If Fourth Place Medal‘s headline had been the end of the story (“Usain Bolt dumped his girlfriend to focus on London Olympics”) I would’ve disagreed with his decision, but I would’ve understood.
News reports suggest Bolt’s break up with Lubica Slovak, 28, was because of his desire to repeat his double gold/world record Olympic performance in London. The Jamaican swept the sprint events in 2008 and set the world marks in each race.
A source close to Bolt told the Sun, “He will have plenty of time for relationships. At the moment he’s concentrating on his running career and doesn’t want anything to distract from that.”
Being a peak Olympic athlete is an every-second-of-your-life dedication that requires unimaginable sacrifice, no matter how much faster you are than everyone already and no matter how foxy the Slovakian fashion designer you’ve been dating for six months is. An athlete’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets, or whatever. “Sorry, I can’t love you, I HAVE TO RUN A LOT.”
Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the end of the story. Some sources are saying that the Olympics had nothing to do with Usain calling it quits and that he broke up with Lubica because she’s white, he has a “white woman complex” and couldn’t deal with the backlash from a picture of them kissing. Because if a black guy and a white lady are dating for six months that’s fine, but if they kiss … that’s just too far.
Here’s the pic in question:
If that picture enrages you in any way, please find a rational adult and have them drag you kicking and screaming into 2012. Here’s a quick example of the sh*t they’ve gotten for being depicted as normal people in a relationship:
25-year-old Bolt has come in for criticism from fellow black Jamaicans unhappy that he has chosen a white partner.
One online posting said: ‘Really now Usain! Some successful black men obviously suffer from a white woman complex. You too?’, while another complained: ‘Another one of our men snatched.’
Further protests included: ‘Out of all the girls on this island you pick a snowbunny’, and: ‘These superstars will always disappoint if we depend on them to raise our racial identity.’
So that’s the question — Did Usain Bolt break up with Lubica because he had to concentrate on the Olympics, or because she’s white and strangers couldn’t handle it? Or, did he break up with her because of the racial backlash and just use the Olympics as an excuse? The next question is a two-parter: How is this really any of our business, and how big of a #HOTGOSS graphic can I watermark across their faces?
Here’s to hoping Bolt ended it because of good athlete crazy, and not the bad kind.
