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At rain soaked Lausanne we got Classic Bolt - relaxed and playful at the start. Then a stretch of his 1.96-metre frame - the gun - and 19.59 seconds later the show of the fastest man alive was all over. But for 4 days, Lausanne Switzerland was gripped with BOLTMANIA. Some quotes from the Lausanne tour.

“It was a good time. But I’ve made history so a lot of people are looking to me for big times and great things. I’m always going out to do my best but I trailed off tonight because I want to stay injury-free to the season end.”

Could he have broken the WR if the weather had cooperated.  “I don’t even think of it in those terms, I was just trying to test myself and my form. I’m in good shape, but I’m not fully ready yet. I still need to work on a few technical things.”

“He’s from outer space - in another category,” said 23-year-old Swiss sprinter Marco Cribari, who finished sixth.

Bolt, the main attraction for a sold-out crowd of 14,300 was celebrating, slapping eager palms and stopping to sign autographs and strike his famous pose for awestruck fans, including a noisy Jamaican fan club from Geneva. “Usain is the number one Jamaican,” screamed Margaret Green-Detraz, president of the Swiss Jamaican Association, dressed head to foot in the national yellow and green. “In Jamaica he was nowhere and then he suddenly rose up and has made us all so proud,” she beamed.

Asked if Athletissima compared to Beijing, Bolt responded, “You can’t really compare it to the Olympics. The Olympics bring so much pressure. It was easy here. Since I’m starting to get a cold, I was not able to think about any faster time. My coach told me that I should make sure to end the season healthy.”

Apart from the change in climate, Switzerland left a strong impression on the young star. “I have never eaten so much chocolate as I have here.” Trademark laugh. “But I also like the athletics. And this track. The public is always very close to us during the race and gives a good atmosphere.”

The day before the race was the moment to knuckle down, though. His coach, Glen Mills, had him testing each of the eight lanes of the track at Lausanne’s Pontaise Stadium like a true professional. How does Mills explain Bolt’s phenomenal success? “He’s an incredible athlete. In every century there’s someone who rewrites the pages of history, like Jesse Owens, or Carl Lewis. This century, it’s Usain Bolt.”

Speaking before an audience of business professionals at the IMD event a few insights emerged. Bolt said, “My first motivation was always my family. I wanted to give back to them. To provide a better life.”

On training Coach Mills had this to offer. “This is the only job where the employee is the boss. It’s my job to keep it creative. To keep training interesting and fun. I’m a realist. You have to be prepared for all eventual outcomes. You have to learn to lose before you can learn to win. That’s what keeps you grounded.”

When posed with the thought that he doesn’t just run, but appears to play track and field, Bolt smiled widely and put it all in perspective. “At first I wanted to please everyone. That’s a lot of pressure. It’s different now. Sometimes all the media attention. It’s difficult. The expectations. So it’s always back to training. I need to be strong. I need to stay healthy.” No need to explain why he then placed his hand over his chest. “I need to stay motivated for me. To have goals. To not be boring. But mostly I need to have fun. That’s my personality.”
Editors note: turns out bolt was nominated for a second espy: best international male athlete. You can vote here.

by matt taylor

bolt is unreal. 13 degrees celsius. pouring down rain. into a headwind. and 19.59.

one track insider who’s followed bolt’s career since high school said: “other than his 100m [world record race] in beijing, that was the most impressive race i’ve ever seen from bolt. better than his 9.72. better than his 19.30. what we just saw . . . that was unreal.”

what’s interesting to note: on the surface, the time is fast, but not out of this world. in fact it’s still 3-tenths of a second slower than his world record 19.30. but if you take into account the weather, and then also look at the times the other athletes ran, your eyes go wide.

asafa powell looked great in the 100 - only 10.07. shelly-ann fraser nipped carmelita jeter at the line in the women’s 100 - 11.03 to 11.06. and kerron stewart only managed a 22.73 in the 200.

so it’s clear bolt is fit and fast. if he wants to lower his world records in berlin . . . you get the sense it’s just a question of whether or not he runs through the line. add to that the fact that he’ll also be wearing a brand new spike built specifically for his foot and his stride mechanics - that’s probably worth a tenth of a second alone!

Ridiculous!

Despite the pouring rain at the Grand Prix meet in Lausanne, Bolt recorded the fourth fastest time in history in the 200 meters finishing in 19.59. His time set a meet record.

The 22-year-old triple Olympic champion eased home 82 hundreths of a second ahead of the United States’ 400m Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt.

Bolt, who was running into a headwind, was just a hundredth of a second outside the best time of the year set by United States triple world champion Tyson Gay, who had the benefit of a favorable tailwind when he ran in New York on May 30.

Great video - pure BOLT - beyond relaxed.

“I definitely will be running to the line. I’ll be going all out because I need to know where I’m at and what I need to do for Berlin.

“I don’t have a world championship gold medal yet, so I’m working on that,” he said. “A successful season would be to go to the world championships and repeat what I did in Beijing.”

Bolt confirmed that meant aiming for new records.

“Definitely. If that comes, I would really like that, but it’s about getting the gold medals first,” he said.

As for chasing Johnson’s record 400 time of 43.18 seconds, Bolt said it isn’t a priority right now. “If it was up to me I wouldn’t do that, but in the future, probably, yes. If I dominate for years to come, which I want to, then I think my coach will definitely want me to run the 400.”

Bolt will line up Tuesday against American Shawn Crawford, the 2004 Olympic champion and runner-up last year.

Also on the speedy Pontaise track will be Bolt’s Jamaica teammate Asafa Powell in the 100. The former record-holder is seen as one of Bolt’s main challengers in the sprints this season alongside American Tyson Gay.

…will he become the next big motivational speaker? Will he sit on the boards of major international companies? The answer may lie in what Bolt will be doing the day before he runs the Athletissima Lausanne.

On Monday July 6, Usain will be on the campus of IMD, the leading global business school based in Lausanne for a unique event in which he will discuss motivation and how one sustains it through both failure and victory.

But he’s not talking with young athletes - or even coaches. His audience will be an attentive crowd of business leaders.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the fastest man in human history after setting three World records at the Beijing Olympics last year. Reaching the heights that Bolt attained required motivation, critical thinking and focus. Even more important, it required turning early setbacks into advantages, turning weaknesses into strengths and developing the motivation required of a world champion. Those three attributes, which are lessons that can apply to those working in business, will be the topic of Bolt‘s speech on Monday.

Way to change it up, Mr. Bolt.

The most beautiful Gothic church in Switzerland, Lausanne Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame) rises 500 ft. above Lake Geneva in the hillside of Lausanne.

Construction on the cathedral began in 1175 and it was consecrated in 1275 by Pope Gregory X. It was completed in, well, never - it still remains unfinished today. Architect-restorer Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began a restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century - and it is still going on today.

But here’s the fun story.

Lausanne was one of many medieval cities to institute a nightwatch to prevent the all-too-common threat of devastating fires. The city was once made mostly of wood and burned down several times. Every night, watchmen stationed on the wall surrounding the town would call out to each other, ensuring that there were no fires and that no enemy was approaching.

The cathedral nightwatch was the most important. Every night, the watchman walked up the 153 stairs to the top of the tower. Every hour on the hour from 10pm to 2am, he called out to the four directions: C’est le guet; il a sonné l’heure (”This is the nightwatch; the hour has struck”). Lausanne is the only city in Europe to continue this tradition to this day. Nowadays, the reassuring sound of the nightwatchman’s voice startles unsuspecting tourists and inebriated students stumbling home from the clubs.

So if you’re traveling to Lausanne for Athletissima - be prepared for the call of the nightwatchman.

The trend in Lausanne is Alpine Urban Street - “where alpine roots meet urban creativity.” A  hip mash-up of tradition and NOW that makes perfect sense looking at the history of its culture and Lausanne‘s vital street scene.

the picture above is a photoshopped version of Mark Ramstead’s photo ‘Vintage Mt. Baldy Pipeline”

Yesterday I mentioned Lausanne’s avant-garde. Decided to travel that road when discussing their visual arts.

Lausanne is home to one of the most interesting museums - the Collection de L’Art Brut, an internationally renowned museum for outsider art. The museum presents artists, who live on the fringe – many of them in psychiatric institutions – who have each created, through their art, an individual world of their own, characterized by great aesthetic intensity and passion. The paintings and graphics, sculptures and objects of these artists are presented together with touching documentary films that convey an impression of their lives, their particular circumstances, and their ways of working.

The collection of art has no particular theme, but the artists all share something in common: none of them have had any formal art training. Reading the short bios of the artists is worth the trip alone. One sculpture was carved by a man in a prison cell with the handle of his spoon. When they took his spoon away he began using a pot handle instead (I’m talking resourceful here.) A woman drew onto a huge scroll of paper in near darkness and due to the cramped space she was in, never actually saw her drawing unrolled. And that’s just the beginning of the strange.

About the piece to the right: Aurie Ramirez, a 46 year old Filipino-American woman, may have suffered slightly from a form of autism and perhaps dyslexia. Whichever the case, her art speaks volumes. She expresses herself in a unique language that is dreamy, haunting, fashion inspired and often humorous. Some of her work was inspired by television’s ‘The Addams Family.’ Her art is often vivid with color - or almost austere in its grays. Google her if you’re interested.

Henry Darger is the world’s most celebrated lifelong menial laborer, having worked unnoticed as a janitor, a dishwasher and a winder of gauze bandages. Darger is exposed in John MacGregor’s In the Realms of the Unreal, a definitive, 10-year, 720-page critical study of his life and work. Darger was mentally ill in the unspecific way of the self-muttering recluse, and his fame comes from what was discovered during the cleaning out of the room he inhabited for 40 years. The photo on the left was found in his 19,000 page illustrated manuscript. You can find much info about him online, as well as photos of his most famous works. The deranged man was clearly an outsider, and some believe the murderer of Elsie Paroubek, a Chicago girl whose murderer was never found. A loft in the museum contains excerpts from the novel found after his death.

Being home to the Collection de L’Art Brut says much about the cultural pulse of Lausanne.

Doing some research for our trip to Lausanne, Switzerland this week and my first surprise was to learn that ice hockey and soccer are their top two sports. Who knew? Let’s get started.

Lausanne is in Romandy, the French speaking part of the country, and is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva with the Jura Mountains to the northwest. 31 miles northeast of Geneva, the city is the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It lies in the middle of a wine region.

Lausanne tends to inspire hyperbole. In a country of spectacular natural beauty it is the most beautiful of cities with steep hills that have been developed into a tiered succession of compact, south-facing terraces. Vistas of blue water, glittering sunlight, and the purple and grey of the white-capped Savoy Alps frame the interior landscape. The city is still wooded with plenty of parks, and the tree-lined lakefront promenades spill into beds of vibrantly colorful flowers. It is Switzerland’s sexiest city.

If Switzerland has a counterculture, it lives in the clubs and cafés of Lausanne, a fact that supports its tradition of fostering intellectual and cultural innovation. From medieval times, Lausanne has been Swiss culture’s avant-garde. Students flock to Lausanne’s pioneering and prestigious University of Lausanne, while restless Romantics seek and find inspiration in its magnificent panorama and revolutionary cultural. It is a city that values and supports pleasure, generously subsidizing art and culture of all shades, resulting in a range of festivals, live music, clubs, theater, opera and dance to rival a metropolis ten times its size (merely 300,000 inhabitants.)

Along with the University of Lausanne, hundreds of language schools and private academies enhance the city’s reputation for learning, along with the world-famous Ecole Hoteliere, which is a world renowned training ground for top chefs and hotel staff. This array of international study helps define Lausanne’s uniquely diverse multi-ethnic makeup. The youthful spirit, and the city’s hilly aspect, have also given Lausanne a new role as Europe’s blading and skateboarding capital: when the sun shines, every public space hisses with the spinning of tiny wheels.

Fun fact: It’s a mark of Lausannois spirit that given the chance to host the 1994 winter games, they voted it down to instead host the annual International Roller and Skateboarding Contest.

Photo to right ‘Geneve-Lausanne l.’ by Szilard Torok. Prints are available at redbubble.com.

Fast History: In 1976 track and field barely existed in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Given the lack of adequate infrastructures, major national competitions rarely took place outside German-speaking Switzerland, specifically the Letzigrund track in Zurich.

Former 800m runner Jacky Delapierre was asked by Stade Lausanne to help organize the inauguration of the Pierre de Coubertin stadium. Delapierre decided to think big; he wanted to inaugurate the stadium with an annual international event.

For the first year, prestigious names were announced: John Walker, 1500m Olympic champion in Montreal in 1976; Mac Wilkins, 1976 Olympic champion in discus throwing; Dick Quax, who smashed the 5000m world record just a couple of days before; and Dwight Stones, the greatest track and field show man the sport had ever known, who wanted his world record in the high jump back since Soviet Yatchenko had just taken it away.

Everything was ready for a wonderful celebration of the sport, but at 6pm sharp, it started raining like hell. It looked like the end before the beginning, but the public was hungry. With umbrellas in hand, 5,600 spectators stormed the entrance gate. The star athletes were stunned, but since they didn’t want to disappoint the crowds, they gave it their all.

The skies were not as cooperative. But Stones and Walker were so impressed by the support of the crowds that they told Delapierre, “What is happening here tonight is fantastic. We want to come back in three weeks to offer this crowd the show it deserves.”

At the beginning of August, a second international meet was held - then another and another. The tradition of Athletissima Lausanne began thanks to Dwight Stones, John Walker and Jacky Delapierre.