Usain Bolt, crossing the finish line ahead of a pack of slower runners as lightning flashes in the sky above Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. The instant-classic photo you see below became an online sensation over the weekend, and for good reason -- it may well be the most striking sports shot of 2013.
The pic comes from Bolt's victory in the 100 meter dash at the track and field world championships. He finished the race in 9.77 seconds to maintain his sprinting dominance.
Olivier Morin snapped the photo for the AFP, getting it with one of five remote-controlled cameras he stationed near the race finish line to capture the victor from multiple angles. He didn't realize what he'd got until after the race, when he reviewed the contents of the remote cameras on his laptop.
"This was, I think, a once-in-a-lifetime moment," he writes on the AFP blog. "In my 25 years as a photographer I’ve never had an uncontrollable external element make a photo like this, and I imagine if I tried again for a similar result for the next 50 years, it wouldn’t happen again. So, I only really give myself credit for one percent of this picture!"
How does this shot compare to other great sports photos you've seen this year? Let us know in the comments.
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