Usain Bolt won the men’s 200 metres final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in 19.78 seconds. It was his third straight Olympic title over the distance. No other sprinter, man or woman, had won the event at three Games in a row.
A damp track and a familiar surge
The final ran on a wet evening at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange. A light rainstorm had just passed. Bolt drew lane six and faced a strong American trio.
The main threats were LaShawn Merritt, who had run the world-leading 19.74 at the US trials, and Justin Gatlin. When the gun fired, Bolt made a clean start. He caught Christophe Lemaitre and Churandy Martina before the end of the bend.
He turned into the home straight one metre clear. Then he pulled away to 2.5 metres. The chasers had no way back.
History sealed on the slowest track in years
The cool, damp track slowed the field. Every other finalist ran nearly a tenth slower than in the semi-final. Only Bolt broke 20 seconds, in one of the slowest Olympic 200m finals in almost two decades.
Andre De Grasse took silver in 20.02. Lemaitre took bronze by three thousandths of a second over Adam Gemili. The win gave Bolt his eighth Olympic gold, with only the relay left to complete the sprint “triple-triple” across three Games.
His own records still stood: 19.19 from Berlin 2009 and 19.30 from Beijing 2008. “I don’t need to prove anything else. What else can I do to prove to the world I am the greatest?” Bolt told reporters afterwards.
He looked unhappy with the time, then knelt to kiss the track and struck his lightning-bolt pose. It was his last individual Olympic final. The run was not his quickest, but it secured the one record his career still lacked.
