Adoring reporters shower Usain Bolt with love after 100-meter win
RIO DE JANEIRO — It can’t be uncommon for Usain Bolt to stride through a room and hear a woman shout, “I love you! I love you!’’
What made it slightly different Sunday night at Olympic Stadium is the person professing her love was a reporter — Bolivia’s Carmen Pozo of Super Poderosas Magazine. Pozo shouted after Bolt posed with her and a friend in the mixed zone, where journalists are expected to ask questions, not for selfies.
Yet as Bolt sneaked his way inside barriers and stopped to chat with one group of reporters after another, the unofficial rules of engagement were suspended. Several reporters contorted their bodies while snapping selfies as Bolt passed by after his third consecutive gold-medal victory in the 100 meters final Sunday night.
As he approached the end of the mixed zone, the requests and questions sped up.
“Are you greater than Ali?’’ shouted a reporter, referring to the late Muhammad Ali.
Bolt responded with a thumbs up.
He certainly was the greatest in the eyes of Maira Coll, also of Super Poderosas Magazine. She explained that her phone battery had just run out — an instant before she took a selfie with Bolt, when her Bolivian friend pierced the air with those cries of gratitude.
“I love you! I love you!’’