So good you can tell

A few years ago, before Barry Sanders retired right smack in the middle of his prime, I watched the New England Patriots play the Detroit Lions. On one play, Sanders caught a pass in the flat and squared up facing a Patriots defensive back who was closing quickly. Over the course of the following second – and I have no idea now nor did I have any idea at the time exactly what Sanders did to make this happen – the Patriots DB turned 360 degrees trying to get a handle on (perhaps more like trying to find) his quarry, who, at the end of that second, was past him and racing for the end zone.

When an athlete is the best at his or her sport, most people usually can’t tell. To anyone other than a student of the game, watching Mariano Rivera throw a cutter is not terribly notable; the Yankees just usually win shortly after he’s in the game. Watch Tom Brady play a quarter of football and you aren’t likely to come away amazed, even though the Patriots are far more likely to outscore their opponents than if he wasn’t their quarterback. And to take the best example of an enormously popular sport that I don’t happen to understand very well, I’ve really never seen a soccer player do something that made me say “oh, that guys is better than all those other guys.”

Very occasionally, though, an athlete is so head-and-shoulders better than everyone else that you can count on seeing it the moment you start watching. Barry Sanders was like that to me. Michael Jordan is the standard example. Barry Bonds from 2001-2004. Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000. Tiger Woods. Who else, Pickle Nation?

I bring all this up because, while I’ve never been a big aficionado of the Olympics, I’ve been pretty into it this time. On Saturday night, we got a double-dose of human evolution. To see two human beings – Michael Phelps, and then, an hour later (on tape delay) Usain Bolt – turn all the other fastest people in the world into averagely fast people was a real privilege.

Of course, Phelps’ dramatic accomplishment was spread over a week, but you could see everything you needed to see in the 51.0 seconds it took him to swim the fly leg of the 4x100m IM relay, in which he took the US from a healthy 3rd place to a commanding 1st place. In fact, you could see everything you needed to see in the 2 or 3 seconds he spent underwater at the turn – he went into the wall behind, and came up ahead, and the rest is history. It’s a good thing he ate his wheaties; or, rather, his 3 egg sandwiches, 3 pancakes, French toast, 5-egg omelette, grits, 2 pounds of pasta, 3 ham and cheese sandwiches, large pizza, and energy drink after energy drink. For those who are counting, that’s 10K to 12K calories per day. My sister’s boyfriend and I spent 5 hours cycling Sunday, and as far as we can estimate, we burned the same number of calories during that time as Michael Phelps burns sitting as still as he possible can. For real.

Then came Usain Bolt, who only just started running the 100m after focusing on the 200m, and who broke the world record the second time he ran it. If you missed it, watch this, and remember – those are the 2nd through 8th fastest people on planet earth.

To Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, taking it up a notch.