Editor’s note: After Usain Bolt’s unexpected bronze medal at the World Championships in London, in his last ever individual race, Just Gatlin bowed down to him to give us a photo-moment that will be remembered for a long time. This is a post on Facebook about what made the moment special, reproduced here with the author’s permission.
Every great 100m final seems to bring out an iconic photograph for the ages. Saturday night’s race gave us this iconic photo. But such photographs are understood and remembered much better if you know what happened before and after the photo. Here’s the context.
The day of the race
Justin Gatlin is 35 years old (4 more than Bolt), won his only Olympic gold 13 years ago (four years before Bolt won his first), won his previous World Championship gold 12 years ago, has been banned twice for doping, has had his world record timing revoked, is hated by the fans and the media. Today is not about him, it is not supposed to be about him. Today is about Usain Bolt - the GOAT of short distance running - and his last individual race before retirement. The world and fans in the stadium are watching this race for Bolt, not for Gatlin.
Rewind to 60 seconds before this photo.
As Gatlin is introduced at the starting line, the entire crowd boos. Gatlin has a poker face on - no reaction. Will the fans get in his head or end up motivating him?
15 seconds before.
Midway through the race, Gatlin is in 6th place. He isn’t even in contention. We are all looking at Bolt waiting for the famous last stretch run, but it doesn’t come.
Five seconds before.
Gatlin has won the gold. The crowd has just realized it. They let him know - with loud resonating boos. The boos are for two reasons - the scars from the doping bans and for having beaten Bolt on his final appearance.
Two seconds before.
Gatlin is trying to soak it all in and exults. The boos get louder. He puts his finger on his lips. Shush, he tells the crowd.
The photo moment.
Gatlin sees Bolt and bows to him – mark of respect from one competitor to another. You can hear the boos immediately die down – the decibel drop is palpable. Goosebumps. The photograph doesn’t and cannot capture this music.
Two seconds after the photo.
Bolt hugs Gatlin and tells him – “Congratulations, you worked hard for this. You don’t deserve all these boos.” And he means what he says. Coming from someone who is vocally anti-doping and has an unblemished record to back his opinion, this must mean a lot to Gatlin. Gatlin doesn’t cry – I wonder how he managed it.