On 9 August 2012, Usain Bolt defended his Olympic 200m title in London. The win completed a second consecutive sprint double across the 100m and 200m.
Four days after the 100m, the double sealed in the London stadium
The 200m final came four days after Bolt had defended his 100m crown in 9.63, an Olympic record. He returned to the same track to claim the longer sprint. With it, he held both Olympic sprint titles at a second straight Games.
No sprinter before him had retained both the 100m and 200m across successive Olympics. The London double placed Bolt alone in that part of the record books.
Bookended by an Olympic 100m defence and a world-record relay
Two days later, he anchored Jamaica to 4x100m relay gold in 36.84, a world record that still stands. The three golds mirrored his sweep at Beijing four years earlier. In London he confirmed himself as the defining sprinter of his era.
The London Games sat between his world-record runs in Berlin in 2009 and the titles that followed. In 2013 he took a third world 200m crown in Moscow. By then his major medals had begun to gather into a collection few could match.
His work was not finished. At Rio 2016 he won a third consecutive Olympic 200m title in 19.78, a feat no other sprinter has reached. He closed his Olympic career with eight golds.
The London double marked the mid-point of that run. It was the moment Bolt turned dominance into a pattern.
