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Sport

19th Aug 2016

Only Usain Bolt could win Olympic gold and still be fuming with his performance

When winning isn't quite good enough...

Conan Doherty

Master perfectionist.

When you’ve won as much as Usain Bolt has won, it becomes about how you do it.

Olympic gold medals are almost mundane for the Jamaican at this stage.

On Friday night/Saturday morning (at 2.35am), he’s vying for his ninth winner in three Olympic Games when he goes to race with his countrymen in the 4x100m relay.

Back in 2012 in London, they smashed the world record when Bolt crossed the line with just 36.84 seconds on the clock.

Another gold would make it a triple triple for the icon of athletics. Three golds each in three different Games.

But it doesn’t satisfy him. 19.78 seconds doesn’t satisfy him.

“I wasn’t happy with the time when I crossed the line but I’m excited I got the gold medal – that’s the key thing,” he told BBC Sport. And he did not look pleased when he crossed the line.

Imagine winning the Olympics and being unhappy. Unfulfilled.

When you listen to him speak, you understand the full extent of his ambition. Winning races isn’t his competition. He’s competing with himself. He’s competing with the immortals.

“What else can I do to prove I am the greatest? I’m trying to be one of the greatest, to be among Ali and Pele,” he said.

“I have made the sport exciting, I have made people want to see the sport. I have put the sport on a different level.”

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