Bolt strikes, a giant is slain

Tim says:

10:23am | 17/08/09

Yes,
but Tiger played badly and still finished second.
And it took a few freaky shots from Yang (eagle at 14 was a beauty) to beat him.

JB says:

10:25am | 17/08/09

Woods for sure.
But on a broader scale, the era of American supremacy in sports is finally coming to an end. And at last it’s not the Russians (or Eastern Europe generally for that matter) trying to win the cold war through the olympics, or China trying to display a new global dominancy (Beijing?). It’s a Korean and a Jamaican. Hell yeah.
It’s a case of the Underdog strikes again..
Live it up Essendon (and Riewoldt) fans, the underdog doesn’t win often!

LM says:

10:47am | 17/08/09

oh my gosh. are you serious? that world record is for a sport which is part of the olympics and a true test of athleticism and pure ability. golf is not even in the same league of sports.

Tim says:

10:57am | 17/08/09

Yes LM,
100m is a true test of pure ability. ie, you are either born with it or not.
Golf is a test of skill, strength, smarts and composure.
I know which one is harder to become a champion in, do you?
and Golf will be part of Olympics in 2016.

Nathan says:

11:01am | 17/08/09

What Bolt did was freakish. Amazing show of what a human being can do. Tiger losing is nothing special. He is in my opinion overated. If Roger Federer were to lose in a final against a lower ranked player that would be monumental.

Ethan says:

11:02am | 17/08/09

how about the saints losing last night after winning 19 straight?

Ben from Perth says:

11:18am | 17/08/09

Hmm… was going to put forward the Bombers getting up over the Saints but I’ll draw myself out of my parochial, in-bred mindset and go with Tiger’s (not Richmond) loss .

The question is a no-brainer. World records will always fall, especially if you’re a member of the swimming fraternity, but seeing one of the greats go down like that shows that the freaky can still occur and possibly indicates a turning point in his unbelievable career.

pete m says:

12:26pm | 17/08/09

I’m more amazed Tiger got it to 14-0 in the first place.  Too many faltered not because he was playing better than them, but because of the pressure he exerted over them.

Usain Bolt is amazing.  He seems to still have something left in the tank, even with 9.58!  What a great surname for a sprinter!

McDil says:

01:00pm | 17/08/09

What about the seagull nicking the bail after Brett Lee smashed the stumps with a classic delivery and then the Benny Hill chase in the futile attempt to get the bail back? Way more interesting.

Lenny J says:

01:22pm | 17/08/09

For those poor disingenuous fools who consider Tiger Woods overrated. What kind of a myopic, ignorant and biassed mug would even say such a foolish thing. He is and will be remembered as one of the greats of the game. Sure he is a human being, is that a crime?
You either can’t play or have never tried to play golf. it is a hard game to play well consistently even for a hacker to hack consistently.
Both Bolt and Woods are great champions in totally different disciplines and to compare one to the other is just plain silly. Even sillier is to down play the achievements of a man who has mastered a very difficult and challenging sport that can take a lifetime to master and even then you may not.
Tell me you were just trying to get a rise out of us, or are you just plain silly.

James says:

05:30pm | 17/08/09

“100m is a true test of pure ability. ie, you are either born with it or not. I know which one is harder to become a champion in, do you?”

Following your logic if you weren’t born with the ability to run quickly then you couldn’t become a champion in the 100 metres. Thus the 100 metres would be the harder sport to dominate. So i’m not sure you do know which sport it’s harder to become a champion in, or indeed, what you actually think.

I agree that it’s impossible to really compare the achievements. Bolt’s a once in a generation athlete but so’s Tiger. I think Wood’s loss was still a better moment given it proves he’s fallible and will make future golf tournament’s more interesting now the rest of the field has seen him falter.

On the other hand how athletes who dominate running seem to disappear much quicker so who knows how many more record breaking efforts we’ll see from Bolt?

Pablo says:

07:16pm | 17/08/09

Lenny J . Thank you mate I couldn’t have said it better

brad says:

10:09pm | 17/08/09

Yeah, let’s wait until a few years.
Considering drugs in sport I take nothing from these new World records.

Dan says:

03:00am | 18/08/09

It’s all very well to be stunned that Tiger Woods has finally lost leading into the final round, but don’t forget that he’s still won 14/15 times he’s had the lead going into the final day. Also, people forget that last year he had major surgery, so the fact that he even finished in the top two of a major the following year (and has five times) shows what a freak he is. Bolt is great, but he’ll have to perform equally well at another Olympics to put him IMO in the same league as Tiger.

Evan says:

07:51am | 18/08/09

How objective is this piece? You’re a mad Irish golfer aren’t you? Jeez, I think I’ve even seen a few videos of your swing (it was pretty good, too)

chris says:

10:11am | 18/08/09

There is no comparison of freakish talent. Bolt has change the way science view human physical capability. Tiger has just pointed out the obvious, the talent pool for golf is very shallow. A person only needs basic social infrastruture to become 100m champion, for Golf a kid needs parents with high discretionary income, high barriers of entry equal lower talent pool.

Eren says:

12:42pm | 10/02/12

Wham bam thank you, ma’am, my questions are asnweerd!