JFK terminal evacuated, as claps for Usain Bolt reportedly mistaken for gunshots

Around the time Usain Bolt won gold, a JFK Terminal was evacuated for what sounded like gun shots. Were the noises actually in celebration of Bolt’s win?

In what may well be his final Olympics, Usain Bolt won gold for the third straight time in the men’s 100m race, becoming the first 100m-sprinter ever to medal in three consecutive Summer Games. The ovation inside Rio’s Olympic Stadium was what one might expect: loud, effusive, in praise of a man who’s dominance has come to define an era.

At John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, however, the celebration may have been a bit too booming.

According to NBC News, JFK Airport’s Terminal 8 was evacuated following what were believed to be gunshots around 9:30 PM ET.

When emergency crews arrived, the terminal was immediately evacuated. After an initial investigation, however, it was determined there were never any gunshots fired.

Forty-five minutes later, another call — this one from Terminal 1 — came in that claiming shots had been heard there as well. These reports were also quickly defused.

So what, exactly, was the deal? One official speculated that the loud noises may have been the result of fans gathered around to watch the Olympics on the terminal televisions.

As Deadspin notes here, Usain Bolt’s race coincidentally ended around the time the “gun shots” were reportedly heard.

If that officials speculation is correct (and it very well could be), Bolt has quite a lot of support from the travelers in JFK. They were so loud in their support for the Jamaican that multiple people — in different terminals, mind you —actually mistook their screams and bangs as gun fire.

You wish your team or favorite athlete had a fan base like that around him. Unless Bolt is your favorite athlete, of course, in which case… be proud of your fellow fans? I guess?

With the Rio Olympics now entering its final stretch, and with some equally weird-crazy things having happened earlier in the day already, a story like this isn’t exactly surprising. It is funny, on some level, until one realizes that we’ve become so terrified of witnessing the next awful gun tragedy that a cluster of people clapping — for sports — can actually trick our brain into believing its hearing something far, far worse.

Maybe from now on, during an event like the Olympics, airports should have security monitor large groups of people around a TV to make sure a mistake like this doesn’t happen again.