Bolt's So Good, You Have to Ask: Is He Clean?

Usain Bolt doesn’t even bother running through the tape at full speed. By the end of his sprints—even his mind-boggling, record-breaking 200-meters in Berlin—he’s mugging for the cameras. “Every race he leaves us wondering, ‘How fast could this guy go?’” writes Michael Wilbon in the Washington Post. Unfortunately, he leaves us wondering something else too: “Is he clean?”

Other than his spectacular dominance, there’s no reason to believe Bolt is doping. He even passed a doping test before the men’s 100-meter final. But this is track and field, “where chemists and the dope police have been trying to outwit each other for decades.” From Ben Johnson to Marion Jones, track is loaded with tainted legends, and none were as dominant as Bolt. It may be cynical, but these days, “there simply is no benefit of the doubt.” (More Usain Bolt stories.)