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RIO DE JANEIRO -- It began in a rain-drenched 5,000-seat stadium on an island between Manhattan and Queens. Some Jamaican kid with the improbably awesome name of Bolt was in the Big Apple, not so much to announce his presence to the world, but to figure out who he was.We clambered into a van and headed over to Icahn Stadium. The headliner that night: American sprinter Tyson Gay.Or so we thought.Wearing a white top and black shoes -- nothing flashy -- Usain Bolt took off out of lane 4 for the mens 100 meters. He busted through the blue tape in 9.72 seconds. That was the new world record.The Beijing Olympics were still two months away, and Bolt was still wondering which race he would add to his specialty, the 200 meters. His coach had urged him to do the 400. At 6-foot-5, the thought went, Bolt was simply too awkward to burst from the starting blocks and build enough speed to win the shortest sprint.Everybody thought wrong.I wasnt really looking for a world record, Bolt said that night, but it was there for the taking.He took it again in Beijing. Then took it in the 200. Then again in the 4x100 relay. He closed out his Olympic career in style Friday night, making it 9 for 9 in the Olympic sprints.I watched that first race in New York, along with all 325 seconds he spent sprinting in the cumulative 23 races hes run at the Olympics -- in Beijing, London and, now, Rio de Janeiro.I watched track and field become fun again.Even at its best, the sprint game had always been a motley collection of unsmiling, sneering faces with loads of trouble seemingly lingering around every curve.Bolt wadded up that stereotype. Yes, sprinting is serious and very difficult work, he showed us. But this stuff can also be eminently watchable. Not just the reggae-filled, selfie-taking, To-The-World-posing after-parties, which Bolt has turned into performance art.The races themselves, too.Time after time, I saw him burst out of those blocks in the 100 and wondered, hows he going to pull this off? Most of the time, he had been losing at the halfway point. By the end, he was almost always far in front.I couldnt believe what I was seeing in Beijing, sitting 10 rows up from the finish line, when he hotdogged down the final eight steps of his 100, casting his arms to his side, then thumping his chest, then breaking his own world record nonetheless.Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee at the time, had the temerity to criticize Bolts joy, saying thats not the way we perceive a champion.As tone deaf and clueless as it sounded then, it makes even less sense today.Bolt has saved his sport and, in turn, kept the Olympics relevant -- not such a small deal in the wake of whats happened at these games, with their constant alerts about violence, disorganization and Ryan Lochte.Without Bolt, the final week of the last three Olympics would have been an endless loop of beach volleyball and hoops and wishing Michael Phelps or Americas latest gold-medal gymnast competed in those events, too. Track, supposedly the glue that brings the whole thing together, would be nothing more than a collection of pole vaulters, distance runners and others whos every accomplishment immediately falls under the lens of the ever-present doping microscope: Is anything you see in this stadium really to be believed?Yes, we should, and have, asked those questions of Bolt, too. Jamaicas anti-doping program is flawed. Who knows whats really going on there?But Bolt has insisted he is clean. He has done it in a serious tone. He has also insisted, at different times, that yams, Chicken McNuggets, his Aunt Lillys jerk pork and, yes, the nutrients from his pints of Guinness have powered him to the top.He has come close, a few times, to being knocked off, and Ive seen Bolt at his most vulnerable.Last year, back in Beijing for the world championships, he was injured and nowhere near his best.Justin Gatlin should have beaten him in the 100 but started leaning into the finish line too soon and Bolt persevered by one-hundredth of one second. In doing so, Bolt checked the box that anyone seeking to be called The Greatest must check at least once: Gritting one out when youre not at your best.Feeling he was the faster man, Gatlin said he had something in store for Bolt in the 200, a few nights later.You dont talk about my 200 meters like that, Bolt said. It was the most-telling sentence Ive ever heard him speak.He spanked Gatlin -- powering his long legs through a curve that was built for him, then going into hyperdrive down the straightway in a race he calls his baby. Bolt got upended by a Segway during the celebration. He popped right up. He delivers great theatre even when he doesnt mean to.In 2012, I saw him in Kingston, dealing with leg injuries and the remnants of an out-of-form preseason at Jamaicas version of Olympic trials.Yohan Blake beat him not once, but twice, that week.This, ladies and gentlemen, is the man to beat at the London Olympics, I wrote after the second win, speaking of Blake.Those are 13 words I wish I could have back.In Rio, as Friday night morphed into Saturday morning, I was in the press tribune, putting a bow on what Bolt insists will be his last run at the Olympics.From the darkened field below, the shouts of Usain Bolt, Usain Bolt started ringing out.I squinted, saw a tall man in yellow shirt and shorts hoisting a javelin, with a few dozen workers and cameramen surrounding him.The man took a few long steps, reared back and let the javelin fly. It pierced the grass, not all that far downfield, but a pretty nice throw nonetheless.Could that really have been The Worlds Fastest Man -- all wrung out, out of words, too tired to entertain anymore -- throwing the javelin down there at 2 in the morning for fun?It was.I couldnt take my eyes off him. Then again, who ever could?---National Writer Eddie Pells has covered more than 30 of Bolts races at Olympics and world championships, starting with his first world record in 2008 and ending Friday night in Rio de Janeiro.Carter Kieboom Nationals Jersey . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Wander Suero Jersey . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. https://www.cheapnationals.com/357r-anibal-sanchez-jersey-nationals.html . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Aaron Barrett Jersey . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. Koda Glover Jersey . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action.At a time when Australia are clearly struggling for a win in Test rugby, it is important that the solution is an Australian approach.Australia need to look at their situation through Australian eyes not what the All Blacks or anyone else have been doing because its a different beast in itself. Its just too easy to look at what New Zealand are doing and try to replicate that.Theyve got probably four reasonably strong franchises with Melbourne joining the Brumbies, Waratahs and Reds, and they need to look to build from those four key areas. I dont think ditching one of the franchises would be a bad thing for them, as I have written previously, because with five they have diluted their playing pool. I think the more they can get their best players playing in closer vicinities, and against each other, the better they are going to be.Not knowing what they are doing at the development and grassroots side of their game, it is difficult to assess that, but you can assume they have got their traditional clubs who are trying their best. But I acknowledge that in competing with other sports it makes things extremely difficult.The policy of allowing players to be included from overseas probably helped them at last years Rugby World Cup but possibly they need to look at using that rule in a World Cup year only. But if you really want to keep your players you have to dangle that World Cup carrot. Ideally, you want to have players in Australia building up to the event perhaps from two years beforehand.What you are really talking about is the value of the jersey and being part of history by playing a World Cup against the value of the dollar. Everyones got their own motivations, and there are circumstances surrounding what position they play in and what competition they have to guarantee a starting spot.For Michael Cheika, all he can do is look to have the biggest possible pool of talent to select from; but having players overseas means that talent pool is not at his fingertips and he cant have control over them. If you rely on overseas players there are no guarantees they will return better players.What we have seen recently with players who have come back from overseas is that they are not the same players who left; especially the backs. If they lose half a yard of pace and a sense of space, they start playing a different game and thats not conducive to getting the best out of the team overall.There are a number of different instances of that in New Zealand. Australia need to have a seriously hard look at that rule and whether they keep it or ditch it.At any time, you only have a specific number of aces up your sleeve; by allowing them to play overseas, you are giving one or two of your aces away - and that puts the Australian game in a weaker position long term.New Zealand have committed themselves to their ruling regarding overseas players and they are going to stay very staunch on that rule because, as we have seen, there will always be somebody to replace you no matter how good you are. And you can see that right through to the grassroots and secondary school level. The next level of players coming through in New Zealand is prretty phenomenal.dddddddddddd.I guess it comes back down to the loyalty to the jersey and the pride of playing for your country.In terms of how you play when you are down on quality it is simple, you play to what strengths you have. And you always have to have a rock solid defensive system. With that in mind, I think David Pocock and Michael Hooper are clearly part of Australian rugbys strengths and getting those pilfering, scavenging players like sevens on the ball and over the breakdown should be a focus. They really want to play an expansive game, but I think the more they can isolate the opposition the better they are going to be with the likes of those scavengers.And with whatever areas you look at and then come up with a plan, it is one thing doing that; but if you have other weak areas, like second five-eighths, where Australia have two first-fives picked to play in that area, Australia dont really have the choice of selection that New Zealand has.If you look at the midfield, the wealth of talent New Zealand has to choose from at the moment highlights the difference between the two countries. It really comes down to how Australia can fill their bucket with talented players they can develop over the next three years.Do they look at league, or at players coming through? They probably are looking at what is coming through their own talent pool and giving long-term development contracts to give those guys as much development as possible.Next year they lose Pocock to a sabbatical and that is a chance to get a player in there and develop him at the top level. They know how good Pocock is. Richie McCaw and Dan Carter took six months out, and they came back better; Pocock is likely to be the same. Australia need him for the next World Cup and he will still be a class player when he comes back.It is interesting, looking ahead to this weekend with the All Blacks vs. Argentina game that it is almost the flipside of the Australian situation. The talented players that Argentina do have are in the right environment, and what they have done with just one Super Rugby team and being able to develop players for their national side will make them stronger; we are already starting to see that with what they did against South Africa last week.Their motivation is obvious. At some point they are going to tip the All Blacks over; by playing New Zealand twice a year now, history says there will be a day when that happens. The Argentine motivation is that they want to be part of that team that finally does beat the All Blacks for the first time.Every time the All Blacks play Argentina now, they have got to be on top of their game and have an understanding that Argentina have the same sort of flair and mentality as the French. You dont know what you are going to get on any given day; they can just turn up and be absolutely sublime or sometimes they can be clumsy and let themselves down. But they always have the passion and the intent.So it is going to be physical and tough and it is going to be a Test match. ' ' '