BEIJING -- It was as though the fastest man breathing was using the big stage to toy with the rest of us.

No, Usain Bolt said, he was celebrating his Olympic gold medal in the men's 100-meter dash.

Bolt, a 21-year-old from Jamaica, churned ahead of the seven others in the final yesterday at the cavernous Bird's Nest. Confident he had the field beaten, he started pulling up some 20 yards before the finish, broke form, flung his hands out to the side, slapped his chest, then strutted across the line.

The incredible part wasn't that Bolt won the gold medal. It was that despite his theatrics he set a world record of 9.69 seconds, shaving .03 off the mark he set May 31.

"I didn't even know I got the world record until after my victory lap," Bolt said. "One aim was just to come here and be Olympic champion. I did that, so I was happy."

Bolt wrapped up what had been tagged as one of the major events of the 2008 Games, making the final one of the moments that will be remembered for a long time.

There had been talk of a world record falling in the race, which was supposed to be a close contest among Bolt, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay.

Powell finished fifth in 9.95, while Gay didn't make it out of the semifinals. Fellow American Walter Dix ran a personal-best 9.91 to earn the bronze medal, behind second place Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago at 9.89.

Now there will be talk of just how low the appropriately named Bolt can take the 100-meter mark, if he chooses to run full tilt to the finish at some point.

"People say I could run 9.60 or something," Bolt said with a shrug while munching on an energy bar.

That's an astounding concept in the world of track, considering the 9.7 barrier had loomed for a long time.

Even those in Bolt's backdraft were impressed with the run.

"I had a pretty good start and I felt that I was with Usain until about 50 meters and I just felt him pull away," Thompson said. "I felt as if I was in a comfortable second position. I just tried to relax and I felt myself pulling away from the rest of the group.

"Then I could see him slowing down and I'm still pumping to the line. He's a phenomenal athlete. I don't think anyone would have beaten him with a run like that."

Gay, the American record-holder and 2007 gold medalist at the world championships, would have liked to have tried.

He is in his first Olympics and had been out of competition for a month and a half since injuring his left hamstring in the 200 at the U.S. Olympic trials -- where he set the American 100 mark of 9.77 and ran a 9.68 that was not recognized as a record because it was wind aided.

"I may have needed more races, but I don't really have any excuses," Gay said of his fifth-place finish in his semifinal at 10.05 earlier in the evening. "I just didn't make it. My hamstring feels good. It's not bothering me. I wasn't too overwhelmed with it being the Olympics.

"It just was one of those things that happened."

Gay added it's possible the time off to treat his hamstring could have left him just a bit off in a world where routine rules and slight changes in training, nutrition or equipment can have noticeable effects.

At least, that's normally the case. Bolt doesn't necessarily conform to such standards.

He described his day yesterday this way:

"I never had breakfast. I woke up around 11 o'clock. Sat around, watched some TV. I had lunch. Some nuggets. I went back to my room. Slept again for, like, two more hours. Then got some more nuggets. Then I came to the track."

Bolt, who is scheduled to run in the 200 beginning tomorrow, is breaking barriers not only with his times and an unconventional training regiment, but also in terms of what a world-class sprinter is supposed to look like.

At 6 feet 5, he does not have the typical build of a 100 champion.

"A lot of people were of the belief that you had to be short, strong and stocky to be a good sprinter," Thompson said. "Usain Bolt is defying that, showing that a 6-5 sprinter is able to run world records."

Records Dix doubts will hold for long.

"That's definitely impressive, but I would not say it's not going to get broken again because everybody's going to go after it," he said.