EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – It’s a sport built on speed, and at U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials on Saturday, sprinters wasted no time drawing conclusions about Usain Bolt’s summertime itinerary.
The consensus: He’ll be in Rio.
For the second straight day, the Jamaican sprinter’s hamstring was Topic No. 1 in the track world. If Bolt is seriously hurt, the entire Olympics will take on a new perspective, whether it’s Bolt at less-than-full strength or – still unthinkable at this point – absent altogether.
Not that anyone going through preliminary rounds in Eugene was worried about that.
“Crazy stuff always happens in an Olympic year,” said Bolt’s main challenger, Justin Gatlin, who cruised through his 100-meter preliminary in a time of 10.03 seconds. “Like anyone else, you have to see what’s going to happen. But c’mon. We’re going to see his face in Rio one way or another.”