Usain Bolt (C) celebrates before receiving his gold medal for winning the 200

YAHOO! SPORTS

Until 11:45 p.m. London time on Thursday, Usain Bolt had achieved something even more remarkable than turning the Olympic Stadium track into his own personal drag strip.

He'd managed to be the most toweringly arrogant, endlessly cocky, thoroughly likeable guy in sports.

Then he nuked Carl Lewis.

There went the American vote, Usain. Hope the endorsement deals in Jamaica and Europe stay strong, reports Yahoo! Sports.

Bolt's run as the most popular foreign athlete in the United States – maybe ever, or at least in the argument – might have ended abruptly Thursday night. After winning his fifth career Olympic gold medal and second of the London Games, he veered out of his way in the 200-meter news conference to savage Lewis, who merely won nine gold medals for America during his brilliant sprinting-and-jumping career. Them's fightin' words.

Bolt was asked about the great sprinters of all time, with the names Jessie Owens and Carl Lewis mentioned. Bolt gave props to Owens then announced, "I'm going to say something controversial."

Did he ever.

"Carl Lewis, I have no respect for him," Bolt said. "The things he says about the track athletes are very downgrading. I think he's just looking for attention because nobody really talks about him.

"I've lost all respect for him. All respect."

Bolt was asked what caused him to lose respect for Lewis.

"All drug stuff," he responded.

Four years ago, when Bolt exploded in Beijing by winning three gold medals, Lewis specifically questioned Bolt's huge time drop in the 100 meters, from 10.03 to 9.69 in the course of a year.

"If you don't question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you're a fool," Lewis said. "Period."

Back to the present and back to you, Bolt.

"For an athlete to be out of the sport and be saying that is really upsetting," he said Thursday night.

Actually, Bolt took a shot at Lewis earlier in the night in the media zone just off the track. There, he was asked a drug-related question that did involve the name "Victor Conte" but did not involve the name "Carl Lewis." Yet Bolt went there on his own.

"It's really amazing when people talk stupid stuff," Bolt said. "Lewis, nobody remembers who he is. … We [the Jamaicans] work hard, we push ourselves to the limit. I shouldn't even have to respond to that."

This could be the tipping point for Bolt. A guy with a huge approval rating and the most mesmerizing performer in sports just gave a whole lot of people a fresh reason to appraise him much more critically.

There was fresh reason to celebrate Jamaican speed Thursday, and fresh reason to question it. The tiny island nation swept the podium in the 200, with Bolt taking gold, Yohan Blake silver and Warren Weir bronze. That fulfilled Bolt's pre-race marching orders to Weir: "One, two, tree," he said, to accurately quote Weir's Jamaican diction.