The sports fans’ biggest obsession had been the ‘who’s the greatest’ business — a practice which has only become more popular in this age of online polls. Messi or Ronaldo? Tendulkar or Lara? Federer or Sampras? One could simply go on and on.

After Usain Bolt cruised to a season’s best timing to win the 100 metres at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday night and is looking good to dominate the competition, I certainly foresee another debate coming: Carl Lewis or the flying Jamaican?

Any such argument often gets spiced up with some verbal sparring between the two greats, and it was Lewis who made the insinuation last year soon after Bolt became the first athlete to retain the sprint double over two Olympics. Lewis took a dig at the drug control procedures in Jamaica, saying that athletes can have long stretches of testing without any random tests — leaving the rest to the imagination.

The provocation was enough for a fiercely proud man like Bolt, who did not mince words by saying he had “lost all respect” for the legendary American sprinter. In the current climate where heavyweights like a Tyson Gay or Asafa Powell have been found guilty of substance abuse, Bolt surely understands the potential risk and envy that he may invite with his achievements. The other day, the Jamaican even reminded the media that he had been performing such superhuman feats since the age of 15, when he became the youngest world junior champion in 200 metres.

Sticking your neck into the Bolt vs Lewis debate is hazardous, but there are certain defining points that one can resort to for drawing conclusions. Bolt, at the end of the day, has to be regarded as the fastest athlete to date while Lewis could still walk away with the honours of the best all-round athlete of modern times.

To start with, Lewis showed a tremendous longevity as a top-flight competitor — an area where Bolt still has some catching up to do. While Bolt’s reign began with the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Lewis had shone through four Olympic Games from between 1984 and 1996, with him still being good enough to walk away with a long jump gold in his last Games in Atlanta.

The long jump, an event which does not figure in Bolt’s repertoire at all, is as arduous an event as they come but Lewis made it look easy with gold medals in all the four Games in which he participated. Lewis is still ahead on the medal count — with 10 medals each from Olympics and the worlds compared to Bolt’s six at the Games and seven at the worlds so far.

However, just one of Bolt’s events have gone by in Moscow and the Jamaican will have two opportunities to close in on Lewis’ medal haul at the worlds this week.

Rio, in 2016, looks far away but you never know with Bolt!