Word: bolting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Usain Bolt may have just broken the human speed limit. Last week, he took two gold medals in the Olympic 100m, shattering his own world record with a time of 9.69 secs., and the 200m with a time of 19.3 secs., obliterating by two-hundredths of a second the long-standing world record Michael Johnson set at the Atlanta Games...
...Bolt's Aunt Lilly agrees: "This gives Jamaicans a new picture to hold in their hands and look at for a moment and say to themselves, you know, we can do better." Says Ivor Conolley, who owns The Last Resort, a bed-and-breakfast inn near Lilly's restaurant in Trelawny, "The whole country feels right now as if good things are happening to us for a change." In cities like Kingston, in fact, seemingly everyone is wearing yellow, the color of Jamaica's athletic uniform, to work and draping the national flag on their cars, says Beckford. She hopes...
...That clean-cut image is a calling card for Bolt and an entire new generation of Jamaican sprinters who have taken the Beijing Olympics by storm. With Bolt shattering world records to claim gold in the men's 100 and 200 meters, and Jamaica making a clean sweep of the medals in the women's 100 meters, the Caribbean island is fast earning the title of the world's fastest country. That reputation is music to the ears of Jamaicans who, for years, have become more accustomed to hearing their country discussed for its sky-high murder rate...
...fierce," says Beckford, who adds that while Jamaica's training facilities might not be First World - Fraser is part of an elite group that practices on a run-down track of grass and tar - its coaches are top flight and its athletes often share a working-class bond. Though Bolt is known for his fun-loving personal style - showcased in his controversial showboating celebration in the final strides of 100 meters victory - he grew up amidst the hardscrabble rural life of Jamaica's bauxite mines. "It's about resilience," says Beckford...
...What's more, while star Jamaican runners used to go abroad to train and study, most now opt to stay home, further endearing them to their countrymen. Bolt and Fraser, for example, eschewed lucrative U.S. college scholarship opportunities to attend the University of Technology in Kingston. Jamaican sports officials insist having the athletes on native soil has also led to a far lower incidence of the kind of doping scandals that have bedeviled Jamaican-born sprinters in the past. Bolt even made a point earlier this summer of letting it be known he'd sworn off partying to better prepare...