Okay, Let's Track It!

And now to Olympic track and field. 

We start with . . . the man! 

Okay, I'm not Jamaican, I don't know anyone of Jamaican origin, and I've never been to Jamaica, but I was rooting for Mr. Usain Bolt of D'yer Mak'er in the men's 100-meter dash to pick up his third straight gold medal in that event.  A single hectometer (a hundred meters; I love using that measurement, you understand) transformed Mr. Bolt from a great athlete to the most monumental track star of our time.  And he still has the 200-meter trace and the 4x100-meter relay ahead of him.  Alas, this will likely be his last Olympiad.

Meanwhile, Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa (below) set a new world record Sunday night in the men's 400 meters at the 2016 Olympics.  The previous world record was held by the great Michael Johnson, which Johnson set at the 1999 World Championships in Seville.  Some context: Van Niekerk set a record at 43.03 seconds, beating Johnson's record of 43.18, a huge difference.

Of course, van Niekerk's new world record is also the Olympic record, and Johnson had been the previous Olympic record holder in the 400-meter race as well, setting it at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta with a time of 43.49.  Van Niekerk is 24 years old.

Oh yes, the heptathlon. Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium (above) won it, beating out Jessica Ennis - who has since gotten married and his now Jessica Ennis-Hill - by a score of 6810 to 6775.  Ennis-Hill took silver, of course, with Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton won the bronze with 6653 points.

Yes, Theisen-Eaton is married to American decathlon champion Ashton Eaton.  Yes, he was rooting for her.  Yes, some Americans were upset about him rooting for a foreigner (sort of like how I was rooting for Usain Bolt the other night), even though the foreigner in question was his wife.  So they wanted him to root against her and for a fellow American?  Well, an American Olympic heptathlon champion this year was a long shot; the highest ranking American, Barbara Nwaba, finished in twelfth place.  But still, Eaton rooted for his better half, so that makes him a traitor.  Yeah, he should be put in front of a firing squad.

You know, I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with stupid people . . ..