Track and field doesn’t get much exposure in America except in an Olympic year, but the upcoming Summer Games in Paris that begin July 26 have put some of this nation’s top track stars squarely in the spotlight. For at least the duration of the games they will be the nightly leads on ESPN, and NBC is using the Olympics to attract new subscribers to their Peacock streaming service. They’re putting numerous hours of live coverage on Peacock, and have already done a trial run by putting almost all the Olympic trial broadcasts on Peacock.
The person who will be front and center is Noah Lyles, who was quite disappointed at only winning bronze medals in the Tokyo Olympics. Lyles has publicly announced that he won’t be satisfied with anything less than gold in both the 100 and 200 meter races, and he’ll most likely also be running on the relays. Lyles was on the cover of Time magazine last week, and he’s also ruffled the feathers of some NBA players by ridiculing the notion that the league finals should be considered “world titles.”
It’s not like Lyles hasn’t already had remarkable accomplishments. His personal best of 19.31 seconds in the 200 m is the American record and third fastest of all-time. He is a six-time World champion, including the 200 m and 4 × 100 m in 2019, the 200 m in 2022 to cite just a handful of his feats. Last year Lyles won the 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 m events at the World Championships, becoming the first man to complete the sprint treble at that event since the great Usain Bolt in 2015. A repeat in the Olympics would truly immortalize Lyles in track circles, although winning both the 100 and 200 would also be quite a triumph. Lyles won both the 100 and 200 at the Olympic Trials, setting a trials record in the 200-meters with a time of 19.53. “I’m blessed, man. Truly blessed,” Lyles told CBS Sports. “I’ve said it all season, but it helps to not have depression. I thank God every day. Every time I got on this track, I just kept saying, ‘Thank you God, thank you God, thank you God,’ for getting me through each and every round.”
Another Olympian under the microscope is Gabby Thomas, another bronze winner in Tokyo in the 200 meters. Thomas won at the trails with a time of 21.81. The other two women who qualified for the 200-meter race are first-time Olympians Brittany Brown and McKenzie Long.
“This is incredible,” Thomas told NBC after her victory. “I knew I had to get today done, and this was the first step. There is no gold medal in Paris without making the team today, so I’m just ecstatic. To be alongside these amazing, incredible women and everyone in the final, it’s just such an amazing race.” Brown and Long were also quite happy about making the team for the first time.
“It’s been a long journey to get here. My coach said it was going to be a fight, and I fought all the way to the end,” Brown told CBS.
It was also a highly-emotional moment for Long, who is thinking about her late mother, Tara Jones, as she competes on the track. “I’m just really happy I was able to execute my race,” Long said, according to CBS Sports. “I’m just very proud of myself and proud of these girls for pushing me in this 200. I’m doing it for you, mom.”
Then there’s Sha’Carri Richardson, who’s been in a battle of words with Jamaica’s sprint teams since Tokyo. She qualified in the 100, but came up short in the 200, and won’t have an opportunity to go for a double sprint victory.
But the biggest surprise and arguably most emotional track victory was that of 16-year-old Maryland sprinter Quincy Wilson. He had a personal best time of 44.59 seconds and surpassed his own under-18 world 400-meter record in the semifinal to advance to the final. It was the second time he beat the record in two days after he clocked in 44.66 in a previous race. IN the final Wilson made the team by finishing sixth in the race, which kept his Olympics hopes alive. He joins track stars Quincy Hall, Michael Norman and Chris Bailey, who all finished ahead of him, in Paris.
Olympic historian Bill Mallon told CBS News that Wilson is the youngest male track Olympian to make the U.S. team. The youngest ever track and field American athlete is Esther Stroy, who competed at the age of 15 in the 1968 Olympics, Mallon added.
While there won’t be anywhere near the pressure on Wilson that’s squarely on the shoulders of other American track stars, he’s getting an early baptism of fire in the world’s greatest sporting competition. How he does is just one among many great stories to follow once the Games begin.
(Next week a look at other big stories on the eve of the Olympics).
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