Usain Bolt’s finish from the 200m finals:

The NY Times had a gorgeous graphic on the front page today, showing how his time of 19.30 and Michael Johnson’s 19.32 from 12 years ago were an order of magnitude faster than anyone else has ever run the race.  No one expected Bolt to break the record — not even Bolt himself.  The record that stood for 12 years was expected to stand for decades to come.

(I wish the NY Times would let me embed their graphics.  Check it out online here instead.)

It’s not an accident, I’m sure.  The story is about training and diligence and hard work and years preparation.  But then you go out on the track and blow even your most wild-eyed expectations out of the water. You are greater than yourself.

We should celebrate — here’s to Usain Bolt.

Here’s to Michael Johnson and Jesse Owen and Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Roger Bannister and Bob Beamon and the hundreds of other transcendent performances from the world of track and field, and probably every other sport under the sun.

It’s easy to find examples of transcendence in sports, perhaps because records are so assiduously kept.  I’m trying to find the analog in other arenas outside of sports though…  And am not doing so well.

Inventing the lightbulb? The printing press?  The internet?

Going to the moon?  Scaling Everest?  Insisting that man can fly?

Deciphering DNA?  Coding the entire human genome?

Designing the iMac?

These examples come easily to mind, but I am unable to know for sure whether these are truly transcendent moments, or whether they are (merely?) incremental, inevitable improvements on what has come before.  The latter answer in no way takes away from their impact, but I’m looking for something greater still here.

What do you think?  What is transcendent in our own world today, away from the Olympics?  How can we measure and illustrate that transcendence, as the Times did today?

Most importantly, where can I find inspiration next week, once Bob Costas has hung up his microphone for the next four years?