The craziest sprint

(Saint-Denis, France) The most impressive thing was not the silence of the 75,000 spectators before the starting gun. It was not the roar of the crowd as the sprinters emerged from the starting blocks. It was the tension that enveloped the Stade de France as the preliminary results of the 100m final appeared on the giant screen.

In a mess :

• Fred Kerley-PHOTO
• Akani Simbine – PHOTO
• Noah Lyles – PHOTO
• Kishane Thompson – PHOTO
• Letsile Tebogo – PHOTO
• Lamont Marcell Jacobs – PHOTO
• Kenneth Bednarek – PHOTO
• Oblique Seville – 9.90 (revised to 9.91)

Not two, not three, but seven runners to be decided at the photo finish. From the 30-meter line, where I was located, the winner could just as easily have been Tebogo of Botswana, Jacobs of Italy or Kerley of the United States. On the track, Lyles went to join Thompson. “To be honest, I think you’ve got it,” he told him. Thompson, impatient, called out to an imaginary timekeeper: “Come on, man!”

The suspense lasted 30 seconds – three times longer than the race. Then the final standings appeared on the screen.

1. Noah Lyles, United States, 9.79
2. Kishane Thompson, Jamaica, 9.79
3. Fred Kerley, United States, 9.81

Lyles, astonished, ripped off his armband and carried it around the stadium like it was his flag. Thompson, however, was dejected. You will probably see photos in the coming hours of one of the Jamaican’s feet crossing the line first. But in athletics, it’s the torso that counts, and the American’s crossed five thousandths of a second earlier. That’s faster than the flapping of a hummingbird’s wings.

“The crazy thing is, [mon ingénieur en biomécanique] Ralph Mann told me before I left for Paris that the difference between first and second was going to be like this,” Lyles said, bringing his thumb and forefinger together as close as he could without sticking them together. “I can’t believe how right he was.”

For the 27-year-old, the triumph is a huge relief. He has put an insane amount of pressure on himself by announcing his desire not only to repeat Usain Bolt’s historic Olympic treble (gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m), but to surpass it by adding the 4x400m.

“There was definitely pressure,” he acknowledged. “I’ve done a lot of commercials, and then there’s a lot of people, like [le chanteur] Snoop Dogg, who say I’m the chosen one [the one]. »

It may sound arrogant to you – and it is. Except that at this level, that attitude can translate into confidence, and be the difference between gold, silver and bronze.

“I thought if I ran 9.83 in the semifinals,” he said. “I would be hard to beat. I called my therapist. She said, ‘Just let it go.’ I said, ‘OK, I trust you.’” Sage advice. In the finals, Lyles beat his personal best, as did Simbine and Tebogo. Kerley and Jacobs ran their best times of the season. “That was probably one of the best races I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Kerley, the bronze medalist.

U.S. too.

A golden Canadian

We love our strongmen. We celebrate them in movies (Louis Cyr), songs (Jos Montferrand, the giant Beaupré) and even children’s books (the magnificent Grand Antonio, by Élise Gravel). Yet, historically, Canada is a lightweight in the strength tests that are the throws.

Our record before these Games was limited to just one gold medal.

That of Étienne Desmarteau, in 1904. Unfortunately not with a hammer, but with a weight of 56 kilos. And no, little comedians, I was not there.

To tell you the truth, Desmarteau almost missed the event, too. His employer, the Montreal police, refused to release him to participate in the competition. So he resigned, and went to St. Louis with the support of the MAA A, a Montreal sports club that is still active today.

Why am I telling you about this mustachioed giant this morning? Because he is no longer the only Canadian thrower to win Olympic gold. Ethan Katzberg joined him on Sunday by dominating the hammer event. His first throw reached – hold on to your hats – 84.12 metres. Is that a lot? So much that my brain is overheating. No one else in the final broke 80 metres. Even better: Katzberg came within half a metre of the Olympic record set in 1988 by a hammer and sickle standard-bearer, the Soviet Sergei Litvinov.

“I started hammer throwing when I was about 14,” he told us. “I was a skinny basketball player back then.” It’s hard to imagine him now that he’s 6’6, 235 pounds.

It was his father who introduced him and his sister to the little-known sport, coaching them through their teenage years. “He would watch videos on YouTube. He just wanted to help his kids. He also learned a lot from Dylan Armstrong’s coach,” a Canadian thrower who lived up to his name, a bronze medalist at the 2008 Olympics and who now coaches Katzberg.

Stopped in the semi-finals

A quick word about Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Andre De Grasse. The first missed the 1500m final, the second, the 100m. Both were of course disappointed.

The Quebecer found himself stuck in an inside corridor during the last lap. “I got caught in a box [boxer]. With 300 meters to go, I was caught behind the Frenchman Habz. In 100 meters, I went from 4^e at 11^e. » Only the top six qualified for the final.

For Andre De Grasse, his semi-final elimination ended a remarkable streak of six consecutive Olympic medals.

“To be honest, it’s tough not to be able to take part in this final and not to be able to claim another medal.” He still has the 200m, in which he will defend his Olympic title, but which does not have the same cachet for him as the 100m.

“When I started practicing this sport, I always wanted to be the 100m champion before being the 200m champion. It didn’t happen like that, but I continue to pursue my dream [de gagner le 100 m]. This is a goal I will work on for the next Games. In the coming years, the 100m will become more important than the 200m.”