powell fooling around, mugging for the cameras, and generally trying to act like his younger countryman. Powell won the bronze medal behind Bolt and Tyson Gay. Hey, maybe there's something to this "keeping loose"...

And it wasn't just in the sprints. Didn't it seem that a kind of giddiness was sweeping over all the athletes? Every time the cameras focused on the athletes during introductions, they seemed to be competing with each other to see who could seem most relaxed. After the races, we got to see dances (Sanya Richards' "Dallas boogie" comes to mind) and other antics, and for once it wasn't just the Americans mugging for the cameras.

Mark my words, you'll start seeing Bolt-like mannerisms creeping into high school meets before too long, at least until the officials make up their minds to put a stop to it.