Forget about the comparisons with other world-class sprinters, past or present, at least for now.

After his New Year’s morning accident and the instant activation of the T&T version of the rumour mill, Richard Thompson is now in the august company of one of the legends of American literature. For in the same way that so many people yesterday were spreading the rake that our double silver medallist from Beijing had perished in a vehicular accident, Mark Twain was once mistakenly laid to rest by the New York Journal some time before his actual death in 1910.

It was an error that prompted the laconic author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to pronounce: ’The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’

Almost instinctively we will say that the ’Torpedo’ and his companion in the vehicle he was driving, Monique Cabral, were lucky or that they had a narrow escape or a close brush with death. After that initial reaction and expression of relief, those who believe in a Creator and predestination (like I do) will affirm that to each is a time appointed, and it just wasn’t their time.

Whichever way he assesses the situation from his bed at the Port of Spain General Hospital, it will only be natural for Thompson to contemplate upon his own mortality and how, in an instant, it is quite possible all his dreams of further glory on the athletic track or other aspirations in the broader perspective of life can be extinguished just like that.

Maybe it’s too much to be expecting a 23-year-old to contemplate upon the meaning of life. For someone who clearly seeks to live life to the fullest (and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, depending, of course, on what that full living involves), the accident may just be seen as a momentary blip on an otherwise smooth ride for much of 2008, and when he’s through with all the tests and is fully recovered, it will be back to regular programming.

However, having interviewed him as recently as Old Year’s Day-the freshwaters can keep their New Year’s Eve-I suspect that the QRC old boy already appreciates that there is a greater purpose to this existence than one of excess, indulgence and soaking up the adulation at every turn.

It really doesn’t matter whether it happens at the start of a new year, for that’s only the changing of a number on a calendar.

What matters is that something good comes out of the experience, as harrowing and as frightening as it would have been.

He must be aware that the competitive life of a track star is a very short one. 

Even for someone like nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, an enduring all-time great despite opinions of contemporary champions that reek of sour grapes, age eventually catches up with the very best.

In the midst of all the media attention, public hero-worshipping and general celebrity status, it’s so easy to be deluded into believing that this is how it’s always going to be.

But Lewis is now yesterday’s news, and has been so since his retirement from track and field competition in 1997. He might grab the occasional headline every now and then and every so often his name will come up in some discussion somewhere about Olympic greats.

To all intents and purposes, though, now is the time of Usain Bolt after his phenomenal exploits in Beijing.

  Who knows? Maybe Thompson will get the better of the amazing Jamaican at this year’s inaugural Caribbean Games here in July or later on at the World Championships in Berlin a month later, or even down the road at the next Summer Olympic Games in London in 2012? But, sooner or later, it will all be over, even if he is fortunate enough to have a long, fulfilling career as a track athlete.

 Think about it. Should he eventually prove to be one of our greatest and most durable champions, wouldn’t he be hanging up his spikes for good well before his 40th birthday? Lewis called it a day at 36. Ato Boldon, our most enduring competitor at the highest level so far, wasn’t yet 31 when he made his final Olympic Games appearance in Athens in 2004.

 It ought to give all of our premier sporting personalities, not just Thompson, and indeed all who aspire to follow in their footsteps or even exceed their achievements, cause to pause and place all of their hopes and dreams for fame and fortune through sport in a wider context.

Everything happens for a reason, and by coming face-to-face with his own mortality in the early hours of 2009, it is up to our Beijing hero to figure out what that reason is. What I do know is that he already recognises his responsibility as a role model to the impressionable children of this country, and also sees his fame as something that can be used for a greater good.

When a young man, with the world apparently at his feet and sporting an outrageously garish watch (a gift of bling from a sponsor) can talk at the same time about working to raise awareness about cancer, and especially breast cancer, you know there is some substance behind the obvious talent.

 So maybe this wasn’t so much of a wake-up call as a timely reminder, for Thompson and Cabral, of what’s really important in life.

fazeer2001@hotmail.com