Van Niekerk and the hard act of following Bolt

For some, Usain Bolt’s retirement from the sport after the 4x100-metre relay tomorrow represents athletics doomsday. For others, it creates a golden opportunity to give the sport a broader perspective.Bolt has been arguably the best thing that has ever happened to the Olympic showcase sport in troubled times, with interest waning amid corruption and doping scandals.He captivated millions of fans with his carefree attitude and pre- and post-race antics. His track record over a decade, with 11 world and eight Olympic titles, plus the 100m and 200m world records, speaks for itself.Not even bronze in the last 100m race Saturday in London has dented his reputation as the face of the sport, and neither would another failure to get gold in his last appearance on Saturday.“I am sad that he is going. The guy has been a sensation, [he] connected like no one else [other] than Muhammad Ali,” Sebastian Coe, president of ruling body the IAAF, said last week.“The guy has a personality. Other are somewhat pre-packaged. He has a view, an opinion. That’s what we will miss and what athletes have to duplicate. It’s all about retaining interest and relevance — he is an extraordinary competitor but sport goes on.”Coe has stated before that there will be life after Bolt in the sport, just as boxing produced stars after Ali and football new faces after Pele or Diego Maradona.Athletics itself has survived the loss of such giants as Carl Lewis, Merlene Ottey, Michael Johnson or Gail Devers, all of whom were highly respected for their performances but not adored in the same way Bolt is.A good indicator these days are figures on social media, where the sport is increasingly consumed.Bolt has 4.8mn followers on Twitter, 18.8mn on Facebook and 7.4mn on Instagram.The man most mentioned as his heir, South African 200m and 400m runner Wayde van Niekerk, has 80,000 followers on Twitter, 46,700 on Facebook and 195,000 on Instagram.Bolt has said that Van Niekerk is “a cool person but I’ve told him to open up his personality a little bit because he’s really laid back”.Twenty-five-year-old Van Niekerk said it was “a massive honour to be mentioned” by Bolt. He says he is ready to take Bolt’s advice.“It is an area where I need to take the responsibility and create a new image. The person that I am and I will be in future will develop. I need to speak to more and more people. I enjoy learning and like to be in a challenging situation,” he said.But Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Wednesday highlighted the difference between Bolt and Van Niekerk.“Bolt sucks all the oxygen out of a stadium, draws all eyes to him. But before van Niekerk had even got back to his feet, everyone had switched their attention back to the pole vault final taking place at the far end of the stadium,” the paper said.“Athletics does have a new champion, a great athlete and an admirable man, but it does not have a new Bolt.”However, Olympic 400m champion and world-record holder Van Niekerk has been announced to ovations in London as the “new superstar,” and his reputation will grow further if he emulates Johnson by completing a 200m and 400m double later on Thursday with victory in the 200m final.Following Bolt will be a hard act, but for some it offers a chance to put sport first again.“For me, the hype around Bolt was unjust,” insisted German sprinter Julian Reus. “He has given unbelievable performances but athletics is more than one person, which it was what it had become reduced to.”Reus may be right in principle. Bolt did monopolise attention and was even called the saviour of athletics when he beat American rival Justin Gatlin, who had served two doping-related suspensions, to 100m gold in 2015. (Bolt lost to Gatlin on Saturday in a cruel twist of fate.)But who’s going to listen to Justin Reus? He has a mere 27,000 followers on Instagram, 17,000 on Facebook and 3,700 on Twitter, putting him light years behind the Jamaican — both on and off the track.