The stage is lit. The felted curtains open. It is time: the long-awaited track Olympic events have arrived.
For me, the track Olympics are not just my ‘Super Bowl ‘or ‘Roman Empire’. They are quite literally my everything. My world. As a runner, these games mean so much to me, and in the running world, there is no other competition at the same level of prestige and rivalry.
This year, the track world brought it. Honestly, I could probably go on hour-long rants about Paris, but I’ll just summarize.
For one, the drama. Before the Olympics even started, there were truckloads of drama at the U.S. Olympic Trials. To be honest, I almost cried. Athing Mu, an Olympic medalist in the 800m, started by tripping in the qualifiers, limping to the finish line, and getting last. As a fan, I was utterly devastated for her and the future of Team USA. After all, she was supposed to win it all, and there she was, sobbing and stumbling to finish.
But then, the games began and all the athletes flew off to Paris. Was there drama in the city of love, too? Oui Oui.
It all began with the 100m dash; the golden crown of track and field. On both the men’s and women’s side, the stakes were high this year. Noah Lyles, the men’s 3x 200m world champion, decided to compete in the 100m where he went head-to-head against the fastest men in the world. Even that didn’t come without drama. After the Olympic committee handed the gold medal to another contender, they looked back at the tapes and declared Lyles had officially won and he was reigned in as the king of sprints.
Then, a few days later, when he ran the 200m and shocked the world by only getting bronze, it was revealed that he had Covid-19 and still made it on the podium with a 104-degree fever. This may be biased, but that is definitely king behavior. Well, before he decided to bash the NBA in an interview.
Don’t get me started on our queen: Sha’Carri Richardson. Prior to entering the track and according to unverified rumors, she and another athlete were denied access to warming up. Which, in my opinion, greatly impacted her performance. She got silver when she should have won gold.
Regardless, nothing will ever compete with the happiness and feral anger that the mixed 4×4 relay brought me. In the opening heats, the U.S. team broke the world record. Yet, somehow —and I’m still desperately trying to comprehend this— lost in the finals to the Netherlands.
Although the Olympics this year felt like both heaven and hell, I am forever thankful for the light that it has shone on the sport. Syndey Mclaughlin got brand deals, Sha’Carri Richardson was on the cover of Vogue, and couples like Tara Davis-Wodhall and her husband, Hunter, went viral on TikTok.
The games may have not gone exactly as planned, but I will forever be thankful for how this sport has grown. Almost like an empire.
