We’re simply two months away from the beginning of the 2024 Summer season Olympics in Paris, France. Whereas monitor and area might not maintain mainstream recognition in comparison with different sports activities, it’s at all times probably the most anticipated Olympic occasions, and it’s the place the likes of Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Carl Lewis (amongst numerous others) broke by means of as crossover stars.
There are such a lot of fascinating occasions to select from that it’s onerous to exclude any. With that mentioned, listed below are 5 of the highest races to observe on the picturesque Hayward Discipline, in addition to one of the best athletes in these competitions.
Males’s 110-meter hurdles
Notable names to observe: Grant Holloway (USA), Hansle Parchment (Jamaica)
What does Grant Holloway have in widespread with NFL stars DK Metcalf, A.J. Brown, and Michael Pittman Jr?
They have been all a part of the 2016 highschool huge receiver recruiting class. 247Sports’ composite rating had Holloway at No. 77, nicely beneath these three, however Holloway nonetheless was recruited by Clemson and Georgia to play soccer. He opted for the Florida Gators to pursue his goals of changing into an Olympic champion. Soccer’s loss has been monitor’s achieve.
Together with his distinctive mix of velocity, energy, and method to constantly clear these 42-inch boundaries, Holloway has gained numerous NCAA indoor and out of doors titles, three World Athletics out of doors championships, and two indoor world titles. He additionally holds the world file within the indoor 60-meter hurdles, and is the second-fastest ever open air at 12.81 seconds. Holloway has gained nearly all the things there may be to win in his self-discipline… besides Olympic gold.
Hansle Parchment pulled off one of many large shocks of the Tokyo Video games when he chased down Holloway and handed him his solely lack of 2021. After coming in second to Holloway within the 2023 Worlds, the Jamaican responded by successful final yr’s Prefontaine Basic and Diamond League title.
This is likely one of the most compelling rivalries in all of monitor and area, and this race could possibly be one other Olympic remaining preview, one with unfinished enterprise for Grant Holloway.
Girls’s 100-meter hurdles
Notable names to observe: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico), Danielle Williams (Jamaica), Devynne Charlton (The Bahamas)
Not like the boys, the ladies’s competitors is far more unpredictable. The truth is, there’s by no means been a repeat Olympic gold medalist within the ladies’s 100-meter hurdles.
The present Olympic champion is Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, fifth-fastest all-time at 12.26 seconds and sister of former NFL star Robert Quinn. The reigning world out of doors champion is Jamaica’s Danielle Williams, an unimaginable eight years eliminated from her earlier gold medal. Bahamian Devynne Charlton is the 2024 world indoor 60-meter champion and newly established world file holder within the occasion, however she’s but to win an Olympic or world out of doors medal.
There are 4 Individuals slated to compete, together with 2019 world champion Nia Ali. We all know we gained’t be seeing that many Individuals in Paris; solely a most of three entrants per race are allowed on the Olympics.
You may at all times count on the surprising within the dash hurdles, the place even one marginal clip of the barrier might show calamitous.
Girls’s 100 meters
Notable names to observe: Sha’Carri Richardson (USA), Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica), Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia)
After a controversial elimination from the Tokyo Olympic group and an underwhelming 2022, Sha’Carri Richardson reminded everybody final yr that she’s a uniquely gifted sprinter. The previous LSU star gained the 100m world title in a thriller over Jamaican legends Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, captured bronze within the 200 meters, and anchored the Individuals to gold within the 4x100m relay. For those who’ve been following NBC’s promos, you’ll acknowledge Richardson is likely one of the faces of Crew USA.
Whereas Jackson and Fraser-Pryce gained’t be in Eugene, their fellow countrywoman is making her 2024 out of doors debut. Two-time Olympic champ Elaine Thompson-Herah was beset by accidents final yr and missed a lot of the season. Now absolutely recovered, the 31-year-old is trying to recapture the shape that noticed her run 10.60 to win gold in Tokyo and the second-fastest time in historical past (10.54 seconds) on the 2021 Prefontaine Basic.
Jamaica doesn’t have a Caribbean monopoly on elite 100m sprinters. Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred is in her first full yr as knowledgeable after a tremendous collegiate profession at Texas. A nationwide champion at indoor 60 meters, in addition to out of doors 100 and 200 meters, Alfred made historical past on the World Indoor Championships in Scotland in March by changing into the first Saint Lucian to win any monitor and area medal. The 22-year-old’s objective for Paris is to be the Saint Lucian Olympic medalist, and on present trajectory she’s poised to be a perennial medal contender.
It doesn’t get far more thrilling than the 100-meter sprint, and with these three in tow (plus Ivorian perennial contender Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Nice Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith), that is essentially the most compelling dash race of the meet.
Girls’s 800 meters
Notable names to observe: Keely Hodgkinson (Nice Britain), Mary Moraa (Kenya)
Sadly, this race took a significant hit with the late harm withdrawal of Olympic champion Athing Mu, who’s erring on the facet of warning forward of subsequent month’s U.S. trials. On the plus facet, it’s nonetheless an elite group of two-lap specialists.
Nice Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson has nearly been just like the Nineties Buffalo Payments during the last three years. She completed with a silver in Tokyo behind Mu, then once more on the 2022 Worlds, and after putting forward of Mu in final yr Worlds, it was Kenya’s Mary Moraa (and her distinctive, nearly lean-backward working fashion) who bested them within the residence stretch to take gold.
At simply 22 and 23 respectively, Hodgkinson and Moraa signify the current and way forward for the 800 meters, and so they’ll each be desirous to make an early assertion of intent that they’re aiming to unseat Mu atop the rostrum in Paris.
Bowerman Mile
Notable names to observe: Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway), Yared Nuguse (USA), Josh Kerr (Nice Britain), Jake Wightman (Nice Britain)
The mile just isn’t an Olympic occasion, however a lot of the entrants can be competing within the 1500 meters in Paris. That is the normal remaining race of this system and the organizers have really saved one of the best for final.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has emerged as the game’s premier middle-distance runner and enters the Paris Video games because the incumbent Olympic champion at 1500. Nonetheless, he suffered upset losses to Nice Britain’s Josh Kerr (2023) and Jake Wightman (2022) during the last two world championships and needed to accept silver. This would be the first time Ingebrigtsen has raced Kerr since final yr’s championships, throughout which period Kerr gained world indoors gold within the 3000m in his native Scotland. With Ingebrigtsen not too long ago claiming he might beat Kerr blindfolded, a heated rivalry is already brewing that can be one of many fundamental storylines in Paris.
The highest American within the area is Yared Nuguse, who at simply 24 is already the quickest American miler in historical past. In final yr’s Bowerman Mile, Ingebrigtsen edged out Nuguse in a blazing time of three:43.73, narrowly lacking out on Hicham El Guerrouj’s now 25-year-old world file by simply 0.6 of a second.
Center and long-distance working is often far more about techniques than quick occasions, so don’t anticipate a world file try right here. It ought to nonetheless be an epic race given the caliber of competitors.
The Prefontaine Basic airs stay on NBC and streams on Peacock at 4 p.m. Japanese/1 p.m. Pacific. A full timetable of occasions (together with pre-television occasions such because the Kenyan, sure, Kenyan Olympic trials within the males’s and ladies’s 10k) and the startlists could be discovered right here.
