Beijing - Jacques Rogge should have kept his mouth shut. That, at least, was consensus of much of the world media Friday, a day after the International Olympic Committee President criticized the wild celebrating style of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. "Rogge, who is 66 and competed in the Olympics as a yachtsman three times between 1968 and 1976, suddenly sounded like a very old (man)," said Richard Williams in the British newspaper The Guardian.
Rogge had criticized 222-year-old Bolt's exuberant outbursts after winning Olympic golds in 100m and 200m, in both cases setting new world records.
"I have no problem with him doing a show," Rogge said - but added that it would have been better also to acknowledge his fellow competitors in the immediate race aftermath.
"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."
Bolt had a huge lead in Saturday's 100m final, in which he covered the distance in an impressive 9.69 seconds. Before the finish line he slowed down and turned his head to eye his rivals, in a gesture that Rogge perceived as "catch me if you can."
"You don't do that," Rogge said. "But he'll learn. He's still a young man."
Peter Foster, writing in another British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, rejected the criticism.
"Of course, whatever your views on Bolt's conduct, its hard to listen to the chief of an organisation as ethically bankrupt as the International Olympic Committee, delivering lectures on good behaviour and Corinthian ideals," he wrote.
Sally Jenkins at The Washington Post just teased Rogge in a piece in which she made as if Rogge had written a letter on the subject.
"This is truly an Olympic crisis," the fake Rogge says. "It's one thing for the Chinese government to jail dissidents, to forge the passports of underage gymnasts, and to set up official protest zones and then arrest anyone who applied to use them.
"These are matters that I met with disciplined silence, or as I so adroitly put it, with 'quiet diplomacy.' But I cannot ignore Bolt's disturbing spontaneity. Him, I feel compelled to rebuke."
The Spanish daily El Mundo also agreed that criticism on Bolt was out of place. "It stands out that such observations have been made on, of all people, the man who has spiced up the Games the most, and who has put on a display of sublime athletic prowess," Ruben Amon said in the paper.
He continued: "The Games' problem does not lie in their geopolitical dimension, Rogge says. Nor in the way that Russia has mocked the Olympic truce with regard to Ossetia.
"Nor in the velvet alibi that Beijing's tyranny has been granted. Nor in the scientific sophistication that has allowed the anti-doping laboratory to be dodged.
"The problem, Rogge says, lies in the fact that Bolt's tribal dance could be perceived as an offence to his rivals. Would that be the reason why the athletes themselves regarded him as a bullfighter? Where was Rogge when that happened?"
The Guardian was tough on the IOC president: "The only person who could possibly have been offended was a Belgian bureaucrat who has done some good things during his time at the head of the IOC but would have done well to bite his tongue on this occasion and let youth have its day."
Asked about Bolt's celebrations Friday, the Namibian Frankie Fredericks - president of the IOC athletics commission and a former sprinter himself - was clear.
"We cannot tell a guy who's run 9.69 seconds how he needs to react," he said in remarks contradicting his boss. "'He's making history."
