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Is Marcell Jacobs Injury-Prone? Yes. However That’s the Wrong Question
The Olympic champion’s recurring injuries aren’t evidence that he’s fragile. They illustrate the razor-thin margin between elite sprint performance and the body’s ability to tolerate it. At the ’26 European Championships, the headliner in the men’s 100m was defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy, holder of the 9.80 European record set during his 2021 Tokyo Olympic triumph. After an effortless semifinal win, securing another title seemed like a formality. Then, roughly 40 meters into the race, Jacobs pulled up with an injury – reigniting debate over whether he is simply too fragile to sustain elite sprinting. The Injury Prone Label When Jacobs first appeared in the Tokyo Olympics, I was…
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Women’s 100m Outlook, 2024
I’ve given my opinion on the men’s 100m, so it’s time to do the same for the women. I’ll start by saying that there are fewer women currently competing in the top thirty all time performance list than the men. BUT five of the top ten fastest women ever are currently competing! The women are not as deep overall, but have better depth on the top end. The women’s WR of 10.49 has been on the books since 1988! And for all these decades it’s appeared to be unapproachable – until recently, as there has been an explosion of performance post Covid. Elaine Thompson Herah (10.54), Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce…
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NCAA Regionals and Pre
Well that was one Hell of a weekend. Basically three high level meets, since the NCAA treats the first two rounds of its National Championships as two separate meets. Thoughts on that in another post. Either way, this past weekend was hot hot hot. In spite of two of the competitions having inclement weather! That’s how good the sport is right now – sizzling hot. So, where do I begin with my highlights? Let’s go with the West Regional. Looking at the distribution of talent between the two Regionals, the East “seems” deeper. Watching the competition however, and the results at the top end of both regions, I say a…
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Prefontaine Highlights
This was easily the most anticipated single meet of the year outside of championships and it lived up to the hype! Nike put its considerable wallet into play, producing Olympic quality fields across the board. Oh to have Nike’s money. That said, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. The matchup between Sha’Carri Richardson and “The Jamaican Medalists”. After all, if you were “new” to watching track and field, that’s why you tuned in. And if you are a long time fan, you wanted to find out the outcome. Well, you were treated to one of the most exciting races the sport has ever seen. Sha’Carri just didn’t feature in…
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Tokyo Recap
I have to admit, I didn’t realize just how tough it would be to watch the Olympics live! Here on the West Coast, that meant getting up at 3:00am. Watching the Games. Then a full day of work. Then more track and field. Then bed long enough to get some rest before repeating – for a week and a half. Literally track and field Nirvana. However, my goal of writing something every day, went out the window on Day 3. So, here is my recap of one of the most interesting Games I’ve watched in my lifetime. For the first time ever, I spent almost the entirety of the Olympics…
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First Stop Women’s 100
And we’re off and running, literally. As the first few rounds of events have taken place and we’ve had our first couple of finals. The first actual final was themes 10,000 meters. Won by Ethiopian Selemon Barega. An interesting race given the heat and humidity as it turned into a wait and kick affair. That which hurts the distance runners however, tends to be good for sprinters and hurdlers. And so far, the conditions and the track have been to the liking of both sprinters and hurdlers. That was clearly evident as the top women’s 400 hurdlers – Sydney McLaughlin, Femke Bol and Delilah Muhammad – seemed to “stroll” the…
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The Games Have Arrived!
It’s here. The Tokyo Olympic Games have finally arrived.We’ve had several sports already take place, and now it’s time for the heart of the Olympics, Track and Field, to take to the stage! The world has been waiting for five years, half a decade, for the next week and a half. And while there have been World Championships and other championship meets that have taken place in the time in between, for track and field the Olympics are IT!. It’s the one time every four years that the world actually pays attention to this sport. Many people don’t know that for most of his career, Usain Bolt rarely competed –…
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Were Meets Necessary This Year?
I am a track and field junkie! It’s easily my favorite sport. So I’ve been pleased to have track back to watch. But everyone hasn’t been as excited. I’ve had some people ask me, “why are they running?”. The position being that, a) it’s not safe to be competing right now. and b) what we’ve been watching isn’t really track and field. At least some of the earlier competitions. Valid questions. Having gone through this truncated season, some things worked, and some things didn’t. But, in the long run, I personally think it was necessary. Should we have had meets? Actually a question that’s been asked by many is, should we…