OLYMPICS
Saturday, August 20, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3B
Bolt gets ninth gold
By EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO —
Usain Bolt kneeled down
and gave the track one inal
kiss, then lattened his hand,
reached down and slapped
the white number “3”
painted at the starting line.
Three Olympics, three
races at each, three gold
medals every time.
He could have just as
easily slapped the number
“1.” That would need no
explanation.
The man who tran-
scended track and became
a world-class celebrity bid
a blazing-fast farewell to the
Rio de Janeiro Games — and
likely the Olympics alto-
gether — Friday night with
yet another anchor leg for
the ages. He turned a close
4x100 relay race against
Japan and the United States
into a typical, Bolt-like
runaway, helping Jamaica
cross the line in 37.27.
“There you go,” he said.
“I am the greatest.”
Japan won the silver
medal, inishing .33 seconds
behind.
The U.S. inished the race
third but endured yet another
relay debacle — disqualiied
because leadoff runner Mike
Rodgers was ruled to have
passed the baton to Justin
Gatlin outside the exchange
zone. That promoted Canada
to the bronze medal. The
American were protesting
the ruling, and as midnight
approached in Brazil, there
was no word on the outcome.
“It was the twilight zone.
It was a nightmare,” said
Gatlin, who, along with his
teammates, found out about
the DQ while parading the
U.S. lag around the track.
“You work so hard with
your teammates, guys you
compete against almost all
year long. All that hard work
just crumbles.”
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, center, competes in the men’s
4x100-meter relay inal during the 2016 Summer Olym-
pics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday.
If the ruling stands, it will
mark the ninth time since
1995 the U.S. men have
been disqualiied or failed
to get the baton around at
Olympics or world cham-
pionships. (They blew a
10th medal, the silver at the
London Games, after Tyson
Gay’s doping positive.)
The disqualiication will
cause more hand-wringing
in the States.
In Jamaica, they’ll party.
Bolt’s record in Olympic
inals improved to nine
victories over nine events.
Nobody’s done that
before, and nobody’s on the
horizon to do it again soon.
Along for his inal trip
down the track were Nickel
Ashmeade, training partner
Yohan Blake and the
Jamaican elder statesman,
former world-record holder
Asafa Powell.
When Bolt received
the yellow baton from
Ashmeade for his inal run
down the straightaway, he
was even, or maybe a step
behind Aska Cambridge of
Japan and Trayvon Bromell
of the United States.
That lasted about four
steps. With 70 meters to go,
it was over.
“I am just relieved. It’s
happened. I am just happy,
proud of myself. It’s come
true,” Bolt said. “The pres-
sure is real. I look at it as an
accomplishment.”
Counting all the prelimi-
naries, inals and his approx-
imately nine-second blast
down the stretch in Friday’s
inal race, Bolt has spent 325
seconds — a tad less than 5
1/2 minutes — running on
the track at the Olympics
since he made his debut in
Beijing eight years ago.
Every tick of the clock
has been a treasure. And
while he may not close
things out with 23 golds, the
number Michael Phelps left
Rio with earlier this week,
it’s hard to argue there is
anybody more successful or
electric — or important to
his sport, and the Olympics
themselves.
The anchor sport of the
Olympics has been mired for
decades, but especially over
the past year, in a cesspool
of doping, cheating and bad
characters.
When Bolt’s on the track,
everyone forgets.
All week, when asked a
hundred different ways if
this really is his last Olym-
pics, he kept saying yes.
Tokyo is four years away,
and now the world must
ponder: Without Bolt on the
track, how will things ever
be the same?
AP Photo/Eric Gay
United States’ Carmelo Anthony (15) celebrates with teammate Kevin Durant (5)
during a men’s semiinal round basketball game against Spain at the 2016 Sum-
mer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.
US men join women,
will play for gold
By BRIAN MAHONEY
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO —
The U.S. Olympic men’s
basketball team is still a
little better than Spain.
One more win and the
Americans are again the
best in the world.
The U.S. advanced to its
third straight gold-medal
game, beating Spain 82-76
on Friday in another tight
matchup between the
teams that met in the last
two championship games.
Klay Thompson scored
22 points for the Americans,
who will play Australia or
Serbia on Sunday for their
third consecutive Olympic
title.
“This is where we
wanted to be,” Kevin
Durant said. “We talked
Basketball
USA
Spain
82
76
about it all summer and to
be here for the inal game,
to win the gold, for all
the marbles, we like our
chances.”
The U.S. was just good
enough again against
Spain, winning a much
different game than the
all-offense matchups that
decided the last two gold-
medal games. This one
featured several technical
fouls and neither team got
into an offensive low.
It was the lowest-
scoring game for the
Americans in the Olympics
since the 2004 semiinals,
when they managed 81 in a
loss to Argentina.
It certainly wasn’t
pretty, but Olympic gold
never loses its luster.
“It’s an amazing feeling
now,” center DeAndre
Jordan said. “We really
want to accomplish this.”
Kevin Durant added 14
points on the day he moved
past LeBron James into
second place on the U.S.
Olympic career scoring
list. Kyrie Irving had 13 for
the U.S.
Pau Gasol scored 23
points for Spain, which
made it tough on the Amer-
icans for the third straight
Olympics, but again had
to settle for coming close
against the world’s No. 1
team.
LOCHTE: Lasting memory of athlete could be incident, not the 12 medals
Continued from 1B
ality and regular ‘bro’
behavior, Lochte has always
been about having fun. This
is the guy who gleefully
admitted eating McDonald’s
three times a day while
winning four medals at the
2008 Beijing Games. For
Rio, he dyed his dark hair
white, not realizing the
pool’s chlorine would turn it
light green.
His memorable props —
diamond grills on his teeth
on the medal podium, crazily
colored high-tops, sunglasses
bearing his favorite made-up
expression of “Jeah!” — and
easygoing, goofy nature has
made him a popular and
relatable star with the public
and his teammates.
“I think that is why I do
so many different things with
the hair, the grills, the crazy
shoes,” he said in Rio, “It’s
just my personality coming
out there.”
Lochte’s success led to his
own 2013 reality TV show
called “What Would Ryan
Lochte Do?” It had a short
run and left some viewers
with the impression that its
star was nothing more than
a good-looking dim bulb.
Still, lines for his autograph
sessions at meets routinely
stretch longer than anyone
else’s.
As hard as he plays,
Lochte works hard, too.
His 12 Olympic medals
are second only to Michael
Phelps among U.S. male
Olympians.
This time Lochte was
only a small part of the show.
He inished ifth in his only
individual event and swam
on the victorious 4x200-
meter freestyle relay. Instead,
the biggest memory of the
32-year-old swimmer in Rio
will be the grainy security
video of him and teammates
Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger
and Jimmy Feigen exiting
the gas station restroom and
sitting on the ground, some
with hands up.
Like other pro swimmers,
Lochte is reliant on sponsors
to foot his bills so he can
focus on year-round training
and travel to meets without
having to hold a regular job.
His sponsors, including
Speedo, Ralph Lauren and
airweave premium bedding,
have been in no hurry to cut
ties with him, though have
said they are monitoring the
situation.
The incident feeds a lot
of American clichés of the
bad-boy athlete, and while
it was relatively minor, it is
“unsavory,” says Thomas
Ordahl, chief strategy oficer
at the brand consulting irm
Landor.
Ordahl believes it’s
probably a good idea for
companies to hold off on
making decisions until the
issue surrounding the dispute
is sorted out. But he suspects
that eventually, sponsors will
probably drop Lochte.
“The truth is that there
are enough celebrities to be
attached to without bringing
that kind of baggage with
you,” said Robert Passikoff,
president and founder of the
research irm Brand Keys.
USA
Swimming
is
expected to convene its exec-
utive board to discuss likely
punishment, as it did when
Michael Phelps was arrested
for a second DUI two years
ago. Technically, the four
could be ined, suspended
or expelled. In the Phelps
case, the board announced a
week after the arrest that it
was suspending the sport’s
biggest star for six months,
banning him from competing
in the 2015 world champi-
onships and taking away
six months of his funding
stipend.
For Phelps, it was his
third strike.
This is Lochte’s irst
major gaffe, and whatever
sanctions
the
national
governing body passes down
could have little effect on
the professional swimmer.
He’s already said he plans to
take the irst extensive break
of his career following the
Olympics and move from
North Carolina to California.
A suspension could keep
him out of next year’s world
championships — often
bereft of big stars following
an Olympic year — and the
Arena Pro Swim Series, a
ive-meet circuit in the U.S.
But that would hardly impact
Lochte should he decide to
resume training for the 2020
games.
As for the other three,
Feigen has indicated he
would retire after Rio and
the 26-year-old is looking
forward to attending law
school somewhere in Texas.
He made a $10,800 payment
to a Rio charity that teaches
martial arts to poor children
after the incident, and his
passport was returned. He
left Brazil Friday night.
Bentz and Conger stum-
bled just as they were getting
started on the international
stage, so the repercussions
could linger longest with
the Olympic rookies. They,
along with Feigen, swam
in preliminary heats, and
earned gold medals when
their teammates won relays
in the inals.
They returned home to the
U.S. Friday.
Bentz
will
be
a
20-year-old junior majoring
in business at Georgia this
fall and Conger will be a
21-year-old senior majoring
in corporate communication
at Texas. They remain
amateurs and presumably
will continue their NCAA
careers with their respective
programs, which also could
hand out punishment.
What may take longer for
everyone to forget is how the
four stole the spotlight.
“While we are thankful
our athletes are safe, we do
not condone the lapse in
judgment and conduct that
led us to this point,” USA
Swimming executive director
Chuck Wielgus said. “It is
not representative of what is
expected as Olympians, as
Americans, as swimmers and
as individuals.”
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