London: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, who has won an unprecedented 100 and 200-metres double at two consecutive Olympics, is not yet a legend, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on Thursday.
Bolt, who won the sprint double and the 4x100m relay in world record time at the Beijing Olympics, captured the 200m crown on Thursday after having also won the 100m title in London earlier in the Games.
“The career of Usain Bolt has to be judged when it stops,” said Rogge, speaking to a small group of reporters, hours before Bolt’s race. “(American) Carl Lewis competed in four consecutive games and won medals.”
Lewis won the long jump event at four straight Olympics while also winning five other gold medals in the sprints and the 4x100m relays.
Rogge said “even if he wins the 200 metres” at two straight Olympics he did not consider Bolt a legend.
“Let Bolt be injury-free and keep his motivation and participate in three to four Games and then he can be a legend. He is already an icon,” said the former Olympic sailor.
Rogge’s refusal to label the 25-year-old a legend is not the first disagreement the two men have had in the past four years.
After Bolt’s spectacular 100m victory in Beijing — by far the most dazzling moment of the Games — Rogge had said he was not happy to see him showboating so much.
“That’s not the way we perceive being a champion,” Rogge had said at the time. “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 metres.”
His comments angered many athletics fans who considered Bolt the Olympics’ biggest attraction.
