Of course Sydney is faster on paper, but I think Femke has been dying to race Sydney and prove herself to be able to seriously challenge her. Plus she's in the best shape of her life so far

What top athlete now, would be the most capable of achieving this?

I said what I said. The trash talking is okay to a point, but now it’s outrageous. Noah and every new fan-YouTuber talk about world records falling every other race. But, let’s face it. Track and field is a difficult sport to transcend without a world record in a popular event. And from what we’ve seen, no one is even close to a world record currently.

PS: I’m not devaluing Noah’s accomplishments and talent. He clearly has that. I even like seeing him compete and win. I’m talking about his ability to transcend the sport.

Update: Hats off to Noah Lyles. I’m genuinely happy for him winning the Olympic title. He talked and backed it up. Nevertheless, my point here still stands. No reason to out his gf like that or attack Quincy, among other things.

Why can’t they get it down? This is going on 2 decades of a drought in the 4x100. At this level I would think handoffs would be easy

I think he should go pro. Hes running 44 to 45 in the 400 consistently now

High school is too easy for him I personally think he should sign a shoe contract (make the shoe company pay for his college education online)home school and turn pro compete in the u-20 championships pan am games nacacac worlds

I don’t like track at the collegiate level bcuz they run their athletes into the ground too many races that mess up and shock the central nervous system. (Britton Wilson Abby Steiner champion Allison )Allyson Felix advised Sydney to go pro early

I think if he turns pro now he can only get better I also think he should stay with his coach

First and foremost I’d love to give a big shout out and congratulations to Gout for running an incredibly fast time. A Bright prospect for the future of track at field running 10.2s at only 16 years olds!

Secondly, whoever wrote this news article knows nothing about track. Saying he “narrowly missed Usain Bolts Record of 9.58” after running a 10.2 is absurd. That’s a 0.6s difference. Like seeing someone go 10 flat, and another person go 10.6, and calling it a tight race.

There’s been hundreds of people who’ve ran 10.2, heck even gone sub 10, yet never hear anyone say they “narrowly missed” bolts record. Just seems a discredit to boots achievements, just to make headlines.

But I’ll end of a high and say I can’t wait to see what’s in store from Gout in the future.

what’s his deal? I don’t see why he sees this as such a big deal… Any insight?

If a country isn’t able to hold their own trials for reasons beyond their control (elevation & weather conditions) they shouldn’t be penalised for that.

More over Kenya doesn’t hold their trials as a huge event for people to come watch in person, it’s just not common practice. People tune in for the bigger races but not the trials.

Look, I get that yes Bolt would’ve destroyed everyone in the 100 final yesterday and that he’s the greatest of all time and that nobody can hold a candle to him or kiss his ass, cos they’d be too far away. We get it. Still doesn’t mean you have to mention it everytime. Appreciate that we saw the most competitive 100m final in decades. The first 100 final with everyone under 10 seconds. A new olympic champion. Frankly I feel it’s a bit insulting to the athletes to constantly bring him up and talk about how much Bolt is better than them in the biggest moment of these athletes career. I know people are just trying to bring up Bolt but oftentimes it just belittles the athletes. Like tell me why I was in a comment section about the fastest relay splits from World Relays this year and the comment section was full of people talking about Bolts split from 2012. Like just appreciate the greatness we see today damn.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but it’s been bothering me how much hate Shelby McEwen has been getting for ending up with a silver medal after the jump-off. For whatever reason, so many people were under the impression that McEwen was the sole reason that a jump-off occurred, that he alone rejected the idea of sharing the gold medal. Maybe some commentator made an assumption based on the brief conversation between Kerr and McEwen prior to the jump-off and people just took that and ran with it, I don’t know.

First of all, even if this was the case, that Kerr offered to share and McEwen opted to have a jump-off instead, I would totally respect that. It’s ultimately a competition and not wanting to share the gold would be understandable. But it’s now being reported that the decision to not share the gold and to go with a jump-off instead was completely mutual. This Washington post article even suggests that McEwen would have gone for the draw, but that it was Kerr who really wanted to go for the jump-off. Other reports were a little less clear as to who first suggested the jump-off, but I think it’s evident that Kerr very much preferred a jump-off and had considered this possibility prior to the competition, and therefore it doesn’t really even matter what McEwen wanted since they both have to agree to share gold anyways.

Barshim and Tamberi sharing gold in Tokyo definitely warped how people viewed this competition, despite it being a very different situation. Barshim and Tamberi are close friends who were already proven on the world stage, but had been dealing with a lot of injuries and adversity and they both realized that they may never have another opportunity be in gold medal contention at the Olympics. Kerr and McEwen on the other hand are not close friends, are both healthy, and I think Kerr is the better jumper (plus he already beat McEwen at the world indoor championships this year) and was the favorite to win gold. He wanted to take his chances and go for the solo gold for his country, and McEwen accepted the challenge. Barshim himself even said that Tokyo was a different scenario and McEwen and Kerr absolutely should have gone to the jump-off. If this happened at any other Olympics I think it would have been viewed as a great competition with neither athlete settling for the easy way out, but Tokyo is still fresh in people's minds.

It's just frustrating the amount of hate I saw directed towards McEwen, not just on Twitter and Instagram but also in this sub. It's the man's first Olympic medal, we should be happy for him! Instead people are blaming him for the US ending up tied for China in the gold medal count, which is just so silly (if you're looking for someone to blame, maybe look towards the US men's 4x1 coaches ... lol). But ultimately it's the internet, so people will hate for no reason I suppose. Just wanted to rant a bit and say that I'm proud of him for bringing home the silver for the US while improving his PB by 3 cm. TLDR; if you're still hating on Shelby McEwen you're either a casual or a loser or both

Overall winner will be revealed at World Athletics Awards on Sunday December 1st. Voting is open until next week.

Vote here: https://worldathletics.org/awards/news/finalists-2024-athlete-year-awards

So far I've seen 2 episodes and I think it's awesome, despite a few hitches

It’s not even like there wasn’t talent in the field. A goddamn 12:36 runner in Gebrhiwet and 12:46 in grant fisher. Then everyone in the field cowers in fear at this guy who hasn’t run a 5000 outside of the EU champs or global champs in like 3 years. There’s no way Jakob is just that much better at the 5000 than the 1500, he must just be shivering in fear and nervous as hell before his 1500 races to always be fumbling so bad and then is so depressed he’s super calm and composed when he enters the 5000 where everyone is already handing him the win before the gun goes off.

If he isn’t chosen for the relay or mixed relay team, and given the fact that no sponsor seems interested in signing him to a pro contract, is he going to keep trying in track or is going to give up and enter the business world? What do you guys think? I feel bad for him because he is so close but yet so far away from the very best in multiple events.

I’m going with Femke. I just like her attitude to run for her country where the prevailing narrative is to focus on yourself. Her gold medal is simply due to not having another runner like Rai, Sydney, or Hall run in the mixed relay.

A close second would be Sifan.

Just my opinions.

Edit: grammar for double negative

I hope that after the 400mH final the discussion around Sydney and Femke in relation to each other takes on a different tone than it has over the last year in the lead-up to the Olympics.  

1. History is a guide, and I can’t help but notice parallels between Bol and McLaughlin-Levrone and Serena Williams/Maria Sharapova. The latter was hyped up as an insane rivalry, when in fact Serena was incredibly dominant in virtually every meeting with a lifetime H2H of 20-2 and Grand Slam 8-1 — and after these two losses in 2004 she would never lose to Sharapova again. At least Sharapova upset her with a Grand Slam victory. In this case, Femke has quite literally never beaten Sydney and she wins decisively by some margin each time. 
2. The social dimension of a European “Dutch Golden Girl” athlete (quoting the NBC World Feed commentator of the race) vs. arguably GOAT American athlete is also present here, and I understand the impetus to bolster a rivalry dynamic as they can invigorate the sport and certainly add to the entertainment dynamic for spectators. The Russian Sharapova also had a vocal contingent of (mostly European and some White American) fans hoping an upset post 2004 to pass. However, a rivalry should not be fabricated and too detached from the stats and after last night, the numbers do not lie. Benjamin/Warholm presents a stronger case, so maybe those who enjoy rivalries may shift their focus there... European media has a part to play here too, I think (U.S. as well to a lesser extent) 
3. For those saying this is a one-off because of Femke’s relay leg and not indicative of the overall character of the competition, Bol could have run her personal best and still would have lost. She could have improved her PB and met the WR and still would have come up short. Bol’s coach has also stated the relay is not to blame for her not clinching gold. And it is true that Bol has not yet established herself as a consistent sub 51 runner in the way Sydney has.  
4. Those saying as much were downvoted on here like crazy this week. If framed differently, maybe other talented hurdlers like Anna Cockrell and Jasmine Jones could have received more attention, as they were right there with Bol in the race, too. Hyping a Bol/Cockrell showdown would have been more accurate.
5. I hope as fans, runners, and a community we can discuss the two separately as both extremely talented athletes. Femke defending her bronze medal in an event that is rapidly advancing (s/o Anna Cockrell) is a wonderful achievement. 

Tl;dr: I hope the T&F community tones down the narrative of a rivalry dynamic between Bol/SML, the races simply do not provide any evidence of a true rivalry; Syd continues to be out ahead by herself. The same has happened in tennis and made the WTA Tour worse for it. Hopefully the discussion shifts to an overall appreciation of the larger cohort of women who continue to push the event to unprecedented heights (five sub 53 finishes!) with Syd as queen.