The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will include 206 national teams. However, the United States and Jamaica are predicted to dominate the track and field events.
U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, while American competitors Carl Lewis, Florence Griffith Joyner, and Allyson Felix dominated the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter events for years after. But Jamaica gained international attention during the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica stole the show in Beijing, setting world records and winning gold in the 100- and 200-meter sprints, despite Team USA’s victory in the men’s and women’s 4×100 relays. Concurrently, in the women’s 100- and 200-meter events, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica won gold.
Four years later, at the London Games, American women’s 200- and 400-meter runners Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross took home gold medals. However, the men’s 4×100-meter relay was a turning point in the rivalry.
With a 15-win record going into the race, Team USA was the early favorite as sprinter Ryan Bailey prepared to take the baton. That evening, Bolt had other ideas. He led Jamaica to a thrilling victory and set a world record, eventually overtaking the American squad.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bolt, in his final Olympics, defeated American opponent Justin Gatlin in both the 200 and 100 meters, extending Jamaica’s winning streak. Elaine Thompson, a Jamaican, won gold in both the 100 and 200 meters, setting world marks in both events. However, Team USA did not leave empty-handed; they took home gold in the men’s 4×400 relay as well as the women’s 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
Thompson helped Jamaica win the 4×100-meter relay and successfully defended her gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter races at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In the meantime, Team USA prevailed in the women’s and men’s 4×400-meter relays with gold.
The focus now shifts to the contest between American athletes Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Jamaica’s top athletes, Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Lyles will probably have stiff opposition in the men’s events from 22-year-old Kishane Thompson, a star in Jamaica. As he gets ready for his first Olympics, he starts to show himself. Life was really humble, he said on Nationwide 90 FM in Jamaica. I had to work extremely hard and overcome many obstacles in order to get anything. I never stopped pushing myself and doing what I had to do—even more than I had to—because it kept me grounded.
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Thompson became the fourth-fastest Jamaican in history last month when he raced a scorching 9.77 seconds in the 100 meters in the Jamaica Olympic Track and Field Trials. Thomson said, “I am not sure how fast I can go, but the time did not surprise me tonight,” to reporters, indicating that he is capable of running much faster.
But Lyles is not running from the competition. Last month, when asked about Thompson’s speed, Lyles responded, “I hope he remains healthy.”
Jackson, who is aiming for her first individual Olympic gold in the 200-meter race as well as the 100-meter event, and Fraser-Pryce will be Richardson’s opponents in the women’s events. Everyone is trying to beat Griffith Joyner’s 1988 100-meter world mark, which stands at 10.49 seconds.
Additional Olympic content
Gymnast Brody Malone returned from a severe knee injury and is prepared to compete in Paris.
While traveling to the Olympics in Paris, Climber battled a severe health problem that had put him in danger of dying.
Quincy Wilson, a teenage sprinter, is the Olympic successor of 15-year-old Esther Stroy Jackson. Wilson recently had a strong showing in the Jamaica National Championships, winning the 100 meters over her Olympic teammate Fraser-Pryce. “I am really looking forward to that this year because I do not have an Olympic gold medal,” she remarked following the race.
Richardson, on the other hand, is concentrating on atonement in Paris after failing a cannabis drug test prevented her from competing in the 2020 Olympics. She is likely the leading competitor in the 100 meters when she enters the 2024 Games.
Four-time gold medallist and NBC expert Richards-Ross claims that winning a gold medal in Paris merely “starts her legacy.”
Richards-Ross told NBC News, “She will win the Olympic gold medal in the 100, and now it starts the argument about where she ranks in the history books.” She needs to return and do additional work. One Olympic gold medal is not going to make you a legend. It establishes her legacy, but it does it in the most advantageous way. She will undoubtedly be considered one of the greats if she wins these Olympics.
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