Sprint Chronicles Pressures and Mental Toughness of Olympic Athletes

One of the most watched of the Olympic games categories are track and field.  Over the decades, Americans have had many like Florence “FloJo” Joyner, Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee (just to name a few) emerge from the games as superstars.  2024 will be no different, as this time the US Team is literally comprised of the world’s fastest humans on the planet.

Broken down into six 45 minute episodes, Sprint follows Fred Kerley (USA), Zharnel Hughes (UK), Noah Lyles (USA), Marcell Jacobs (Italy), Gabby Thomas (USA), Shericka Jackson (Jamaica) and Sha’Carri Richardson (USA)  delving deep into the psyches of these elite competitors training. Although notably absent is eight-time Olympic medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, the world 100m record holder.

Audiences are given an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the high stakes,  mental toughness of sprinters who devote their entire lives to crossing the finish line in record time and where their professional futures are decided in just fractions of a second.

As compelling as the docuseries is, it primarily focuses on Noah Lyles for being the fast man alive, which makes the coverage on the other athletes a little one sided.  However, We do witness some focus on Shericka Jackson coming within milliseconds short of a goal on her birthday light a fire in her belly.

As the athletes gather for a Diamond League event in Paris, Lyles’ biggest competition is Jacobs, the reigning Olympic gold medalist,  who’s gone from a relative unknown to supremely-famous in the three years,  However,  since his Tokyo win, there are doubters who suggest his gold-medal performance was a fluke. “When he is healthy, and when he is firing on all cylinders, he’s the best in the world,” Boldon notes about Marcell Jacobs.

Yet, more valuable context is given by interviews with retired stars in the field like Michael Johnson, Ato Boldon and Usain Bolt, which assists audiences in learning who these people are, what makes them tick, and what it takes to be the absolute fastest people on Earth.

Fluke or no fluke -victorious or not, the amount of pressure others put on these athletes pales in comparison to the pressure put on themselves to win and break records.  If you are not familiar with Olympian training  the series makes it all fascinating to behold making the anticipation Paris games exciting.

As a Black woman, Sprint is very invigorating. Watching and knowing there is a whole team of women and men that look like me serving as a blueprint for a whole new generation witnessing impossible is nothing more than a word or an obstacle to greatness.