Rogge

The Editor, Sir:

The assault on the 'King of Sprints', Usain Bolt, has gone too far. Jacques Rogge, the latest critic, thinks that Bolt should show respect for his fellow competitors by shaking hands in the spirit of the Olympics.

Not a problem with me, but who should initiate the handshakes? Should the the victor initiate it, or should it be the vanquished?

If Rogge wants to talk about the spirit of the Olympics, then he should have suggested that each of the losers, who shared in this historic feat, carry Bolt on their shoulders and lift him high for all the world to see. That would be showing the 'spirit' of the Olympics of which he speaks.

Bolt was not being disrespectful, but overjoyed by the emotions of a victor whose inward emotional expressions cannot be put in words, but by outward physical action. People do cartwheels, pump fists, jump in crowds of spectators, etc. That is how they express the joy of victory.

No Jamaican has to make any apologies for Bolt's glance to the right, chest-beating or the Nuh Linga dance. Whenever we suppress our deepest expressions on things spiritual or temporal, we become a shadow of our real selves.

I am, etc.,

MAURICE TYNDALE

mmtyndale@yahoo.ca

Ontario, Canada