Usain Bolt could have hotdogged his way into history with the cha-cha, a double-front handspring or even the limbo across the finish line, but he had something better in mind this time.

Keep running.

When Bolt crossed the line, stretching his arms out in triumph, one word flashed across the scoreboard high above the Bird’s Nest.

AMAZING.

Bolt obliterated the field in an electrifying performance for the ages Wednesday night to win the men’s 200-meter gold medal in a world-record 19.30 seconds.

He eclipsed Michael Johnson’s 19.32 set in the 1996 Atlanta Games, sending the crowd of 91,000 into a frenzy.

The Jamaican sprinter cured the post-Phelps depression at these Olympics with his blinding speed and theatrics that included easing up for the last 15 meters of his world-record run in Saturday’s 100 so that he could celebrate.

Bolt became the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the prized Olympic gold double in the 100 and 200. He could earn a third gold in the 4×100 relay that begins Thursday.

“Everything just came together tonight,” Bolt said. “I just blew my mind, and blew the world’s mind.”

He also became the first man to set world records in the 100 and 200 in the same Olympiad.

Americans Shawn Crawford (19.96) and Walter Dix (19.98) took silver and bronze after disqualifications to Churandy Martina (19.82) and Wallace Spearmon (19.95) for stepping out of their lanes, but the night belonged to the entertaining Bolt, bent on breaking track’s unbreakable record.

“Michael Johnson is an incredible athlete and he revolutionized the sport,” said Bolt. “And I just changed it a little bit. I rewrote history.”

Bolt, rubbing his head and playing to the crowd before the race, delivered an unforgettable encore to his record-setting 100 performance. On Saturday he decelerated with 15 meters to go to tap his chest and claim victory to claim his first gold, but he was all business this time.

Bolt dominated from the start, bursting out of the blocks in Lane 5 and powering through the finish line.

“It was a (butt)-whuppin’ we all took out there,” said Kim Collins, who finished sixth. “He’s doing it and making it look so simple. Michael Johnson did it, and it didn’t looked that easy.”

The 6-5 Jamaican gobbled up chunks of real estate with his long, effortless strides, creating more and more space between him and the rest of the eight-man field.

“Usain Bolt is the fastest man I’ve seen in my life,” Crawford said. “I’ve watched Usain put up phenomenal times all year. I did think he had a chance to break the record, but I didn’t know if he was going to have it in his legs.”

One day before he turned 22, the long and lean sprinter had plenty in the tank as he came around the turn and went into overdrive. Bolt ran hard down the straightaway even though the outcome was no longer in doubt, leaning at the finish line to make history. Johnson simply called the run “incredible” afterward.

“I knew I could run that fast,” said Bolt, who won by the largest margin (0.66 seconds) in an Olympic 200 meters since 1900. “I thought I could get the world record in the 200 meters.”

Bolt, who only recently picked up the 100, admitted the 200 gold meant more to him.

I’m not Flash Gordon or anything,” he said. “My name is Lightning Bolt.”

He was also one of the few unaffected by a strange chain of events that included two protests and disqualifications that weren’t resolved until nearly two hours after the conclusion of the race.

hey say Wallace Spearmon stepped out and (Martina) stepped out,” Crawford said with a laugh. “I hope Usain stepped out too. … And maybe I’ll go home with the gold.”

But nothing could spoil a night that catapulted Bolt into rarefied air as only the ninth man to pull off the Olympic double. The track and field world still doesn’t quite know what to make of the fun-loving, easygoing Jamaican, who squashed rumors that his next challenge would be to conquer the 400 meters.

For now, Bolt said he wanted to “chill out,” slip on sandals and get some well-deserved R&R.

“It’s ridiculous,” Collins said. “Come on. How fast can you go before the world record can’t be broken? How fast can a human being go before there’s no more going fast?”

After Wednesday night, there’s only one man who knows.