2008 Olympic Moments: Very Very Close and ... Not So Much

As I look back on this year's tremendous moments in sports, I think the juxtaposition of these two photos show the absolute dominance of Michael Phelps (swimming) and Usain Bolt (track).

Both photos were taken at the finish line of their respective gold medal races in 100m sprints. At this level of intense international competition, these short races are normally decided by hundredths of seconds separating 1st from 2nd from 3rd and from the rest of the pack.

PHELPS DEFEATS CAVIC

At this point, Michael Phelps was just getting warmed up on the way to his historic string of 8 gold medals. However, he ran straight into a buzz-saw of a world-class swimmer in Serb Milorad Cavic, who was outspoken in his desire to derail Phelps' hopes. Phelps (left) held on to win by 1-one-thousandth of a second, relying on the same recipe that would lead to his being crowned "The Greatest Olympian of All Time": incredible natural talent, superb training regimen, and an intense desire to win at all costs.

BOLT DEFEATS THE WORLD

On the other end of the results spectrum, Jamaican Usain Bolt simply obliterated the field--and the world record--by a truly incredible margin. Amazingly, he was almost out of the frame for this photograph, making the rest of the world-class finalists look like no more than decent high school sprinters. Tall and lanky, with a long stride more suitable for the middle sprints (200m and 400m), Bolt literally "bolt-ed" to Olympic gold and into the record books, taking both the 100m and the 200m in world record times.

I have enjoyed watching the Olympics since I was a little kid, but this year's Summer Games were truly memorable.