Brash, brazen, and brilliant. American sprint duo Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are poised to live up to their reputations as Olympic 100m favorites as the track and field events at the Paris Games kick off on Friday.
The reigning world champions star in a recently released Netflix docuseries titled “Sprint,” which offers an intimate look into their lives on and off the track.
At the Stade de France, with cameras still rolling for season two, the debate will focus on whether Lyles, who won three golds at last year’s Budapest World Championships, can defeat defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy and emerge as the rightful successor to sprint king Usain Bolt.
Another key topic is whether Richardson can fend off Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the five-time world 100m champion, aiming for her third Olympic gold in the event.
For both Americans, these games represent a chance for redemption. Lyles has said that the 200m bronze he won at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics “still burns a hole” in his chest. Richardson, meanwhile, didn’t even make it to Tokyo, having been banned for taking marijuana.
“I know exactly where I am ahead of Paris,” said Lyles, who arrived in Paris after setting a personal best of 9.81 seconds at the London Diamond League. “The more eyes on me, the better I perform, or at least that’s what my therapist says. When the TV cameras are on me and people are there, I am not losing.”
Richardson, who aims to become the first US woman to win an Olympic 100m title since Gail Devers in 1996, added: “When I get on the blocks, it’s about getting the job done. I know there’s joy at the other end, at the finish line.”
While Lyles and Richardson might grab the initial headlines with the finals on Saturday for the women and Sunday for the men, there will be a vast array of talent on display in the French capital. Sweden’s pole vault king Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis will seek to push his limits for victory, potentially aiming for his 10th consecutive world record. Additionally, two of the most highly anticipated events are in the same discipline: the 400m hurdles.
Three years ago in Tokyo, the hurdles produced two of the most astonishing races in Olympic history, made even more remarkable by the spectator-less stadium. First, Norway’s Karsten Warholm shattered his own world record by an incredible 0.76 seconds, winning the men’s hurdles in 45.94 seconds.
Just 24 hours later, American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone achieved the seemingly impossible by improving her own world record by 0.44 seconds, finishing in 51.46 seconds.
These hurdles events promise to be equally thrilling in Paris, with Warholm facing pressure from American Rai Benjamin and McLaughlin-Levrone from Dutchwoman Femke Bol.
The men’s and women’s 800m races also promise to be must-see events, with two world records under threat. Algerian Djamel Sedjati has his sights set on Kenyan David Rudisha’s 1:40.91, having climbed to third on the all-time list with his performances on the Diamond League circuit this season.
In the absence of champion Athing Mu, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson arrives in Paris as the athlete to beat in the women’s 800m, having clocked a lifetime best of 1:54.61 in London two weeks ago, showing she can upgrade her silver from Tokyo.
This time was the fastest since the now-barred Caster Semenya in 2018, placing Hodgkinson seventh on the all-time list and bringing her closer to the improbable 1:53.28 world record set by then-Czechoslovak Jarmila Kratochvilova 41 years ago.
The middle-distance events promise several high-level clashes, especially with the ever-unpredictable Sifan Hassan following in the footsteps of Czech athlete Emil Zatopek by competing in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon. In Tokyo, she won the 5,000m/10,000m double and claimed bronze in the 1500m.
In Paris, the irrepressible Kenyan Faith Kipyegon will be aiming for a third consecutive Olympic title in the 1500m.
The men’s 1500m also offers one of the most intense rivalries on the circuit as British team captain Josh Kerr faces off again with Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Ingebrigtsen is the defending Olympic champion, but the Norwegian has twice been beaten to world gold—first by Jake Wightman in Eugene and then by Kerr a year later in Budapest.
“If I don’t get injured and I don’t get sick, I think it’s going to be a walk in the park,” said the always-confident Ingebrigtsen, who will defend his 1500m title, as well as aiming for a distance double in the 5,000m.
