Lightning Strikes Twice, Again: Usain Bolt Defends His 200m Gold

Usain Bolt defended his gold medal in the men’s 200 meters at the 2012 Summer Olympics on Thursday night, winning in a time of 19.32 seconds. He becomes not only the first man ever to win 200m gold at back-to-back Summer Games -- Germany’s Bärbel Eckert-Wöckel (1976, 1980) and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown (2004, 2008) have accomplished the feat in the women’s 200m -- but also the first man to win both the 100m and 200m in consecutive Olympics, firmly cementing his legacy as one of the greatest sprinters the world has ever seen.

Yohan Blake -- who beat Bolt in the 200m at Jamaica’s Olympic team trials -- won the silver medal, finishing in 19.44 seconds, the second-fastest time he’s ever run and the fastest silver-medal time in history. Warren Weir was third, making it a podium sweep for Jamaica. It’s the first time any country other than the United States has swept the 200m.

Wallace Spearmon, the lone American in the race, finished fourth, running a season-best 19.90.

The race was billed as the Lightning Bolt versus The Beast, and indeed it was, as shown by the 0.12-second margin of victory and Bolt’s frequent glances over to spot where Blake was in relation to him. But in the end, it was all Bolt, again.

Bolt separated himself from the field almost immediately and already had a big lead as the runners made their turn for the home stretch. Blake, however, did what maybe no other human being can do -- he closed the gap on Bolt, and made it at least somewhat interesting over the final 30 meters. But, like every other human being, Blake was simply not fast enough, allowing Bolt to be Bolt as he crossed the finish line -- in the photo-finish shot, he already has his finger to his lips.

(Photo by Omega via Getty Images)

Bolt’s winning time was 0.02 seconds slower than his gold-medal finish in Beijing, but 0.08 faster than his time at the 2011 IAAF World Championships.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics Hub.