As the games of the Michael Phelps Olympiad comes to a close, the attention of the primetime sport whose biggest event is the Olympics shifts to the world of track &field. Despite the sport still engulfed in the cloud of distrust and mystery that performance enhancing drugs have put it under, the athletics competition at any Olympics is still a spectacle to behold. And that is certainly the case in Beijing, with burgeoning rivalries, captivating story lines, and one man’s pressure of fulfilling the hopes of a nation in less than 13 seconds.
After the jump, here are the marquee events and athletes to watch out for.
The men’s 100 meters
The glamorous event in the entire sport, the title of "fastest man." And in this case, it is truly for the "fastest man ever."
The situation is this. 21 year old Usain Bolt, despite never running a major international final in this distance, is the favorite. The prodigy sprinter from Jamaica has a chance to be jus ast big of a superstar at these games as even Phelps, even if he ends up winning five medals less than him. Bolt is a phenomenon the sport hasn’t seen; a 6’5’ lanky runner who is currently the best in an event that is much more conducive to shorter sprinters. Bolt certified his status as the favorite for Beijing in early June at the Reebok Classic in New York, setting a new world record at 9.72 seconds and beating world champion Tyson Gay in the process.
Gay, motivated by the defeat at the feet of Bolt, ran a world shaking 9.68 at the U.S. Olympic Trials, the fastest run ever recorded by any human being. Unfortunately, the time was wind-aided, disqualifying it from being a world record. It seem both were going to be set up for a classic duel in both the 100 and 200 meters, until Gay stunningly suffered a hamstring injury that sent him crashing towards the ground in obvious pain at the trials. That injury produced fears that Gay would be unable to get revenge on Bolt in Beijing, only having six weeks until the games to recover in top form before the opening rounds. But the ex-Arkansas star has been able to place those doubts of at least being race fit out of the picture. Gay looked relaxed and comfortable in the opening rounds, and he certainly won’t concede a Gold Medal he has worked so diligently for to Bolt without the fiercest of challenges.
The final element in this puzzle of grandeur of this race is Bolt’s countryman Asafa Powell. Unlike Gay and Bolt, Powell has been in an Olympic final before. But unlike those two, Powell has basically choked in big events. He shrunk four years ago in Athens to the now disgraced Justin Gatlin when he was considered the race favorite, and he did the same at last year’s world championships in Osaka, Japan to Gay when, once again, he was pegged as the odds makers’ choice. The former world record holder still has the talent to be the best on any day against anyone, and that certainly including even mercurial talents Bolt and Gay. But that’s if he doesn’t allow the moment to make him a certified "choker", as Michael Johnson dubbed him last year.
These three men are the only ones in the world who have run under 9.8 seconds in the 100. All form will only hold true for a dramatic final of historic proportions between these three men if all these things happen: Gay shows that he has fully recovered from his injury, Powell gets over any slight physical problems he has had along with the aforementioned mental battle that has plagued him in the past, and Bolt, the prodigy, continues to run with the thoughts of the moment not overriding his supreme talent and precociousness. The latter to me will override the other two, and I think you will see the rise of a superstar in Usain Bolt.
Men’s 400 meters
While Sports Illustrated has given its primary focus on the Bolt-Gay-Powell trilateral battle, the encounter for the crown of best lap runner between two Americans was highlighted in ESPN the Magazine’s recent magazine. Jeremy Warner versus Lashaun Merritt id indeed just as worthy of headline attention as the 100 meters final. Warner’s dominance of the 400 meters started with his Athens gold medal as a 20 year old. You would think a champion white sprinter would naturally generate star appeal back home, but that has (sadly) not been the case for the former Baylor standout. The sport’s negative clout has taken any chance of focus on Warner, but that will certainly be hard to do this time around if he defends his title in the quarter mile. But there is one man that is standing in his way, and it isn’t Johnson.
Lashawn Merritt has made this an intriguing rivalry with his performance this year. After playing second fiddle to Warner like everyone else has done in the 400 meters in 2007, Merritt has beaten Warner twice this year, including winning the Olympic Trials by outlasting his rival on the straight away. Yes, that means that Merritt and not the reigning title holder is the U.S. champion in the event. That lost motivated Warner to get back to being the top dog in the event, as highlighted by a Golden League win in June that featured a sub 44 second time and a defeat of Merritt in that same race. With that motivation, along with trying to break his mentor Johnson’s unbelievable world record of 43.48 seconds, expect this thrilling duel to go to Mr. Warner. And hopefully, some much deserved attention.
If the 100 gets SI’s attention, and the 400 meters gets ESPN’s, than what does the 400 meter hurdles get? Well, this post I guess. But like the open 400, this event will feature a battle between two Americans for the top honors. With all due respect to reigning gold medalist Felix Sanchez, it will be a shock if Kerron Clement or Bershawn Jackson doesn’t win this event. These two youngsters are a contrast of each other: Clement, a six feet plus figure that looks like a wide receiver but runs like a dear, against Jackson, a sometimes unorthodox hurdler who has probably the biggest heart in the entire sport (along with Lauren Williams). Jackson, who failed to qualify for the last Olympics in heartbreaking fashion, won the trials over Clement in a slight surprise. Considering that Clement was the world champion in this event last year, he is motivated to win his first gold medal. And so is Jackson.
It’s an ultimate toss up to how this will go, but I slightly favor Clement, the Trinidadian born SEC standout at Florida before he turned pro.
In the men’s 110 team meters, Yao Ming doesn’t have anything on Liu Xiang in terms of pressure. Unlike Yao, Liu is expected to win the whole enchilada here. And all his past great accomplishments for China, including winning the gold medal in this event out of nowhere four years ago, will be purposely forgotten by his government if he doesn’t win here. Sadly for Xiang, he arguably isn’t the fastest man in the field. That title belongs to Cuba’s Dayron Robles, now the world record holder, and now, the favorite.
While Xiang has been secluded and away from the public with battling his own hamstring injuries like Gay, Robles has basked in the attention of the Chinese public, as the nation of his chief rival has embraced him. American Terrence Trammell hopes he can finally get a gold medal after being on the podium in both Sydney and Beijing. Unfortunately for him, his hopes are battling two runners who have hit times that even he, a technical master of the hurdles, hasn’t hit yet in his career. It leaves both Xiang and Robles, the heavy weight matchup for these games for the Chinese people.
And with the magic of the home crowd being him (along with the low key mysterious ways that he has placed himself in since June), in a final that will be talked about for a long time, expect Xiang to somehow beat the amazingly gifted Cuban.
The women’s 200 meters between Alison Felix and Veronica Campbell Brown should be a classic encounter as well, as both ladies sole individual event will be here. Though it wasn’t a surprise that Felix failed to qualify in the 100 meters, the world champion in that event, Campbell Brown, ran a terrible race at her national championships, denying her the chance to win an Olympic goal medal in arguably her strongest event. This will go down to the wire, and expect the West Coast native Felix to edge out Brown.
Lopez Lomong will try his best to win a medal in the 1500 meters, though the flag bearer for the US last Friday isn’t on the level of Bernard Legat. And talk about a person on Phelps-like dominance the great (though slightly cocky but brutally honest in a fun way) Yelena Isinbaveya owns about the top four or five best pole vault marks ever recorded for a women, and looks for a second gold medal, which she should easily get barring a stunning miracle.
The 4 x 100 meters should also be a battle of the United States and Jamaica in both the men’s and women’s side, with victory probably going to the Reggae Boys and Girls on both ends. The same could be said of a captivating women’s 100 meter final, as Sherron Simpson of Jamaica tries to fill in the gap left by her countrywoman Campbell Brown and hold off the world’s best big race runner in Lauren Williams of Florida. And the men’s decathlon with American Brian Clay will once again show how grueling "This event featuring so many events" is the toughest discipline in the sport.
Enjoy the Track and Field and hope the preview was helpful.