Like you, I couldn't watch enough replays of Usain Bolt winning the 100 on Saturday night, especially because he pretty much did the Soulja Boy dance backwards for the last 20 meters. I don't mind cockiness as long as it's earned and not overly performative, but holy shit is this guy fast. Has there ever been a record that we take seriously broken so incredibly easily? Like, a guy in a pie-eating contest taking the last minute to re-enact with his fist a bit of dialogue from My Dinner with Andre? One of those radio DJs staying up for like 175 hours doing the last 10 with his eyes closed? I don't think so.

But as with virtually all amazing things that athletes do, with Bolt, there's a shoe company in the mix (maybe):

You see, the reason Usain Bolt didn't push through and finish in 9.60 seconds instead of 9.69 is -- as the rumor goes -- because he's smart. He didn't want to kill his gravy train.

Runners often get six figure bonuses for doing things like breaking world records and if you study the previous four times the 100 meter has been broken over the last three years, it's never been by more than .03 seconds. Asafa Powell (9.77) broke Maurice Greene's record (9.79). Justin Gatlin (9.76) broke the record of Powell, who broke it back a little more than a year later (9.74). That stood until Bolt broke the record (9.72) in May.

So, the conspiracy theory goes, that Bolt knew before the race that he had to win the race and take the gold, but not push it too much, otherwise he'd kill his opportunity at future bonuses.