The Audacity of Dope

I’m in the middle of a real busy weekend, but I had to take a second to post about Usain Bolt’s electrifying (yes pun) performance in the men’s 100m sprint yesterday.  It wasn’t even that he broke his own world record (from 9.72 down to 9.69), but it was how effortlessly he ran all throughout the competition.  He won every qualifying heat so easily that he actually let up with 30 meters left each time.  When the final came, everyone anticipated that he’d finally have to run the full race at top speed.

[Charlie Murphy] wrong…WRONG. [/Charlie Murphy]

From the start of the race, it was clear that Bolt was surpremely confident.  He bounced around and struck poses before getting in the blocks.  While everyone else wore hi-tech singlets, hoping to shave every possible split second off their time, Usain rocked some shorts and a normal little tank top.  Oh, and his left shoe was untied:

(are you kidding me?)

After a decent start and first 40 meters, Bolt turned it on and absolutely blew out his competition.  So much so that he let up again, this time throwing his arms out and beating his chest in celebration, a good 20 meters before the finish line:

As the 7 other fastest people on the planet strained towards the line, Bolt glided past it and continued on into his victory lap.  In between talking with his family and grabbing a Jamaican flag to show off to the world, he danced and broke out the classic ‘airplane’ move:

Again, it wasn’t just that he ran 100 meters faster than any human in history.  It’s that he did it so easily and so relaxed, almost as if it was a mere formality.  Apparently, it was.  Truly, a display for the ages and one worthy of instant inauguration to the Swag Hall of Fame.

Looking at the pictures doesn’t do it justice, but thanks to NBC’s draconian restrictions on archived video from the Games, you’ll have to watch it on their site here.  If you’re outside the US, NBC hates you and you’ll have to find it on your local Olympics carrier instead.  Their coverage has been pretty good (aside from Bob Costas repeatedly mispronouncing Beijing), but the lack of archived video is killing me.  In any case, find a way to watch the race and look out for Bolt running his real specialty in the 200m.  This dude is unreal.

Also, some guy named Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal over the weekend.  Yeah…that was kind of cool too.  The Olympics are incredible!

If you missed the historic men’s 4×100 freestyle relay in the Olympics yesterday, you missed one of the best races ever.  It was so dope, I actually had to post about swimming on TAOD.  That’s unheard of.

Our oldest swimmer on the team, Jason Lezak, anchored the race and somehow erased almost a full body length deficit in the final 50 meters.  On his very last stroke, he edged out France’s Alain Bernard at the wall and kept Michael Phelps’ dream of 8 gold medals alive.  At the same time, he ethered the trash talking Bernard, who earlier said the heavily favored French team would “smash” the Americans.  Ouch.

Since NBC’s being a bit egomaniacal about its Olympics coverage, I can’t embed the video.  You can, however, watch the race in all its glory right here.

Other observations from the first 3 days of the Olympics:

• The opening ceremony was awesome.  Kanye was definitely taking notes.
• Phelps won the 2 hardest events he’s in, so his quest for 8 looks possible.
• The Chinese male gymnasts are machines, it’s not even fair.
• There’s no way their female gymnasts are over the required age of 16.  Even R. Kelly thinks they look young.
• Fencing is impossible to watch if you don’t know anything about the sport.  They do wear cool Daft Punk style helmets though.
• Watching badminton just makes me want to play badminton.  Same with handball.  I miss PE.
• The ‘Redeem Team’ woke up after a slow first quarter to drill the Chinese, but I’m still not entirely comfortable.  Tougher tests await in Greece and Spain, but not until after we demolish Angola.
• Our women b-baller’s are legit.  Anything less than their 4th consecutive gold would shock me.
• Olympic boxing is boring.  Sorry.
• Beach volleyball is surprisingly exciting, and way cooler than indoor.  However, the indoor women > outdoor, despite the skimpy bikinis.  Those uniforms are a little too small.
• Why can’t I find any judo or men’s soccer on any of the 5 channels airing the games, and why do table tennis and taekwondo start way after the other sports?  Lame.
• It’s going to be great to watch the US and China fight it out over the medal count.  China’s up 2 at the moment…let’s get it.
• Why am I up till 6 AM after an episode of Sound Session and posting on the blog?

Last night’s show and interview with Wyclef coming soon, but for now…*Outro*

What better way to start off my blogging than by bigging up one of my favorite MC’s in the game, Lupe Fiasco. Here’s some footage of Lu receiving his gold plaque for the ridiculously dope The Cool album. If you haven’t copped it yet, you’re sleeping. We need to support the good hip-hop major labels decide to put out, otherwise it’s ringtone rap for all. Special appearances from the homey Jason Salvador, Lupe’s murse, and I think my dude Niles is somewhere there in the crowd.

Lu’s on point with the idea of “selling positivity” and “feeling good morally” about what they release. Hopefully other artists follow suit. Keep it up Lu!

Swiped from Lupe’s Busy’s blog.