If you want to know just how out of touch the IOC is then listen to Jacques Rogge, a deluded individual who is the organisation's president. Commenting on Usain Bolt, the man who is single-handedly dragging athletics' reputation from the gutter back into the mainstream, Rogge was a tad miffed that the Jamaica sprinter had not taken a break from redefining the parameters of physical endeavour to shake hands with his rivals.

“That's not the way we perceive being a champion,” Rogge said. “I have no problem with him doing a show but I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 metres.”

Which goes to show how little Rogge knows about sport. He may be good at garden parties and probably has impeccable table manners, but he is a lone voice of dissent. Sport is a show and Bolt has become P.T. Barnum.

His celebration as he crossed the line in the 100 metres was an indelible Olympic image. For Rogge it lacked the stiff upper lip he would have preferred. “The way it was perceived was 'catch me if you can,'” the Belgian continued. “You don't do that. But he'll learn. He's still a young man.”

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Rogge is an old man but will never learn. People love a winner with character and Bolt has it. He danced, he made his signature lightning gesture and he waved his gold shoes around. These have been his Games. Rogge's attitude sums up a myopic approach to sport. He wants it played by some draconian code of ethics instead of enjoying the beautiful drama and mind-boggling entertainment of the moment.

He is also wrong. Bolt is both a generous and magnanimous individual. He is utterly deferent to his coach, Glen Mills, respects his elders and said last night that he had just changed the sport a bit, whereas Michael Johnson revolutionised it. After another brilliant run here, he stopped in the mixed zone to speak specifically to the British media about Germaine Mason, the high jumper who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, but was draped in a Union Jack after winning a surprise silver medal.

You could draw up a list of things wrong with the Olympics as long as the 10,000 metres. It is a corporate carve-up where Visa is king. There have been several books devoted to corruption within the ranks. And then Bolt comes along with his harpsichord grin, laid-back manner and God-given talent. In many ways, he is the man who saved the Games, but Rogge is more concerned that he stops when crossing the line at breakneck speed and then waits for his rivals to finish before shaking hands and saying, “Well done, old chap.”

Sprinting, the boxing of track and field, has been dominated by a timeline of braggarts and egos. With his dancing, his talk of chicken nuggets and his wonderfully lackadaisical manner, Bolt is the best thing that has happened to the Olympics in decades. All the suspicion and finger-pointing that has plagued the Games have been forgotten, however briefly that may last.

“Flash, I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth,” Dale Arden said in the film Flash Gordon. Bolt says he is not Flash Gordon and, indeed, it has taken him only 9.69sec to save his sport.

Rogge is too consumed by his own importance and a deeply simplistic view of sport to realise all this. As for Bolt, he must feel like shaking his head rather than hands.