Column: Phelps, Bolt confirm legacies in London

One of the great thrills in sports is watching the underdog break through unimaginable odds to claim victory.

It’s why “Tebow Mania” swept the nation during football season, only to be surpassed by “Linsanity” in February.

It’s why Al Michaels’ call, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” is one of the most legendary in history, and always will be.

And it’s why every IU basketball fan will always remember every intricate detail leading up to, during and after that fateful game against Kentucky on
Dec. 10, 2011.

But the 2012 Olympics gave us a chance to see the other side of the “dog” spectrum, if you will. Two top dogs, each seeking to complete their legacies that began in prior Olympic games, went to London and left no doubt in anyone’s mind they were the best at their respective sport.

First, Michael Phelps had to prove he was not just the greatest swimmer, but one of the best athletes ever to compete in the Olympics.

Coming into the games, the hype surrounded American Ryan Lochte. Phelps admitted he didn’t train as hard for London as he did for Athens or Beijing. However, Lochte claimed 2012 was his time.

So much for that. Lochte did leave London with two golds, two silvers and a bronze, but Phelps stole the show again with four golds and two silvers.

It didn’t live up to his eight-gold-medal performance in Beijing, but it left an exclamation point at the end of his career. Phelps left the Olympics with 22 career medals, four more than any other athlete in Olympic history.

Eighteen of those medals are gold, which doubles the amount of four other athletes now tied for second all-time.

Then, there was Usain Bolt. As with Phelps, many questioned if Bolt could continue his dominance in London. He had his fellow countryman rising up in Yohan Blake, trying to make his own mark in the Olympics. But Blake, and everyone else for that matter, didn’t stand a chance against Bolt.

He became the first sprinter ever to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter in consecutive Olympics, and we’re still not sure if he finally gave it his all in any of those races.

Bolt couldn’t break the world records in either of those events like he did in Beijing, but he set the bar so high (or low), those sprinting records will probably become two of sports’ most unbreakable, along with Cy Young’s 511 wins, Bill Russell’s 11 championships and Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857 career points, among others.

Many people would have liked to see Lochte or Blake pull the Olympic upset and dethrone the king of their respective sport. It would have been a great storyline, another underdog defeating the almighty stalwart.

But do you know what’s better than the ultimate upset? The ultimate
champion.

No one complains of boredom while watching Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali or Gretzky win all the time.

The spectators lucky enough to see these legends in their prime rave about how special it was to witness such greatness.

Well, now you can tell your kids and grandchildren about Phelps and Bolt.

There sure won’t be any others like them, at least not for a long,
long time.