There are big races, and then there are the Olympics.
When Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles and all the other fastest runners and best jumpers and throwers of 2024 line up for the Olympic track and field meet, little of what they’ve done on the road to Paris will mean much. How they respond to pressure will matter when the spotlight is on.
Will they end up shining as brightly as a Usain Bolt or Carl Lewis, whose knack for performing when Olympic gold medals were at stake turned them into larger-than-life icons?
Or will they be more like Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson and American hurdler Grant Holloway, among the best performers of their generation but still looking to parlay all that talent into a spot at the top of the Olympic podium?
“Right now, I do not hold a gold medal in the Olympics,” said Lyles, who counts the bronze medal he won in the 200 meters at the Tokyo Games among his biggest disappointments. “I have multiple world championships, and national championships, as well. The only one that’s missing from the list is an Olympic gold. And I’m planning on leaving with a lot of those.”
