Bolt Slams Reporter For Linking The "Slow" 100m Times To "Stronger Anti-Doping Control"
The winning time by Justin Gatlin was the slowest 100m gold medal since 2003.
“The marks in general were much slower than the last edition of the world championships, and I’d like to know from you guys if you think there is any kind of relationship from a stronger anti-doping control.”
Bolt interjected: “Woah what? What’s she saying?” The journalist then explained there were 21 sub-10 second times at the Beijing worlds championships in 2015 and fewer than 10 here. As she was explaining herself, Bolt signalled to the other two medallists that he wanted to answer the question.
“First of all I’m sure everyone up here takes that as very disrespectful,” he replied. “You know what I mean. I, we’ve worked hard. Justin has done his time throughout the years and he’s proven himself over and over again. I’ve proven myself over and over again. The young kid just coming in, Coleman, has done great. He’s performed himself to show the world to show he’s going to be a great athlete.
“There’s something called injury and sometimes everything don’t go as smoothly as you want to, there’s negative wind. There’s so much different things, so for you to just directly say something or state something to all three of us like that I take that disrespectfully, you know what I mean?”
Gatlin then replied: “As athletes, regardless of what the sport is we’re human being still. We have to perform. We work hard. We train every day as you all are sitting typing on your computers. Of course sometimes our times are not going to be the best. So I don’t think it’s an algorithm to an anti-doping issue.”
