The 32nd Olympiad may have concluded, but track and field fans have reason to rejoice: since the Tokyo Games were postponed because of the pandemic, we now only have a mere three years to wait until the next time our sport once again has the world in thrall.
Or maybe we won鈥檛 even have to wait that long. Perhaps the stupendous feats that we鈥檝e just witnessed in Tokyo might inspire thousands of newly minted trackheads to tune in to next year鈥檚 . After the past week and a half, I can assert (without a trace of bias) that athletics has once again made a strong case for itself as the highest form of drama, rife with heroes and villains. Iago has nothing on that asshole in the men鈥檚 marathon. (The runner in question, France鈥檚 Morhad Amdouni, .)
There was plenty of thrilling track action in Tokyo despite the fact that, for the first time since 2004, the Olympics had to make do without the electric presence of Usain Bolt鈥攖he Jamaican sprinter who retired in 2017 and deprived his sport of its most charismatic showman and striker of poses. Not that Jamaica didn鈥檛 leave its mark on the sprints anyway; in the women鈥檚 100-meters the island nation behind Elaine Thompson-Herah鈥檚 Olympic record time of 10.61 and also owned the 4×100. On the men鈥檚 side, meanwhile, it was only fitting that, in the first Olympics of the post-Bolt era, the winner of the 100 was Marcell Jacobs, an unheralded Italian whose greatest triumph, pre-Tokyo, was a win at the European Indoor Championships in the 60 meters. It was as though the track gods recognized the futility of even trying to fill Bolt鈥檚 shoes and decided to bestow the title of 鈥淲orld鈥檚 Fastest Human鈥 on an anonymous aspirant. How about . . . this guy?
Certain columnists the men鈥檚 100 as a disappointing anticlimax. Not me. I couldn鈥檛 help but feel exhilarated when Jacobs, after crossing the line, , who had just won a gold medal of his own in the men鈥檚 high jump minutes earlier.
For years, Tamberi was known among track aficionados for wearing a full beard . Rather than questionable grooming habits, the 29-year-old will henceforth be famous for sharing the gold with Mutaz Barshim, 30, of Qatar after both men topped out at 2.37 meters and agreed to call it a day. That鈥檚 right: two winners in the same event! Depending on where you sat, it was either the , or further proof that .
If you belonged in the latter camp, you could take heart that at least the next generation was already bringing it. Here was Jakob Ingebrigsten, the 20-year-old Norwegian wunderkind, whose single earring and frosted tips gave him the aura of a 鈥90s boy band idol, but whose killer racing instincts helped him finally triumph over Kenya鈥檚 Timothy Cheruiyot in the 1,500-meters.
And while this was not a particularly successful Olympics for American track athletes鈥攆or the first time ever, the men鈥檚 on the oval鈥擲ydney McLaughlin and Athing Mu were two sterling exceptions. McLaughlin, who is 22 and has , beat her Team USA rival Daliliah Muhammad by .12 seconds , to win in 51.46鈥攁 new world record. Mu, for her part, proved that she is currently peerless in the 800 meters; the 19-year-old, who may have supplanted David Rudisha as the track athlete with the most graceful stride, led her race from the gun and never looked particularly strained, negative splitting her way to glory. Mu would go on to anchor an invincible U.S. women鈥檚 4×400 relay team that also featured McLaughlin, Muhammad, and Allyson Felix. They won by an absurd margin of nearly four seconds, garnering Felix her eleventh Olympic medal, making her the most decorated female Olympian in the history of track and field. Here, at least, Team USA looked as good as ever.
Thankfully, the dreaded super shoe debate didn鈥檛 really grab headlines at the Games. In fact, and in a delicious irony, it was now the track itself that suddenly posed a threat to the historical integrity of athletics records. Apparently, the latest iteration of top-of-the-line Mondo surfacing includes small pockets of air that, , provide a performance enhancing 鈥渢rampoline effect鈥 for the athletes. First the shoes. Now the track. The purists just can鈥檛 win.
Eliud Kipchoge, on the other hand, proved, once again, that he could win. Coming into Sunday鈥檚 marathon, there was some question of whether the defending Olympic champ and greatest marathoner in history still had the magic. The 36-year-old Kenyan provided a definitive answer three quarters of the way into the race by making an aggressive move and more or less instantly ditching what remained of the lead pack. In races past, Kipchoge has gradually whittled down the competition until it鈥檚 only him and one or two other brave souls clinging to dreams of dethroning the king. In Sapporo, he dispatched all of his challengers in one fell swoop, as though he鈥檇 decided that, this time, he didn鈥檛 want any company over the final miles.
鈥淚 wanted to create a space to show the world that this is a beautiful race,鈥 Kipchoge said afterwards. 鈥淚 wanted to test my fitness, I wanted to test how I鈥檓 feeling. I wanted to show that we have hope in the future.鈥
If it were anybody else, this messianic tone would be beyond obnoxious. (Hope for the future? Has the read the latest IPCC report?) But when you鈥檙e as good as Kipchoge, you鈥檝e earned the right to speak in aphorisms.
Still, after a year and a half in which the marathon has become the metaphor of choice for getting through the pandemic, I鈥檓 not sure that Kipchoge is the most obvious source for inspiration. His image is too immaculate for those of us futzing around in this vale of tears.
Maybe that鈥檚 part of why 鈥攁t least among American fans. Seidel, who has been that she has battled in the past, shocked the racing world by hanging on for bronze in torturous, muggy conditions. In becoming only the third American woman to medal in an Olympic marathon, she belied her underdog status by taking the race to the fastest women on the planet. In the end, Seidel finished less than 30 seconds behind Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei, the two Kenyan women who, respectively, hold the world records in the half and full marathons.
As she crossed the finish, Seidel screamed in triumph and (presumably) relief. She鈥檇 just gone through a certain kind of hell, but she鈥檇 managed to endure. If that isn鈥檛 world-class entertainment, I don鈥檛 know what is.