Bolt strikes down US great Lewis
Source: Agencies |
August 11, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
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USAIN Bolt took a momentary break from basking in his historic Olympic sprinting double to fiercely criticize Carl Lewis.
Bolt lashed out at the American nine-time gold-medal winner after being asked if he'd like to be compared with him or late sprinting great Jesse Owens.
"For me Jesse Owens I have a lot of respect for. He's a great athlete. He has done great things for his country. He has really pushed athletes to their best," said the 25-year-old.
"I'm going to say something controversial right now. Carl Lewis, I have no respect for him," he continued. "The things he says about the track athletes is really downgrading for another athlete to say something like that. I think he's just looking for attention, really, because nobody really talks much about him.
"That was really sad for me when I heard the other day what he was saying. It was upsetting. I've lost all respect for him. All respect."
Asked which specific comments from Lewis made him angry, Bolt replied: "It was all about drugs. Talking about drugs. For me, an athlete out of the sport to be saying that. That was really upsetting for me. Really upsetting. To jump up and say something like that.
"As far as I'm concerned he's looking for attention. That's all."
Lewis said after the Beijing Olympics that countries like Jamaica do not have a random program, "so they can go months without being tested."
London Games organizer Sebastian Coe said he had "no reason to believe" that Jamaican athletes were not being tested out of competition - the sort of tests that are considered essential in the fight to detect systematic doping. "I have no reason to believe that they are not testing out of competition," Coe said.
Bolt lashed out at the American nine-time gold-medal winner after being asked if he'd like to be compared with him or late sprinting great Jesse Owens.
"For me Jesse Owens I have a lot of respect for. He's a great athlete. He has done great things for his country. He has really pushed athletes to their best," said the 25-year-old.
"I'm going to say something controversial right now. Carl Lewis, I have no respect for him," he continued. "The things he says about the track athletes is really downgrading for another athlete to say something like that. I think he's just looking for attention, really, because nobody really talks much about him.
"That was really sad for me when I heard the other day what he was saying. It was upsetting. I've lost all respect for him. All respect."
Asked which specific comments from Lewis made him angry, Bolt replied: "It was all about drugs. Talking about drugs. For me, an athlete out of the sport to be saying that. That was really upsetting for me. Really upsetting. To jump up and say something like that.
"As far as I'm concerned he's looking for attention. That's all."
Lewis said after the Beijing Olympics that countries like Jamaica do not have a random program, "so they can go months without being tested."
London Games organizer Sebastian Coe said he had "no reason to believe" that Jamaican athletes were not being tested out of competition - the sort of tests that are considered essential in the fight to detect systematic doping. "I have no reason to believe that they are not testing out of competition," Coe said.
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