‘Charming’ Bolt gets kicks with camera

After Usain Bolt won the gold medal in the men's 200 meters Thursday, he grabbed a photographer's camera and started taking pictures - mostly of himself.

It wasn't the first time the diva sprinter from Jamaica had borrowed a camera after a race. And it wasn't the first time that particular photojournalist was targeted.

Jimmy Wixtrom, who works for the Swedish sports website Sportbladet, said Bolt had commandeered his equipment in meets in Rome and Daegu, South Korea, and that they have developed a friendship of sorts.

"As a photographer, he is pretty good," Wixtrom told the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet. "I sit and watch the pictures. He is charming."

Not sure that Carl Lewis would agree with that assessment.

■ PROTECTING THE BRAND - The London Organizing Committee has gone to great lengths to protect itself against bootlegged merchandise. And that includes condoms.

Officials in the Olympic Village removed a display from an Australian company that was giving away its product to the many oversexed athletes who need a little protection. Since Kangaroo Condoms was not an official Olympic sponsor (Durex is the official condom of the Olympics), its product was removed.

Too bad. It had a catchy slogan - "For The Gland Down Under."

■ HISTORY FOR SALE - Who wouldn't want to own a piece of Olympic history? If you have a spare $30 million lying around, you could own Alf, Uthopia and Valegro.

The trio happen to be horses who competed in the Olympics for the gold medal-winning Great Britain dressage team. According to Carl Hester, who owns Uthopia and Valegro, the horses were going to be sold after the Olympics. But since they earned gold, their value should go up.

"It was always the plan to ride them until the Olympics and then they would be sold," Hester said.

If Hester's price is met, he can retire and enjoy the life of an English squire.

"I always thought Uthopia would release me from a lifetime of slavery to work," he said. "I thought he would be the one to pay off my mortgage and finally free me from these shackles."

Spoken in the true Olympic spirit. Cash in while the gold still glitters.

■ OLYMPIC BLACK BOOK - Some 10,000 athletes have been competing at the London Olympics. But not all of them made it to the finish line unscathed.

Twenty-three were sent home by their federations for offenses ranging from match-fixing to flunked drug tests to being a Neo-Nazi to public drunkenness.

With two days to go, time still remains for someone to act like a buffoon and get added to the Olympic "Black Book."

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL