Skip to footer

Usain Bolt frustrated by London's 'weird' Olympic security rules

Security has been the only major problem area for games organizers. Thousands of soldiers, sailors and air force personnel had to be drafted to plug the gaps left by the failure by private security contractor G4S to supply all the guards it had promised.

|
Anja Niedringhaus/AP
Jamaica's Usain Bolt holds up one finger after finishing first in the men's 100-meter final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, on Aug. 5.
  • By Rob Harris Associated Press

| LONDON

Being the fastest man on Earth doesn't get you through security any quicker at the Olympics.

There's no cutting the line for Usain Bolt or getting London's rigid regulations relaxed.

And the Olympic champion's not happy about it. Especially when the security guards hold him up ahead of his showpiece 100-meter event.

"I was in the line, we were waiting to run and the guy was telling me to line up straight," Bolt said early Monday. "I was like, 'Really? We're about to run and they are going to make me stand in a straight line?' There are just some weird rules here."

Such as not being allowed to get skipping ropes past security.

"They said I can't bring it in, and I asked, 'Why?'" Bolt recalled. "They just said, 'It is the rules.' So if I have a rubber band that I need to stretch, I can't take it in. And when I asked why, they say, 'It's just the rules.'

"It's just some weird small rules that don't make any sense to me, personally."

Security has been the only major problem area for games organizers. Thousands of soldiers, sailors and air force personnel had to be drafted to plug the gaps left by the failure by private security contractor G4S to supply all the guards it had promised.

Since the games began, it is mainly G4S guards manning entry and exit points.

"Every venue is different. Wherever it happens to be in the world, there are different protocols in most places," London organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe said. "That's the nature of it."

But there will be an investigation into Bolt's frustrations, which Coe initially tried to claim had been "lost in the translation."

"I will look at this," Coe said. "I am presuming the skipping rope was there a warm-up aid, so I will, of course, look at that."

Coe pointed out the bureaucracy that baffled Bolt "didn't seem to slow him up too much."

The Jamaican defended his 100-meter Olympic title Sunday in a games record 9.63 seconds, just .05 of a second off his world mark, to beat Jamaican training partner Yohan Blake.

And Bolt has largely been impressed with the organization in London.

"Great Britain is a wonderful place. They've done so well," he said. "I've been watching the cycling and the rowing. They've done so well. It's just a great Olympics, it's just a great place."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Usain Bolt frustrated by London's 'weird' Olympic security rules
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0806/Usain-Bolt-frustrated-by-London-s-weird-Olympic-security-rules
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe