Athletics Men's 100m Final - Usain Bolt wins the Gold Medal - London 2012 Olympic Games Highlights

Usain Bolt won the gold medal once again in the 100-meter dash at the London Olympics on Sunday successfully defending his title from Beijing, and setting a new Olympic record with 9.63 seconds.

Bolt's training partner and Jamaican teammate, world champion Yohan Blake, won the silver in 9.75, and 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin of the U.S. took the bronze in 9.79.

The 25-year-old crossed the finish line wagging his right index figure, and did a victory lap in which he gave high-fives to fans in stands chanting "Usain! Usain!"; he even did a somersault!

Bolt has had technical troubles with his start over the past few months, losing to Blake in the Jamaican Olympic Trials and false-starting at the world championships. His coach told him to stop worrying about the start and just concentrate on winning the race in the final 50 meters.

The London final played out much as expected. Bolt was typically slow out of the blocks especially since his disqualification in last year's world championships but had gathered in the field by the 60 metre mark and was never going to lose after that.

The Olympic Stadium was packed Sunday, 80,000 full, including Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and at least half the US basketball team. Two million people applied for tickets to see Bolt run the 100 but were turned away. For Phelps, organizers were having a hard time filling a 10,000-seat swim stadium and used soldiers as seat-fillers.

Since 1896, athletics has been on the programme of each edition of the Games of the Olympiad. Its presence on the Games programme has allowed its popularity to increase across the world. This popularity was also strengthened by the creation of the IAAF in 1912.

Women's events appeared for the first time at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, while the men's programme was standardised as of the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. Although at the beginning women were authorised to participate in only some events, today their programme is almost identical to that of the men.

The world's highest-paid athlete should now have no trouble, if he so desires, adding to the stable of six cars, all black, at his hilltop Kingston home. Surely none has an engine that purrs like his.