Usain Bolt's precious 'treble-treble' is no more

When Usain Bolt helped the Jamaican sprint relay team to gold in the Beijing Bird's Nest in 2008 it felt like he was signing off with a joyful exclamation mark at the end of a miraculous new chapter in sporting history.

It brought him a third gold medal to go with the 100m and 200m titles (all of them won in world-record times) and emphasised the exuberant brilliance that had encouraged even the most cynical to believe.

Sprinting had long been the most rancid of Olympic disciplines, turned sour by decades of doping, but Bolt's speed, his smile and his unblemished past was the sweetest of spectacles.

It was a national triumph too for Jamaica, indisputably established as the world leaders in sprinting, with a clean-sweep of the women's 100m medals to go with Bolt's personal haul.

Except it wasn't. Eight years on we learned that the man who ran the lead-out leg in the Bird's Nest that night, Nesta Carter, was running with a banned substance in his system.

Last summer, re-examination of the sample he gave in the Bird's Nest revealed traces of a stimulant methylhexaneamine.

Now as a consequence the entire team, Bolt included, have been disqualified, and Bolt's precious, unprecedented treble-treble is no more.

Until now Bolt's has been a career without caveats or asterix: nine Olympic events entered, nine events won. Posterity, meet Usain.

This destroys the symmetrical perfection of the greatest feat in Olympic sport. Instead of a perfect record from three Olympic Games, the third gold from Beijing is replaced with a 'DQ'.

Under the terms of the punishment Bolt will have to physically return the medal. Eight golds is still a boggling haul but he will feel its absence, and resent the ripples Carter's results will cause.

When first asked about the possible loss of the medal last year Bolt said he would accept the ruling.

"For years you've worked hard to accumulate gold medals and you work hard to be a champion, so it's heart-breaking but it's one of those things… if it's confirmed or whatever and I need to give back my gold medal, it's not a problem to me," he said.

It was a classy reaction born of pragmatism. Bolt has spent his career having his brilliance turned against him and being asked to prove the negative; that he is a clean man in a world of cheats.

The test result means that of the five men who have run 100m in less than 9.79 seconds, Bolt is the only one not to have been tainted by a drugs violation. He would be naïve to expect even his teammates to be paragons.

The man who ran the final leg in Beijing and Bolt's roommate in Rio, Asafa Powell, has also served a ban, for a stimulant he claimed was administered without his knowledge.

The International Olympic Committee has been working its way through samples from Beijing and London as part of a re-testing programme it hopes will restore some credibility.

Scores of Russians and eastern Europeans have been disqualified - the 2008 women's triple jump silver medallist was also exposed on Wednesday - but stripping a gold medal from the biggest name in sport, even through no fault of his own, will be noted around the world.

Bolt may find other relay titles questioned, though not jeopardised. Carter was a stalwart of the Jamaican team, winning 4x100m gold at London 2012 as well as three World Championships.

Bolt has one season left to dazzle, the World Championships in London in August will be his last.

For a decade he has represented hope in a sport being eaten from the inside by cheats and corrupt administrators.
The indiscretions of teammates cannot dull his brilliance or dilute his appeal.

But, as he prepares to depart the stage his record, and his integrity, have never mattered more.