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I thought I would do a fun, different style show—Brad’s Olympic Track & Field summary wrap up show!

Track is my passion and in this episode, I go over some of the highlights, great performances, and fun backstories from this year’s Olympic Men’s Track & Field Competition.

Enjoy the show!

TIMESTAMPS:

The import thing is not to win but to take part in the Olympics. [04:23]

The coverage was excellent. However, the focus should be on all athletes wherever they are from rather than so much on athletes from USA. [10:18]

Long distance running has been dominated by runners from East African nations in the past, but Grant Fisher came through. [13:09]

Jamaica is amazing, being such a small country, producing amazing athletes. [14:50]

Medal counts is not the most important part of the Olympics. [17:16]

Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley have amazing performances. [23:01]

Leslie Tebogo from Botswana and Kenny Bednarek are two guys to keep an eye on. [28:37]

The human can only deliver a maximum effort for around seven seconds, and then at around 20 seconds you get overcome with lactic acid and you have to slow down further. [31:40]

Sometimes a wind meter is involved to compute the records. [34:48]

There is a significant advantage in drafting in the running races, not just Tour de France and swimming. [41:09]

Why is being a gracious loser important? [46:27]

There are a lot of older records on the women’s side that should be wiped out. [54:58]

The steeplechase is very unusual but exciting. [56:55]

The 4 x 100 relay event is very controversial. [01:00:05]

The Marathon is dominated by runners of East African descent. The 20-kilometer walk was an event folks trained well for.  [01:10:41]

The high jump was fun to watch. The finalists had to have a jump off. [01:12:19]

Pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis is coached by his parents. He started pole vaulting when he was three years old. [01:14:26]

The long jump and the triple jump had amazing performances. [01:17:49]

The shot put was dominated by Ryan Crowser. Discus gave Jamaica another gold. Hammer throw gold went to Katzberg from Canada. [01:19:49]

The javelin throw was a surprise winner, Neeraj Chopra from India. [01:20:54]

The winner of the decathlon, Markus Rooth from Norway was a huge upset. [01:21:53]

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TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast, where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life without taking ourselves too seriously. I’m Brad Kearns, New York Times bestselling author, former number three world-ranked professional triathlete and Guinness World Record Masters athlete. I connect with experts in diet, fitness, and personal growth, and deliver short breather shows where you get simple, actionable tips to improve your life right away. Let’s explore beyond the hype, hacks, shortcuts, and sciencey talk to laugh, have fun and appreciate the journey. It’s time to B.rad.

Brad (00:00:38):
These two young guys really stole the show at the Olympic Games, and arguably, um, was the most shocking, amazing, and exciting performance for the USA team. And the gold medal went to,

Brad (00:00:52):
Hey, I thought I would do a fun different style show. Its Brad’s Olympic Track and Field summer wrap up show. Why take a little change of pace? ’cause I’ve been glued to the television for the last, what did track and field last seven or eight days. Caught some good Olympics before that too. But track is my passion, and boy, I can’t wait to, get into it and go over some of the highlights with you and the great performances. ’cause it seemed like the greatest spectacle ever in the Olympics. I don’t know if they say that every time, but this was a really, really special gathering. The greatest track and field athletes and some amazing performances and really, uh, interesting fun back stories that you might have caught a little bit of if you’re watching the fantastic telecast broadcast brought to you by NBC and their offshoots like Peacock.

Brad (00:01:49):
But I have some more, uh, fun things to come in on. And, uh, if you’re a, uh, a novice or just tune in for the Olympics every four years, maybe I can give you some, uh, clarity here in the show, some further understanding. ’cause I feel like, um, the, the commentary was great, but sometimes they don’t, uh, back it up a few steps and do really basic explanations for the broad audience. Mia Moore asked me some really interesting questions when we attend Track Meets Live, and also on the TV broadcast where you realize we need to kind of, uh, make the assumption that people don’t know the ins and outs of all these strange and intricate events like the triple jump and the high jump and the pole vault, and then all the rules and guidelines when you’re having the various track races and then the people running different distances in their specialties.

Brad (00:02:37):
So, uh, if you’re a diehard track and field fan like I am, maybe this show will, uh, entertain you as I’ll bring some further color and sort of my own takes on some of the action. And, uh, this whole fascination for me started, uh, back when I was seven years old watching the 1972 Olympics from Munich. And I was captivated by the great coverage. And I remember after it was over, I started training for the Olympics. So, going to second grade, I would wear boxer shorts under my clothes so I could get home and immediately strip off the long pants and, uh, start doing my, my training for the Olympics in the backyard. So I jog laps around this tiny backyard lawn, but the, uh, the main, uh, thrust here, you’re not gonna believe it, but I built a high jump pit in my backyard as a 7-year-old.

Brad (00:03:32):
Yeah, I remember those days when you didn’t have constant parental supervision, overviews, uh, getting everything done perfectly. But I hammered some nails into a pair of sticks, uh, wedged them into the ground and then got a bamboo for the crossbar, a stick of bamboo, lightweight bamboo. And then, uh, somehow got a hold of a couple beanbags, and that was my landing area for the pit. So I’ve been high jumping since age seven with a lot of breaks in between, dreaming of the Olympics. Didn’t quite stay on that path as a high jumper, of course. But I sure am, uh, excited to participate in the master’s track and field High Jump. And maybe you saw my silver medal in the Masters National Championships in the age group, 55 to 59. So I am as pumped as ever about the wonderful sport of high jump.

Brad (00:04:23):
But for a little spoiler, I’m gonna talk about the Olympic high jump. ’cause I thought it was a real, uh, travesty and compare and contrast with the amazing occasion in 2020 in Tokyo, 2021 in Tokyo, when the two greatest high jumpers in the world, Tam Berry from Italy and Bhe from Qatar, they had tied over the long contest, amazingly had the exact same height, their best height, as well as the same number of misses on previous heights. And they agreed to share the gold medal. And I thought it was one of the greatest sportsmanship moments in Olympic history back there in Tokyo. They were jumping into each other’s arms hugging, and so excited to both be awarded the gold medal due to a straight up tie in the high jump, just to so touching. And both athletes had come back from adversity.

Brad (00:05:09):
Tim Barry broke his foot right before the Rio Games and couldn’t participate, and he brought his cast out to the track to remind him and was carrying it around after winning the gold medal. It was just beautiful. The same thing happened by the way in the World championships in the pole vault last year, where Nina Kennedy, Australia and Katy Moon of the USA had an exact tie for the heights that they’d accomplished over the course of the competition and agreed to share the gold medal. So it appears not clear on this, but after the competition’s over, you see filming of the, uh, officials talking to the two tied athletes, and then they agree to share the gold. So beautiful pole vault moment, beautiful, high jump moment. And then here, amazingly, again, because it’s pretty hard to imagine an exact tie when you’re talking about not only their best height, but the number of misses they had at earlier, shorter heights is the tiebreaker.

Brad (00:06:02):
So Hamish Kerr Kerr of New Zealand and Shelby McEwen in the performance of a lifetime of the United States rising way up the rankings past jumpers who jumped higher than him are tied after this long competition. And instead of agreeing to both be awarded gold medals, they somehow agreed to what’s called a jump off. And a jump off is where they see, you know, who’s the first one to clear a new height in this, this winner-take-all tiebreaker. But as you might imagine, when the athletes are tired and have already given their very best trying to win the gold medal, they actually have what’s called a regression of the bar during the jump off. So they put the bar up on the previous maximum height that was missed. They were up around seven, nine and three quarters, or 2 38 for metric listeners.

Brad (00:06:51):
They both missed again. So it was the fourth miss in a row. For both athletes having missed outta the competition, you get three misses in the high jump. And so then they lower the bar, lower the bar again. And what we saw on this disgrace of an otherwise beautiful high jump competition was Hamish Kerr. , New Zealand clearing a lower bar to win the gold, McEwen getting the silver when they both are deservedly, uh, winners of the, uh, the gold medal. I don’t see why any athlete would agree to not share a gold medal. And I know, uh, when I talked about this before on the Tokyo occasion, that, um, people gave me some pushback like, no, no, you gotta fight it out and battle for the gold. Uh, what’s, what good is a tie? Well, I think a tie is, um, a beautiful capturing of the Olympic spirit.

Brad (00:07:37):
We must not forget the modern founder of the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Bertine, his motto, or his mission statement was, the important thing is not to win, but to take part, that’s the Olympic motto. Ha Well, for some reason these guys agreed to do an exhausted jump off. I kind of compare it to we’ll get to Noah Lyles right away as I talk about the events starting with the sprints. But Noah Lyles and Kashane Thompson in Jamaica and the hundred were so close that they both had a time of 9.79 seconds, and they had to go down to the thousandth of a second to realize with the incredible camera technology that Noah Lyles won the gold by, uh, literally millimeters with his chest that much farther in front of the Jamaican athlete who got the silver. But just think if we didn’t have those cameras, and they had the Olympic a hundred meter final, with 70,000 fans watching this amazing occasion to determine the world’s fastest human, and they with the best technology at the time, in my hypothetical scenario, they say, oh no, you guys are tied <laugh>.

Brad (00:08:43):
Would you imagine having them march back to the starting line and run the a hundred meters again after they’ve given their best effort to win the gold in order to determine the winner? It’s a farce. It’s ridiculous. And it’s no, no different than making these exhausted high jumpers do it again. That’s why we saw 11 consecutive misses until Kerr finally won the gold medal. I don’t know how that thing went down. And I don’t know if what would happen if like one athlete wanted to share the gold and the other athlete wanted to jump off. I’d imagine they’d have to go that you can’t force an athlete to keep jumping after they’ve basically tied for a gold medal. But that was a, a damper on my Olympics, mainly, um, with my incredible passion for the high jump and how awesome it was in Tokyo only three years ago.

Brad (00:09:28):
And they basically ruined it. I blame the officials and both athletes. I’d love to meet them in person and say, why the F would you want to give up a gold medal in hand? Especially, there’s an article about McEwen in the Washington Post that they, you know, stated that USA athletes get $50,000 bonus for a gold medal. And, uh, many of these elite professional track and field athletes are really scraping by on minimal income and, and needing every type of endorsement or bonus money they can get to continue to train at the highest level. So anyway, that was my jump in and, um, we’ll get right into what, what I thought, um, uh, I would do is go over it, uh, event by event and, and cover some of the highlights. But I also want to talk about some, uh, big picture, uh, insights.

Brad (00:10:18):
And one of them is, uh, how the coverage was so awesome and so much better this year than I’ve seen in previous years, and all the details that you could find streaming, but I still object a little bit to the, uh, USA centric USA focused coverage. And it’s great to root for your country. It was so awesome to see the French fans screaming for the French athletes in every event in track and field. But it gets a little bit over that borderline sometime. And we should also celebrate the individual winners from whatever country they’re from. We should also recognize that a lot of those top performing athletes live and train in the United States, Julian Alfred brought home a gold medal for the tiny Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia. But she’s a product of University of Texas and lives and trains in Austin, Texas.

Brad (00:11:05):
So I think we should celebrate her victory, both for the amazing impact that’ll have on her tiny island nation, as well as call her one of her own and not worry about all this provincialism where, uh, especially when it crosses that line and you’re rooting against an athlete from another country, because you prefer a USA athlete to win. Um, you know, what if that USA athlete is <laugh>, you know, someone who’s, you know, not as laudable as the athlete from the other country, whatever. Anyway, um, great to see the USA do so well overall and also all the athletes from all the other countries. But I will, uh, take note of the incredible performances across the board, um, by USA athletes. And I have to contend that the coaching, uh, has gotten much, much better in this country in, uh, recent years and decades.

Brad (00:11:59):
Because overall, what I’ve seen for a long time from obviously a distance point of view is that the, uh, NCAA system that produces most of our elite track and field athletes is pretty disgraceful and broken. And the athletes are generally pushed too hard in the name of scoring points and winning small meets medium and large meets for their school without regard for their long-term development. And that part really breaks my heart for the young athletes that go there. And I know so many athletes personally and of course it happened to myself, where you go there and get thrust into a system that’s not really looking out for your personal best interests, nor for your long-term development as an athlete. And your potential is compromised and snuffed out by injury burnout. And we don’t even see, um, the potential arise from some of our potentially best athletes. But now it seems like due to the transfer of information, exchange of information on the internet and all the great programming that’s out there a lot of coaches are taking these athletes and making ’em the very best that they can be an excelling on the world stage.

Brad (00:13:09):
And I’ll jump in out of the lineup just to mention the tremendous performances by the USA distance runner, Grant Fisher, who got bronze medal in both the 5,000 and the 10,000 meters. Incredible double. And if you’re not familiar with track and field, you have to realize that the long distance running events have been dominated by runners from East African nations for decades. To the extent that, um, even Grant Fisher said this on his interview, uh, the USA athletes were of the mindset for so long that they simply weren’t at that level and weren’t able to compete with the amazingly high standard that the East Africans have put out there.

Brad (00:13:45):
And so they basically accepted, you know, seventh, ninth, and 12th as outstanding performances or winning the nationals and thinking that was the pinnacle of a career, which it really was. And, uh, the data backed this up because, um, 80% of the top marathon times in the history of the world come from athletes of East African descent, right? Uh, so they might be representing, um, uh, Baja Rain or the Netherlands or whatever, but they’re, um, their, their hail from, uh, E East Africa and the great Riff Valley that is, uh, part of Kenya and Ethiopia, where the, the concentration of athletic talent for long distance running in that area is unlike anything seen in any other sport. So, to break in and get a bronze medal and talk about Olympic spirit, where we’re all obsessed with gold, and you see athletes upset that they didn’t win gold and they just got silver. Boy, I feel like those guys could really deserve an attitude adjustment. ’cause just being out there and competing and getting a medal of any color should be a highlight and a cause for celebration.

Brad (00:14:50):
So anyway, um, uh, it’s, it’s great to see the USA xexcel. I also wanna point out, Jamaica had a really rough Olympics because they’ve had such an incredible run in Olympic sprinting dating back to, uh, of course the emergence of Usain Bolt. And even before that it’s been a Jamaica USA rivalry in the sprints for decades going back into the eighties and nineties. And what’s so amazing about that is it really shouldn’t be any kind of rivalry because Jamaica is so small, their population is 2.8 million. So really, if you, if you wanted to have a fair rivalry, it would be like Jamaica versus San Diego. <laugh>, excuse me, San Diego’s got 3.2 million, so that’s not fair. Jamaica versus Orange County. Nope. Orange County’s got 3 million. What about LA? LA’s got 3.8 million just in the sitting limits. So, um, okay, Chicago, Chicago’s got 2.6 million.

Brad (00:15:42):
So if you really wanted to have a fair and square rival away, it would be Jamaica against athletes hailing from Chicago. And of course that would be a joke to try to think about that. But Jamaica has gone toe to toe with the USA for decades in sprinting Usain Bolt being dominant, uh, fast. Elaine Thompson, my, my favorite, most quotable athlete who won, uh, gold in the 100 and 200 meters in Tokyo and Rio, the double double. And then of course, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, widely regarded as the greatest a hundred meter female sprinter of all time with, like, is it five world titles? The world’s come every other year, and two Olympic gold medals and two Olympic silver medals. And I believe we’ve seen the end of her because she was injured at Paris and wasn’t able to start.

Brad (00:16:30):
Elaine was injured before Paris. They’re other top athlete who was threatening the world record in the 200 ska Jackson was also injured while at Paris, uh, warming up for the event, not injured, like she hit a rock and, and twisted her ankle. But, uh, the athletes are warming up for their event and they realize that they’re not right. There’s something off, and it could be a lingering minor injury that they’ve been dealing with in training for weeks and weeks. But they realize on the day of the Olympics that that twinge in the hamstring is not allowed to be there when you’re running a hundred percent and kicking it up to 26, 27 miles an hour. So the, the sprinters set a wonderful example for you know, taking care of their body and being highly attuned to when they should rest and when they should compete.

Brad (00:17:16):
So Jamaica pretty much got wiped out with a lot of their favorites, unable to even compete. And then those who did perform incredibly well. Uh, but they’re not at the, the highest world level where we saw the US stars, uh, just, just killing it in the sprints and in the relays. Speaking of medal counts, another thing that’s not one of my favorite parts of the Olympic broadcast, especially because the medal counts are so skewed toward the sports where they give out a ton more medals, and the athletes are able to do a ton more events. And why would that, you know, volume of Olympic medals, uh, be something to compare apples to oranges when you’re talking about an athlete in another sport? And of course, I’m talking about, uh, the highly regarded Michael Phelps and his amazing record of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold. That is so awesome for Michael Phelps, the greatest sprinter of all time.

Brad (00:18:08):
He deserves all the accolades. But if you want to tell him, tell me that that is inherently superior to, uh, Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis <laugh> having much fewer medals because they perform much fewer events. Um, that that’s ridiculous. So, Carl Lewis with his 10 Olympic track and field medals, nine of them gold, a Usain Bolt came away with eight Olympic medals, all of them gold. Those guys are pretty awesome, and they’re right up there with Michael Phelps. Not that we need to compare athletes across sports or even across eras, you know. So, um, we have these, um, old time champions from the old days, Jesse Owens, 1936 Berlin games when he won four gold gold medals that was duplicated by Carl Lewis in 1984 Olympics, the same four events, the long jump, the hundred, the 200, and the four by 100 relay, that’s super awesome.

Brad (00:18:57):
But I have a little bit of a bent toward the modern athletes because it’s so much more difficult to win a gold medal today, or to dominate and stay on top of the sport due to the much more, uh, mass of participation, better coaching, and also the financial incentives that make sports, uh, really big time. So, um, back in the day, the pioneers all power to them. They were the best in the world at their time, but sports are so different now. To see someone dominate is truly astonishing when you consider how many people, uh, want that action at the front of the pack. So anyway, just to give out some, um, some medal count stats after a, uh, dispersed it a little bit. USA had 34 medals in track and field, 14 gold, 11 silver, nine bronze. That’s just an avalanche.

Brad (00:19:45):
And by comparison, some of the other countries that were distinctive. Kenya had 10 medals, which is, uh, beautiful for, uh, you know, you call it a, um, almost a developing nation. They don’t have the resources that, uh, the major track and field and the high population powers have. United Kingdom had 10, which was also a great result. Great individual performers there. Australia had seven, also, another fantastic, almost in the category of Jamaica, where it’s a not that super populous country, but they put out some of the top athletes in the world across many events. Jamaica had six, only one of ’em gold, uh, Canada had five medals, including a sensational gold medal, uh, in the four by 100 men’s relay. We’ll talk about that more. And France, I was so surprised to look at the stat because when you watch the broadcasts every day, the fans just went nuts every time there was a French athlete on the track.

Brad (00:20:40):
And so many French athletes rose above and beyond, like their previous expectations, buoyed by, uh, the crowd. Chris Chavez of the Great Cist Magazine podcast dedicated to track and field running. Um, he called it the Parisian Push because they also talk about Hayward Magic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, the great stadium and longtime hotbed of track and field in America, the, the epicenter of track and field in America. And the hometown athletes like the Oregon Duck alums perform well there, uh, with the crowd cheering them on. But the, the support by the crowd for the French athletes was unprecedented. It was absolutely amazing. And for all the races and all the athletes, it was the best track and field stadium that I’ve seen. Just from the, the audible noise level. You could barely hear the announcer sometimes, but they only had one silver medal, the, the female hurdler.

Brad (00:21:29):
So that was, that was surprising. ’cause they, they did well in, in so many other ways. Okay, um, let us, uh, let us reflect on the many fantastic events starting with the men’s event and the a hundred meters with, uh, Noah Lyles, the brash talking promoter of track and field. And, and I love his social media message after he had to bow out of the games with Covid. He says, uh, you know, love me or hate me. Uh, you gotta admit you were watching. And yes, indeed, we were watching. He was, uh, very, uh, brash and heavily promoting about his intention to win, uh, gold medals at both 102 hundred. And also in the ring relay. He was, uh, talking, uh, talking smack about, uh, angling for a spot on the four by 400 relay, which I felt like Noah sometimes crosses the line.

Brad (00:22:19):
I love the guy and I love how he promotes track and field, but sometimes he needs to shut that mouth and respect his own events and focus on the gold medals that he’s going for one at a time. But he does do a great job promoting track and field and making it exciting. And if you’re not familiar with him, you can probably search and pull up some videos. And he’s got a lot of theatrics and a lot of brash talking. But, you know, these guys are trying to promote a sport that is really overlooked in comparison to the major sports. So, even when he, when he talks, uh, a lot of smack, you can still see that he’s a good sport and the athletes really respect each other. There’s a lot of them that train together and mix so much when they’re traveling on the international circuit.

Brad (00:23:01):
You know, they’re all in Brussels for the meet, staying at the same hotel. And the great documentary that was, uh, produced on Netflix called Sprint. I highly recommend you go watch that to see what it’s like backstage behind the scenes in the lives of the great, uh, Olympic sprinters, you can see that it’s a real community. So, uh, don’t let the the brash talking fool you. A lot of it’s just for bravado, bravado and theatrics and promotion. Uh, but he and k Shane Thompson, like I mentioned, um, were five 1000th of a second apart with 9.79. And then Fred Kerley coming in with the bronze, who was the 2002 World Champion at a hundred meters. I saw that race live in front of my eyes in Eugene, Oregon. And he’s one of my favorite athletes. ’cause he’s not <laugh>, he’s not a schmoozer and a promoter.

Brad (00:23:48):
He does his own thing. He’s a pretty chill guy. He doesn’t have much to say in the interviews, but he is one of the great American track and field athletes of modern times. Amazingly, he dropped down from the 400 meters where he was a medalist at World Championships and he declared his intention to, to have a go at the a hundred meters a few years ago. And he’s had a tremendous go. You don’t see athletes switching, especially from 400 down to 100. There’s very, very little crossover.Tebogo is a great example who I’m gonna talk about when I talk about the, the 200 meters coming up. But Fred Kerley has had an amazing career arc where he has excelled at 100, 200 and 400 meters. And so to pull off another bronze in this event is a great achievement for him and for Noah Lyles.

Brad (00:24:33):
I also had to give that guy credit because let’s go back maybe three years ago. He was a 200 meter specialist. He had a disappointing race in Tokyo and placed fourth out of the medals in the 200 when he was definitely a medal favorite or perhaps a gold medal favorite. But he was, he was branded hard as a 200 meter specialist who was not really competitive on the world stage in the hundred meters due to a glaring weakness of his start. And he would joke about how lousy his start was. And even when you watch the 200 meters, you can see my former podcast guest and fantastic broadcaster, Otto Bolden, would always make a note of saying, watch how Lyles is very slow off the reaction time and slow out of the blocks. But he has the fastest finishing speed of any athlete.

Brad (00:25:21):
So he was this guy that would come from behind in his specialty, the 200 meters, and win big titles. So after the Olympics in 2021, disappointment turned to elation when in 2022 he was world champion at Eugene. And, came with, uh, a 10th or so of Usain Bolt’s highly regarded world record of the 200. So he broke the American record, ran 19.31 in the 200 meters to win that 2022 world title. You might’ve seen some of the promos where he ripped he ripped his running suit in half like Superman when he crossed the finish line. And that really launched him as, you know, one of the top, top guys in track and field. But then he went back to the drawing board and announced that he was gonna go for the a hundred and try to win, uh, double gold in 2023 in Budapest.

Brad (00:26:10):
And this was definitely in long shop at the guy worked hard. He has a great coach, Lance Brownman, who has coached, uh, what does he say in, uh, it’s in the Sprint documentary. I think he said he’s coached like nine guys to break 10 seconds in the hundred. So arguably, um, the top 100 meter coach just by statistical, uh, of all time. ’cause he also coached Tyson Gaye, who is number three runner of all time, uh, American record holder in the a hundred meters. And so now working with Noah Lyles, he got that guy start to be big time. So much so that in the 2023 indoor season where they can test the 60 meter instead of the a hundred meter, Noah Lyles was neck and neck with the greatest 60 meter runner of all time. Christian Coleman, the greatest starter of all time is right there with Noah Lyes.

Brad (00:26:57):
And, uh, it was a huge breakthrough for Noah. And of course he was crowing about it. If you, uh, watch during the indoor season, you said, if I’m this fast at 60 meters, everyone better watch out. And, uh, uh, sure enough, uh, and Budapest last year in the hundred had became world champion just by, you know, a sliver again. Uh, but you know, now it was clear that if he, if this guy is, um, fast enough to be the world champion, the hundred, um, the 200 is event that he pretty much is, is going to own. And indeed, he was world champion at 200 meters in Budapest, and it looked like a clear favorite, one of the heaviest favorites you could argue of any track athlete in the Olympics. And unfortunately, he contracted covid during the Olympics after his a hundred meter victory in the, day or two or three ensuing while he’s taking it easy and then having to run a 200 meter heat.

Brad (00:27:51):
I think it was actually the next day, the first round of the 200 meters. So at some point, these athletes again have to run three rounds. They’d run the early heat, then the semifinals, then the finals in the 102 hundred, a little different in the other events, like the longer distance events, they only have to run two rounds, uh, sometimes only one in the case of the 10,000 in the marathon. But Noah did not look himself in the heat nor the semifinal, even though he made it to the final. And I don’t think this was public knowledge until after the final, but he crossed the finish line and he was not looking good. I kind of thought it was like theatrics because he lost. But, um, indeed this was a guy suffering from Covid at 102 degree fever. They had to get him on a miniature wheelchair and he just was a wheel down to not look good.

Brad (00:28:37):
But he somehow pulled out the reserves and the heart to achieve a bronze medal in the 200 meters. So Noah Lyles not anywhere near his best running in the top three there with a time of 1970, and I should go backwards here to keep the drama high, Kenny Bednarek was 1962 in second place for the silver, and then the amazing Letsile Tebogo from Botswana with a sizzling 1946 to win the gold medal at 200. And if you have not heard of this guy, you better start paying attention because I contend that this guy is the most amazing overall human sprint athlete on the planet today. He’s only 21 years old. He missed out winning the gold medal last year in Budapest from Noah Lyles in the hundred by Inches. He’s outstanding in the 200 meters. He got his gold medal here.

Brad (00:29:33):
He had a silver and a bronze in Budapest last year. He’s the world Junior record holder breaking Usain Bolt’s records. Junior is called under age 20. So they have a whole set of record books for athletes under age 20. And you could see the incredible fluidity and beauty in which this this guy runs. He’s just an amazing sprinter, and his range is stunning, such that at 400 meters, he’s one of the top athletes in the world. And if he concentrated on that event, I would consider him to be a gold medal and a world record favorite. But so far in the major championship meets, he’s contested only the100 and 200, but he’s lent to hand to Botswana in the four by 400 relay. And he’s turned in some amazing 400 meter times on the track circuit in the 43.

Brad (00:30:26):
So, tremendous world area record, African record in the 219 46 for a clear victory in the 200 meters. And this guy’s pretty funny too. He soft spoken at the press conference. They said, are you gonna be do you think you have a chance to be the new face of track and field after this gold medal and your great performance? And he goes, oh, I can’t be the face of track and field because I’m not brash and loudmouth like Noah Lyles. And it’s like, oh, is that so? Because this guy, his antics crossing the finish line are, are, are bar none the most theatrical that you’ll find, uh, anywhere this direction from Usain Bolt. So, when he clearly had the, uh, the victory in the 200 meters, he pounded his chest twice, just like Usain Bolt did. Famously in Beijing in 2008 when he ran that a hundred meter world record and was so far ahead that he was thumping his chest and and celebrating way before the finish line. Tebogo has done the same thing, uh, on numerous occasions when he is out there, uh, winning. And unfortunately that cost you a few hundreds of a second. So he might’ve had an even faster time and moved up a little bit more on the world list. He’s now about fifth of all time in the 200 meters. So watch out for this guy.

Brad (00:31:40):
And when I talk about the four by 400 relay, his name’s gonna come up again and it’s gonna blow your mind what he did. So there’s the 200, the 400, another one of my favorite athletes, Quincy Hall. And oh my gosh, this is the best interview subject. He’s hilarious. He does not have the decorum that you might see from other media-trained athletes. He was jawboning a little bit with Noah Lyles before the Olympics, and I believe, one of his quotes was like, you all talk in a whole lot on your little podcast there, but me, I just line up in the blocks, you know, do sound bites like that are fantastic and they’re all in good fun.

Brad (00:32:17):
And this guy came through in the clutch against a very, very tough field to win the gold medal at 400 in an amazing time of 43.40. So to get under 44 is the basic standard in the 400 meters to be truly elite. And, launching there for a spot on the all time list, the world record being 43 0 3 from Wade Danki of South Africa in the 2016 Rio Olympics, uh, that I contend is one of the greatest track and field performances of all time. He came out of Lane eight, so he was on the far outside, and you can watch this on YouTube also. The gun went off and he basically sprinted an entire lap. And I’ve talked about physiology on some other podcasts where, you know, the human can only deliver a maximum effort for around seven seconds, and then at around 20 seconds you get overcome with lactic acid and you have to slow down further.

Brad (00:33:08):
So what we’re actually watching or watching track and field events, they’re not sprinting full speed all the way. They are pacing themselves. Even in a race like the 200 meters. Even in a race like the 100 meters, there’s deceleration occurring after around seven seconds of running and they’re running for nine point something. And so when you see a guy catch up from behind at the end of the 100 meters, what you’re really watching is an illusion where the person is slowing down less than his competitor. So everyone is decelerating due to the body becoming fatigued and not able to deliver maximum effort. But I’m putting this little physiology commercial in here because what Van Nier did by himself out there in the eighth lane in Rio, and breaking that world record, shattering the world record was, was just stunning. ’cause it looked like he was sprinting all the way around the track.

Brad (00:33:59):
But Quincy Hall’s coming for a man, and when you’re that close to the world record in the Olympics is arguably not the greatest place to break a world record, even though it’s the race that you want to peak for. There’s a lot of hard work to be had in the Olympics where you have to go through these rounds and your body is slightly fatigued even when you step out there for the Olympic final. So many athletes have risen to the occasion, and a lot of world records have been broken at the Olympic games, of course. But really, if you want to set up a world record attempt for something like the 400 meters, it should be coming into town for a single lap at the Monaco Diamond League or in Eugene, Oregon on a nice new fast track where all the athlete has to do is focus for three weeks at a time, three weeks coming in to one event, one effort with hopefully perfect ideal conditions.

Brad (00:34:48):
And when you talk about world records you might know that in the short sprint events, the 100, 200, they have a wind meter and any world record is negated if there’s a tailwind of greater than two meters per second. So whenever you look at a stat reported on, on the screen wherever you get your information from magazine, um, you’ll see a wind reading after the performance. And if it’s a wind legal time, that’s great, it counts for records. But if it’s over two meters per second of a, of a supporting wind, uh, the time is not considered in the record books or the all time list. Now, when you get to 400 and anything where you’re circling the track, they don’t care about the wind. Sure, let it be windy because it’s a huge disadvantage in comparison to a, a stadium that has a 0.0 wind because, uh, that’s gonna help you run faster than a tailwind down the back stretch and a headwind coming the home stretch.

Brad (00:35:44):
So, wind conditions seemed pretty good. There was no wind to speak of, uh, in any of the events that negated the Times. Quincy Hall, the winner 43 40 and the 400 Matthew Hudson Smith of Great Britain with another area record. So a European record of 43 44, and then Sam Conga from Zambia, 19 years old, coming in for the bronze medal with a 43 74 national record. And that is so exciting to see these guys come outta nowhere, imagine 19-year-old on the Olympic stage. And we saw him first in the heat and then the semi-finals. And the announcers are like this guy looks really good. He might’ve, you know, shot his wa in the semi-finals just to make it ’cause he was sprinting down the home stretch. He did it again in the finals, uh, to knock off some very fine athletes and more favorite athletes from other countries, more known athletes.

Brad (00:36:34):
But here’s a Zambian guy on the scene at 19 years old. So you talk about to Tebogo from Botswana, you talk about Samukonga from Zambia. There’s another, uh, several guys that, uh, slotted into the big time here, um, from Africa. So even in the developing nations, you can see better coaching, better organization, bringing these guys onto the world stage, and that’s super awesome. Then we go to the 800 meters, which is also a fantastic highlight of the games being that it was the fastest 800 meters of all time, the first time that, uh, four people have been under, uh, 1 42 in a single race. And so, uh, knowing that the world record is one 40.85 by David Rodia from Kenya, uh, 2012, won an Olympic Games, one of the great track and field performances of all time. And, um, you know, a a 1 43 man is truly elite world class, anything breaking 1 44, you’re at the highest level of your game.

Brad (00:37:29):
You’re probably in the top a hundred all time list. And, you know, going down 1 42, 1 41, boy, those records have held for a long time. In fact, Sebastian Coe, who is the, the leader of World Athletics, so he’s the, the chief executive of the global track and field organization. He held the world record in the 800 meters of 1 41 0.77 for decades until it was finally broken. Let’s see. He set that record in the early eighties, and I guess it was broken in the early nineties, so not that long. But, he’s been, you know, number two or three or four all time, uh, for decades since his his prime in the early eighties. And now three guys bumped him, excuse me, four guys bumped him in one race with the times of Emmanuel Nyoni of Kenya, 1 41 19 Marco, a rope of Canada, 1 41 20.

Brad (00:38:22):
That’s right. The Olympic gold in the 802 laps was earned by one 100th of a second. And then the heavy favorite, because he’s been undefeated this year, Jamel Sadjati. from Algeria 1 41 0.5, and then Bryce Hoppel, the US runner, shattered the American record with a 1 41 0.7. He took fourth place. We saw the cameras on him on the track, he looked super disappointed. But Bryce, if you’re listening, which you probably are, I commend you for a fantastic race busting that American record wide open and running with the top guys in the world. And I really encourage all the athletes, whatever, you know, a place you’re in and whether you missed out on the medals and the widely feared fourth place, it’s okay. ’cause it’s all about the journey. And I’m saying this as a former athlete, uh, looking back decades later from my intensive career on the pro triathlon circuit where I wanted to win so bad or come in the top three or come in the top five or whatever my goals were.

Brad (00:39:19):
And, um, now it’s all, you know, it’s all trivia. It’s all in a file folder in the back of my file cabinet. Uh, so it is all about being in the moment and trying your hardest. And I think you should celebrate your Olympic appearance. Uh, you gave it your best out there. And boy, the competition was, um, phenomenal beyond any belief, uh, in this particular, uh, 800 meter event. And, you know, Bryce Hoppel coming in, in the dreaded fourth place, would win gold medal in every single prior Olympic games except for that amazing, race by Rodia in 2012. So we have Emmanuel Nyoni of Kenya, and he’s only 19 or 20 years old. The youngest winner ever in the 800 meters. A rope of Canada, also won the world Championships in 2023 and then Sadjati. And we’re gonna see more of him because he has just been dominating on the world circuit and ran a couple other one 40 ones this year.

Brad (00:40:15):
So arguably, having, you know, the best season that we’ve ever seen at 800 meters, then we get to the 1500 meters. And this was a marquee, a signature event of the Olympic Games, strongly driven by thisaZQ1 n manufactured rivalry by Josh Kerr of Great Britain and Jakob Ingebrigsten of Norway. And Ingebrigsten has been the premier middle distance runner in the world for the last, uh, three years at least as he came on the scene and won the Olympic gold in Tokyo at the tender age of 21, and then just dominated all the races on the circuit, both at 1500 and 5,000. Uh, but his resume has been a little checkered because in the World Championships subsequent to Tokyo, uh, the Olympic gold medalists was shockingly upset in Eugene in 2022, by a Britain named Jake Whiteman.

Brad (00:41:09):
And then in 2023, he was shockingly upset again by Josh Kerr, um, also representing Great Britain in Budapest. And so now he’s coming into the Olympics with a bit of pressure, and some of that pressure was coming out of Josh Kerr’s mouth, and then Jakob was giving it right back at Josh. So, um, these guys definitely crossed the line into a little bit of, uh, degenerative, uh, criticism and silliness back and forth. And, Jakob saying that, you know, Josh is afraid to race him and Josh saying that he’s not getting any respect, which is kind of true because Jakob was like, Hey, you know, he’s just the next guy that came up and, and upset me in one race, but on the best in the world. And so they’ve had a couple epic showdowns. One of ’em was in Eugene, early this year at the pre-class.

Brad (00:41:56):
And, they were very close. And so the hype was building up, these guys don’t like each other, these guys are talking trash. Let’s see who’s gonna get the best of each other in the Olympics. And, what does Bertin do? But he takes the entire field out at world record pace for the first three laps which is a shocking strategy when you are the best middle distance runner in the world. Because what happens at world record pace is if you don’t get rid of those guys who are on your back, they are going to be fresher than you because leading is much more difficult than following in running. Hey, you already know that from watching the Tour de France, right? When you draft on a bike, it’s night and day difference because of the speed they’re going at. But there is a significant drafting advantage in running as well, a physical, you know, from the properties of physics, there’s a huge advantage.

Brad (00:42:49):
Not huge, but it’s like a, a belief to be around 3%. I think there’s a 6% advantage in swimming when you’re drafting behind someone in swimming where you were moving through disturbed water by the athlete in front of you. It is easier to swim <laugh>. I discovered that myself when I could swim in the pack with guys who were faster than me, just by following right on their feet and moving through the water that they’ve already disturbed. Similarly, the lead runner in a pack string behind him is breaking the wind for the other athletes behind them. They are running in a vacuum or a pocket of less intense wind that’s pretty obvious. So look at the biking example, then look at the runners. They’re running 16 miles per hour or something, running that 1500 meters. So Jakob was doing all the work from the very start of the race.

Brad (00:43:39):
He’s looking, he’s famous for looking up at the scoreboard, the, the jumbotron to see behind him, and he is checking it during the Olympic final and all the races that he does so frequently that it’s kind of funny. But anyway, he sees all these guys still with him, uh, including Josh Kerr. And on the final straightaway for all the, for all the money, Josh pulls up and makes a strong move. Uh, this is the World champion we’re talking about from 2023, but oh, I forgot to mention, the Party Crashers from America and these two young guys really stole the show at the Olympic Games, and arguably was the most shocking, amazing, and exciting performance for the USA team. And the gold medal went to Cole Hawker of the USA and the bronze medal went to Yared Nuguse also USA yard’s, a former Notre Dame runner, Cole’s, a former Oregon duck.

Brad (00:44:30):
These guys are young, they’re 23 and 24, and they just arrived to beat, uh, to upset two heavy, heavy favorites to get golden bronze in the 1500 meters. Cole has a fabulous, sensational kick where he can explode, uh, and change gears faster than any other athlete out there. He won the Olympic trials in fantastic form, uh, to, to show that he was ready to contend in Paris. Nuguse was right there with him. Naguse has also been really close to Ingebrigsten racing on the circuit, and these guys are chipping away, chipping away, but no one expected them to swarm the metal positions in this 1500 meter race. And, uh, people are asking afterward, Jakob but you know, what went wrong? And all these questions and, and analysis, but really what I’m gonna say is what happened in the past year or year and a half, is that Cole Hawker and Yared Nuguse improved 10 or 15 yards, uh, for their race, their 1500 meter race.

Brad (00:45:30):
And so now they’re right there. And, um, you know, Cole’s got clearly the most wicked kick in the sport, so you need to get rid of him, or you’re going to lose in the last a hundred meters. And Jakob is a real champ. I give him so much credit for pushing that field out at world record pace and going for it. And he, he talks a lot, but it’s, um, it’s very thoughtful and it’s also, um, you know, pretty factual. So I love listening to this guy. He’s young himself. He’s only, uh, 23 or something. But you know, I remember this one epic, uh, interview quip where, um, the, the, the interviewer asked her, uh, you know, Jakob had a European record time, I think when he ran 3 27 a year or two ago. And the, uh, the interviewer said, is it also, um, gratifying to know that all the guys in the pack behind you, eight of ’em, were chasing you to get a new personal best?

Brad (00:46:27):
And he says, uh, they weren’t chasing me. I was pulling them <laugh>. It’s kind of a, it’s kind of a funny comeback for an interview setting, but it’s, uh, very important to reflect on that comment coming from that athletic mindset where, no, no, they weren’t chasing me. I was ahead and I wa they were never gonna catch me. I was pulling them to new personal best times. Yeah, he gotta love Jakob, but he was super, super disappointed in fourth place, but for probably the first time we’ve ever seen, he jumps on Instagram the next day and writes a beautiful heartfelt couple paragraphs saying, you know, um, these guys got the better of me. It turns out Josh Kerr did in fact show up to a big event and to give it his best. And I, I got, I got beat and, um, you know, no excuses and congratulations.

Brad (00:47:18):
So that was really cool to see. I’m gonna call that sort of an evolution in his trash talking strategy and the ability to, you know, lose like a champion and, and get that mindset. And why is that so important? Well, for a lot of reasons, one of them is he had another race coming up at 5,000 meters, and oh, boy, isn’t that the next one on the list of my Olympic recap? So what does he do in the 5,000? He dominates and just owns the entire field. He had him in his palms the whole time. Here’s a guy who’s the, you know, the fastest, uh, middle distance runner that we’ve seen in decades. So he’s, he’s closing in on the world record of 1500 meters. He ran a 3 26 this year. The guys in the Olympics, Cole ran 3 27.

Brad (00:48:05):
Josh ran 3 27 Yared Nuguse 3 27, all new personal bests, American record for Hawker, a British record for Josh Kerr. Um, but, you know, Jakob’s the fastest. And then he’s jumping into the 5,000, which is comprised of more distance oriented athletes. There’s only a couple, few people that will double going 1500 and 5,000 because, uh, you require so much strength, so much more endurance, it’s different training. So it’s pretty fantastic to be able to double in any two events in the Olympics. And that includes the a hundred and the 200, uh, and so forth. But, um, the 1500 5,000 double has only been accomplished a couple times in Olympic history. Uh, Pavo NMI did it over a hundred years ago, and then the greatest middle distance runner of all time, Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, uh, did it in 2004 in Athens where he won the 1500, finally after getting thwarted in the previous two Olympics, despite being a favorite.

Brad (00:49:01):
And then he came back and just toasted everybody in the 5,000. Uh, but I remember the great call, uh, on the, on the broadcast back then where Craig Mashach, the, the former, uh, elite American miler, was calling the race. And he said, these guys better speed up, or they’re playing right into Hicham El Guerrouj’s hands, because no one’s gonna go faster than him if they leave it to the last lap. And, the African runners didn’t listen to the announcer and they let him linger around there. El Guerrouj, I’m talking about for an easy gold, and same thing sort of happen with Jakob, where if he’s in the pack and you’re expecting to beat him, you have literally no chance when it starts to get fast on the final lap. So Jakob, was very strategic, very patient. He did exactly the best strategy in stark contrast to his very, very questionable strategy of leading out at world record pace with no help in the 1500 meters.

Brad (00:49:55):
And so in the 5,000, he pounced at the right time on the final lap and came down the home stretch which a, a clear victory by, uh, 15 meters or so, but also notable behind the Kenyan athlete. In second Kumo was Grant Fisher from the United States coming in with the bronze medal in his second run of the meet, the 10,000 was where he got his first bronze medal. And as I said at the outset, breaking into this African Dynasty is such a huge moment for US distance running and Grant Fisher peaking at the right time, uh, with two beautiful races. First in the 10,000, that was the first event to open, uh, track and field on August 2nd, and then the 5,000 was on, uh, the final day or the second to last day of competition. Um, so Grant Fisher being as focused and disciplined as he is, he’s coached by my old duathlon, compatriot that I used to race with, named Mike Scanner, his high school coach, who’s now he, he was a low key guy.

Brad (00:50:49):
He’s not one of the major coaches of the major, uh, programs. But Grant went back to him last year and said, Hey, can you coach me again? We worked out pretty well in high school, and so now scanner’s getting a lot of attention for working so well with his pupil and being so devoted to a very precise and focused training regimen. I love listening to him on podcasts where he talks about the level, uh, of depth of the relationship and all the nuances and the holistic approach where they’re trying to get to know the athlete and what’s best for him and the living environment and the training environment. So whatever’s working for Grant Fisher, keep it up, man. And uh, one interesting note was after he got his bronze medal at 10,000 meters, um, he left Paris and went up to St. Moritz, Switzerland at high altitude to relax, get away from the hoopla, continue his training pattern and getting ready for the 5,000, the following week.

Brad (00:51:38):
So that was a sensational highlight for USA, uh, but also Ingebrigsten at the front there. And the 5,000 was great. And then in the 10,000 Joshua Cheptege iof Uganda set an Olympic record. And, Aragawi another great runner from Ethiopia was second and Grant Fisher sneaking in there for the bronze. In fact, in the 5,000 and the 10,000, he had a great finishing kick Fisher did to get those bronze medals. But he was very, very close to silver in each occasion. He lost silver by two one hundreds in the 10,000 after 25 laps, it comes down to two one hundreds. And then he lost by a 10th of a second in the 5,000. But guess what? He also passed guys just barely who got fourth and fifth. So, yeah. That was, uh, he, he’s happy with bronze and I love that attitude ’cause he was ecstatic with bronze medal as he should be.

Brad (00:52:34):
110 meter hurdles. The heavy favorite Grant Holloway came through under pressure. And when you’re like three or four time world champion he had a tough race in Tokyo, so he should have had that gold medal as the heavy favorite didn’t come through. I think he got silver, maybe bronze. So here he finally got his Olympic gold with a great time of 1299, right in front of his teammate Daniel Roberts. And third place was Jamaican Broadville. Um, 400 meter hurdles, another signature event of the Olympics. And oh my gosh, Benjamin, another one of my favorite athletes, uh, love his thoughtful interviews where he really tells it like it is. He says, the athletes should get paid more money, just straight up comments like that. He also says, bibs are stupid, which I totally agree. And like we have all this technology and these high speed cameras determining that Noah Lyles won by four, one thousandths of a second.

Brad (00:53:24):
But then we have to pin the person’s a piece of paper on their chest with their name and, and some number. It’s like ridiculous. Like you don’t know who each athlete is in the Olympics. Come on now, maybe in a huge high school track meet you can use bibs but rise, right? But he’s had a great season undefeated so far, and he was heartbroken after the Tokyo Olympics when he lost to his rival Karsten Warhol of Norway. They both shattered the world record in Tokyo. Warhol breaking 46 seconds for the first time, and Rei was the number two performance of all time in Tokyo. But he was still disappointed ’cause he is really was focused on that gold and he finally got that gold. And these guys, Rei Benjamin in first Carsten Warhol of Norway in second, and in the bronze medal position, Santos of Brazil, these guys have been dominating this event for the past three years, even beyond that.

Brad (00:54:15):
And so it’s great to see a podium of what people are calling the big three in the 400 meter hurdles. And just executing beautifully. The event used to be kind of an afterthought, like here comes the race with the hurdles and, um, now it’s like a centerpiece of the Olympics because these guys have taken it to such a high level. In fact, before Warhol broke the world record for the first time back in 2020, or so, um, the record had held since 1992, Kevin Young of the USA, having that great race in Barcelona. But that’s an embarrassing long time for a record to hold, like 28 years when so much has, you know, happened in the sport.

Brad (00:54:58):
On the women’s side, there’s a lot of older records from the doping era of the Eastern block, and that’s kind of a shame because those records should be wiped out. But they’re still there. And they may hold for quite some time when you talk about changing the physiology of a female to get a massive advantage with doping and then expecting records to be broken in today’s game, which is widely regarded to be much more scrutinized and tested to ensure that the athletes, hopefully we never know, uh, but hopefully they’re, uh, very clean, completely clean, or certainly much cleaner than the rampant doping era of the, uh, seventies, eighties and into the nineties. We’re almost done with the, uh, the men’s side running, then we’re gonna get some field events. And then, because, I’m getting so deep into this stuff, I’ll do a separate show for the great female performances. And I’ve been listening to a lot of track and field podcasts and, um, Sebastian co made the great point that, um, the, the female stars have carried the sport, uh, quite frequently when there was sort of a, a lull in the, uh, excitement or the excellence, uh, delivered on the male side.

Brad (00:56:10):
And so, uh, it’s really great to see a sport where this equality is so strong, where the female, the superstars are, certainly at the same level as the males, and certainly not overshadowed in any way and given their own limelight and their own, uh, fame and attention. So, uh, that’s really great. And it’s great to see how the meets are organized, where, um, the events are all spread out with thoughtfulness, where one day you’re gonna see the, the world’s fastest man and then the next day the world’s Fastest woman and so forth. So there’s plenty of attention to go around, um, for, for both sexes. So I left off after the hurdles. We have the 3000 meter steeplechase and my casual observer, Mia Moore, who’s now becoming more and more astute about track and field. She still says, what the heck are they doing?

Brad (00:56:55):
What is this event where they’re jumping over. the wooden balance beam and then jumping in the water every lap? And it is kind of strange, like swato somehow realize that this event has survived for whatever, a hundred years or more, where every track and field stadium has to have this, you know, this elaborate water jump adjacent to the track just for this one event where the guys jump on the balance beam, so to speak, into the water every lap. And then a series of wooden hurdles that are erected across the track. So the steeplechase is just short of two miles at 3000 meters. And, it’s still a big event in track and field. And there’s a guy who’s been dominating, his name is Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco.

Brad (00:57:43):
And he took the gold in a magnificent performance once again with his vicious last lap kick. No one can touch him on the last lap. So if he’s around, watch out, he’s gonna get the gold. He got the gold inTokyo, and he got the gold at two recent world championships. His main rival Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia had a horrible crash on the final lap where he hit the hurdle. And unlike the hurdles that we see in the other events that are individual hurdles that are positioned in each person’s lane, this is a huge firm affixed wooden balanced beam like structure that does not budge. And if you hit it, you go down hard. I think he was taken to the hospital, looked like he possibly could have had a concussion ’cause he just slammed so hard on the ground.

Brad (00:58:28):
But notably in second place in this race was a guy named Kenneth Rooks from the United States training out of Utah. And the great program at BYU, that Ed Estone runs a former world class runner on the American scene. And this guy, um, I don’t have the exact stats, but he was a nobody. I mean, he was like 19th in the college championships only recently. He’s come on so strong. He ran an 8 0 6, which is one of the top performances of all time in America. And it was a nine second personal best in the Olympic final. That is so unheard of you, you can’t even imagine someone beating their previous best time by nine seconds. That takes you from a good college runner, battling it out with BYU against Arizona State, against UCLA, against Washington to the Olympic final. And there was good camera time of him on the last couple laps running in between the world record holder, Lamecha Germa from Ethiopia and the Olympic and world Champion Soufiane El Bakkali

Brad (00:59:35):
And then here’s this dude rooks from the United States, which I don’t think he was even predicted to make it to the final. So, you know, the final has maybe 16 people coming out of the heat pretty tough to make it for an American distance runner. In fact, we would celebrate an athlete just making the final, just stepping on the track for the 5,000, 10,000 or steeplechase in prior years with some notable exceptions. So we’ve had some great performers in the last couple decades. Galen Rupp got a silver medal in the marathon, or was it a bronze in Rio in 2016? Evan Jager got a silver medal and the steeplechase I think in 2012. But by and large, the Americans are not filtering into these long distance races. But so what does this guy rooks do on the last lap?

Brad (01:00:21):
He takes off and gets a gap? And, um, you know, El Bakkali didn’t react right away, but he eventually chased him down. Lamecha Girma reacted so aggressively that that was contributing to his fall over. One of the final hurdles was this frenzy to catch this guy Rook who took off from the pack. So one of the most amazing and unexpected silver medals, that we’ve seen in an event that has been so dominated by Kenyans. I think they won, you know, like six or seven or eight gold medals in a row. And, Kibiwot got bronze for Kenya there.

Brad (01:00:55):
Now we go to the four by 100 relay, one of the most controversial events on the Olympic program. And the United States men have been absolutely cursed for some reason. And there’s a lot of armchair analysis of why we cannot get a stick around a track in the big championship meets. We clearly have the four fastest guys by far than any other country. But when it comes to the relay there’s so much more to it than just having a big horsepower in your four entrance. So, each teammate is, is obliged to have a graceful passing of the baton to get around the track. And other countries have kicked our butt on this so many times with much lesser athletes, guys that you don’t even see contesting the a hundred meters, at least not outside the first round. But they’re a great relay team. And the commentators did a good job isolating and highlighting like the team from Japan, the team from China, the team from Italy, Italy, won the gold medal in the 2021 Olympics despite having vastly inferior firepower except for their gold medalist on the team Jacobs, who was the upset winner in the hundred back in Tokyo.

Brad (01:02:09):
Um, but for some reason the US has not had gold since 2000. So no gold in 24 years, and no medal since 2004. And of course, right before the race, what do you get the jinxing highlights put on the screen? So they showed the botched baton exchange in Beijing in 2008. They showed another one, uh, in the rain in London in 2012, <laugh>. And, another in 16 and another in 20. Just, just shocking, um, um, tragic, um, uh, you know, uh, incompetence and bad luck and whatever you wanna call it. So this time we were hoping for the best. We’ve heard from track and field officials that now the athletes are very serious about practicing for the relay because you see what happens when you have top athletes as they’re contesting their individual events. No argument that, you know, winning the a hundred meters and winning the gold medal is far more important than, uh, you know, practicing for a relay race, which is, you know, a secondary goal for all the individual runners, of course.

Brad (01:03:12):
But again, if you’re on the Chinese team and you have nobody in the a hundred meters, you four guys are out there practicing every day and doing these perfect passes to enhance your speed across the track. ‘Cause remember, uh, even if you have the gold medal and the bronze medal and the fifth place finisher and the a hundred running 9, 7, 9, 8, 9, 9, and the Chinese team is made up of four guys that run ten one, for example, um, you can lose a half a second with a substandard baton exchange, and you can lose a lot more than that if you screw things up. And in the US case either get disqualified or drop the baton and don’t finish. So what happened in the Olympics after the fantastic first leg by Christian Coleman handing off to Kenny Bednarek the silver medal and the 200 meters and the seventh place finisher and the a hundred meters, one of the fastest men in the world the baton did not get passed in the necessary or the mandated exchange zone.

Brad (01:04:12):
So the athletes mistimed the handoff and the second rudder, the guy looking for the baton was out of the required zone. And so they were immediately disqualified, even though Kenny grabbed the baton and continued around the track and, and handed off to two more of his teammates and they finished last place. But they were disqualified anyway. And you can clearly see on the video that the second athlete, kung fu Kenny left quite a bit early. And so he left on his run early, sticking his hand back, waiting for the baton. But Coleman had not arrived in time because he left too early and he left well before all the other athletes. So you look on the drone shot from above and you’re like, what the heck are they doing there? It’s not that difficult. I used to coach Relay for my middle school kids.

Brad (01:04:59):
I made it really simple. You tape a piece of tape on the track, you watch one, the runner hits that tape, reaches that tape, you turn around, you take off running, you stick your hand behind you, and you wait for the baton to be handed to you. Simple, not that tough. The US tragically screwed it up again, Canada wins South Africa second and Great Britain in third place. And what’s so amazing to see the Canadian anchorman, Andre Degrass, this guy is one of the most clutch Olympic performers you’ll ever see. And he’s been struggling so much with injuries and inconsistent performances in between Olympic games. But when it comes to the Olympics, he seems to be there coming through. And so you saw him making the finals I believe in the 200 meters. And then here he is bringing home the gold for Canada after his amazing gold medal performance in the 200 in Tokyo as a career highlight.

Brad (01:05:55):
And he’s been around for a while peaking at the right time. So whatever he’s doing, maybe he can share that with young athletes in Canada. ’cause he’s had a wonderful career in between a lot of struggles with injuries and substandard performances. But boy, those Canadians were pretty happy and shocked, and all three teams, Canada, South Africa, great Britain to be on the podium with the USA not around. That’s crazy when it comes to the four by 400. So that’s each athlete running an entire lap around the track. You don’t have that concern about Baton exchange because you’re not, you know, super rushed running 26 miles an hour handing off to someone, uh, to do the, the next leg except they did screw that up too. <laugh> back in the world Championships last year, there was a tragic dropping of the baton in the four by 400 relay, which is almost unheard of, and no reason that should ever happen when you can be patient and you actually get to turn and see the person, unlike a four by one handoff, where the runner in front is just sticking his hand behind and running blind down the track and just feeling for the baton.

Brad (01:07:02):
So anyway, in the four by four, the US had one of the greatest performances of all time. In fact, it was the second fastest run ever. Only behind the great team with Michael Johnson, I believe is in 2000 that still has the world record. But they ran a 2 54 even without the Olympic gold medal. Fastest man in the world, in the 400 Quincy Hall. So Quincy Hall reported in with an injury after his gold medal. He was not available for the four by 400 team, but these guys rallied and had a sensational performance in 2 54. And guess what? They needed it because right on their heels for the entire race was the amazing contingent from Botswana. That would be Collen Busang Kebinatshipi, Anthony Pesela and Bayapo Ndori and the anchorman Letsile Tebogo, the most amazing performer. And his relay leg was out of this world, one of the fastest of all time.

Brad (01:08:01):
And right on the heels of Rei Benjamin, the 400 meter hurdle, gold medalist who held off to Tebogo with himself, one of the fastest 400 relay legs ever recorded in history. So those guys got the job done. The final team was Chris Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadman, and Ry Benjamin. And interestingly, if you didn’t know this, they highlighted pretty well on the broadcast, but in the relays, again, you have to qualify in the heat and then try to make it to the finals. But you’re allowed to substitute athletes in order to extensively protect your top athletes from having to do, uh, too many races. So, like Sydney McLaughlin was the 400 meter four by four team for the females, as was Ry Benjamin, even though they were focusing on the hurdles for the entire Olympics, they’re allowed to come in and run in the finals while someone was able to take their place in the heats.

Brad (01:08:55):
And in this case the other member of the relay contingent was the young Quincy Wilson, the sensation of American track and field, because he made the Olympic team for the relay at age 16. He took six place in the national Championships at 400 meters, again, behind the gold medalist Quincy Hall, and, um, many other, uh, great athletes that were, uh, making the Olympic final. Um, he was right there. He’s one of the fastest guys in the world in the 400 meters. And then after the Olympic trials, when he got sixth, he ran a 44 2 in another meet, which made him the second fastest American behind Quincy Hall, the eventual gold medalist, and now the fourth fastest 400 guy of all time. So this guy who just finished 10th grade, his summer after 10th grade, what did you do? Oh, <laugh>, I became one of the fastest runners in America, the fastest nation.

Brad (01:09:46):
So the coaches and the selection committee generously added him to the four by 400 relay team, and he ran the first leg in the qualifying heats. Interestingly, he did terrible. He was several seconds. He was like three seconds off his best time for whatever reason, he did not give any excuse. But it was a pretty rough Olympic outing for Quincy Hall, Quincy Wilson, for whatever reason. However, the team, you know, rallied after him and caught up to the other, uh, the other runners that were a a bit ahead of them, quite a bit ahead. They had to really rally to get that qualifying spot for the finals. And then, of course, with the dream team and the finals anchored by Ry Benjamin and guys putting in fantastic splits in the 40 threes, um, they came through for the big gold medal. And then Quincy Wilson at age 16 becomes the youngest gold medal winner in the history of USA, track and field. Botswana right behind and Great Britain in third.

Brad (01:10:41):
The marathon, as we have seen for so long, dominated by runners of East African descent. Remember I told you that 80% of the top performances of all time come from runners from the great who trace their ancestry to the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, Ethiopia, despite representing numerous other countries. But this time it was Tola of Ethiopia who ran 2 0 6 Abdi from Belgium, and Kipruto from Kenya were the top three. Tola was a late addition to the team. Pretty interesting. So somebody got injured, they said, Hey, you can run the Olympics. I think they only gave him a couple weeks notice, and he broke the Olympic record, which was so amazing because it was a really, really hard course in Paris going up hills and, uh, brutal hills that you really haven’t seen the likes of on an Olympic race course.

Brad (01:11:32):
I don’t recall ever seeing a course this tough, but these guys are so fast now with their super shoes improving their times from the old days. And, that was, that was amazing to see. There’s also a result for the 20 kilometer walk, and I’m still confused why this is an Olympic sport. No disrespect to the guys that put it out there, the winner from Ecuador, runner up Brazil, and the third place from Spain, <laugh>. But that’s kind of mean, and I don’t like when people DeBarge other sports. So I should give more credit to the race walkers. Hey, the sport’s there, an Olympic medals up for grabs. They train hard. And I must say that they are incredibly fit and they move quite quickly. You’d be surprised. They think like race walking, they’re waddling along. I believe they’re going like, six minute miles.

Brad (01:12:19):
So, uh, maybe, maybe a little over six minute miles. They did one 18 for 20 kilometers. Um, that’s, that’s 37, yeah, 38. So they’re running six 30. They’re, they’re walking six 30 pace per mile, which is pretty fantastic. I talked a little bit about the high jump. It was a magnificent meet for Shelby McEwen of the United States. He’s been grinding away for a long time. He comes out with a new personal best of 2.36 meters, seven nine, and change Hamish Kerr setting an area record, that’s what they call it for the Australia New Zealand, down under area. And, too bad those guys had to have a jump off. And I think that the officials should do something about it and just do away with the stupid rule or stupid procedure of having a jump off and seeing the Olympic gold medal given away because someone cleared a lower height than they did during the competition.

Brad (01:13:13):
It’s ridiculous. And, lost in the shuffle is the great bronze medal performance by clearly the second best high jumper of all time. Behind the Great World record holder and multiple medal winner, Javier Sotomayor of Ken, uh, of Cuba, he still holds a world record at eight feet zero and three quarters inch, 2.45 meters. Bashem is number two all time at 2.43. And here he is with his fourth Olympic medal. So he is got a gold, two silvers and a bronze at the tail end of his career, the swan song of his career. I got to see him live in person in 22, win the world title in Eugene. And who can forget the greatest moment at the Tokyo Olympics when he shared the gold with John Marco, Tam Berry. And Tim Berry was having a great season. He was coming up as an Olympic favorite, and then apparently he got kidney stones the week of the competition. And so he was wheeled in and outta the hospital. He was in the hospital, he came out to qualify for the Olympics. and then the finals were two days later and he gave it a go, but he went out pretty early. So the winners, the medalists were Hamish Kerr, Shelby McEwen, and Mutaz Essa Barsham of Qatar.

Brad (01:14:26):
Now we get to the pole vault. What else can you say about probably the single most dominant athlete on the planet today? And I’m talking about Mondo Duplantis representing Sweden, but born and raised in Louisiana. Remember when I talked about, getting too wrapped up in countries and flags at the start of the show? So I call him, I celebrate him as an American. His father was a great pole vaulter and the number one high school vaulter when I was a senior in high school.

Brad (01:14:53):
So, he also is coached by his father and his mother. You always see them on camera at the meets, helping him out. And this kid was born to pole vault. He started pole vaulting in his backyard when he was three years old. They showed some home video during an Olympic profile. And what does he do? He blows away the competition as usual. And then once again, for I believe the ninth time, he breaks the world record by one centimeter. So if you look at the all time world record, pole vault list, it goes 6.1, six point 11, six meters, 11, six meters, 12 centimeters, six meters, 13, six meters, 14, um, all the way up to 6.25 meters. So that’s 20 and a half feet in the air. And boy, what an exciting event to watch. And if you want to dig deeper into the physics and what’s going on, when this guy is able to stick a pole into a box and vault that high in the air, it’s a pretty amazing athletic achievement.

Brad (01:15:52):
You require tremendous speed, amazing strength to hold on to this bending pole as it catapults your body into the air and you’re flying through the sky, you’re going much higher than the length of your pole at the world class level, of course. And then the gymnastic ability and the spatial awareness to be able to contort your body over the bar and then land down in the bottom of the pit. A great performance at Silver for Sam Kendricks, who’s been, uh, Mondo’s long time competitor. And then Corrales from Greece got the bronze. And these guys are a really tight-knit community. They help each other out. They all root for Mondo. They all rhythm rhythmically clap when they’re done, vaulting to watch him once again, stick the bar up higher. And it’s pretty interesting ’cause backstage you realize that the pole Mondo is using is longer, heavier, and more difficult to bend than the poles that the other athletes are using.

Brad (01:16:48):
So what happens as you gain experience and gain excellence in the pole vault, you move up, quote unquote move up to a bigger pole. So when I pull faulted in high school, I was terrible, but I had fun learning it. I had this tiny little pole that was like the width of a pencil. Not really, but, you know, it was short and it was super easy to bend, but that’s all I could do. And if I tried to get a bigger pole, I didn’t have the power and the speed to launch my body into the air, I would just stick the pole in the ground and perhaps fall back to the ground in worst case, right? And so what Mondo’s doing, unless he completely screws up at a track, meet with the wrong steps or just something’s off in his timing, um, he’s pretty much certain to win because of the equipment he’s using. So it’s kind of an interesting insight and, you know, all he is gotta do <laugh>. I’m saying this, uh, tongue in cheek is, you know, get that pull bending and shooting him over the bar. All he has to do is hold on for the ride, so to speak, right?

Brad (01:17:49):
In the long jump, Miltiadis Tentoglou from Greece, eight meters, 48 up there in, uh, 28 feet in change, uh, another gold for him. So he’s a clutch guy that’s winning major championships. Lots of golds in his scene Pinnock from Jamaica in second, one of the only medals won by Jamaica and Track, and you imagine coming in the long jump rather than the sprints, Furlani of Italy in third. And if you look at aTentoglou and you saw him walk by you on the street, you would not know that he was an athlete.

Brad (01:18:18):
He’s like a skinny little dude with hunched shoulders, but he is able to spring off the ground and generate tremendous speed and tremendous technique in the long jump. And the triple jump. Boy, these guys have great battles. They’re really close. The, the gold medal was won by two centimeters. These guys are jumping 58 feet with the hop step and finally jump landing on two feet at the end. So Diaz from Spain, gold, Pichardo from Portugal, silver, and Diaz from Italy in third. A great event to watch. It seems to be more interesting to me to watch that than just the long jump where you run and jump off aboard and land in the sand. And some guy goes further than the other guy. It’s hard for me to get into, but the triple jump, oh my gosh, there’s just so much timing involved and the impact force of jumping off that board, landing way out there on one foot, and then immediately, transferring all that landing energy into spring energy to land on the other foot.

Brad (01:19:18):
So it’s truly, it’s a hop. So like you hop in the air as far forward as you can, landing on the same foot, and then your next, your next sequence is landing on the other foot. So after you take this long hop, you take off on your left foot, imagine landing on your left foot and immediately springing to next land with the right foot, and then finally taking off from that right foot and landing in the sand with both feet like you’re doing in the long jump. So that’s my, uh, primer on the triple jump.

Brad (01:19:49):
Shot put Ryan Crowser dominant in the event the greatest of all time. Now that he’s got a couple golds, a couple world titles his longtime rival Joe Kovac of the United States got silver, and then another medal for Jamaica in the shot put. Campbell, I believe is the only medal ever for Jamaica In the shot put .

Brad (01:20:06):
In the discus, we have another gold medal winner from Jamaica. Stone setting the Olympic record in a new personal best 70 meters, beating the world record holder Alekna from Lithuania by way of Cal Bears. I think his father was also a world record holder. So that seemed like an upset. And, Denny from Australia in third. Hammer thrower, Katzbergrfrom Canada, Halahsz from Hungary, and Kokhan from Ukraine. If you don’t know what the hammer is, that’s the it looks like a shot put ball at the end of a chain. So you grab this handle, the chain seems like it’s about three foot length, and there’s a ball on the end, and you spin around in circles in the familiar ring and then let go of this thing. So it’s like, uh, doing a lasso, uh, where you’re throwing a very heavy ball. And those guys whip it out there pretty far. Pretty impressive to see.

Brad (01:20:54):
Another notable performance in the javelin throw was that the gold medal and Olympic record was set by an athlete from Pakistan, Arshad Nadeem. And this is not a country that you see coming into the Olympic track and field scene much. So that’s really amazing to see this guy somehow getting the development and the coaching he needs from Pakistan to come and upset the defending world champion named Neeraj Chopra from India. And do you know who the most followed athlete in track and field is on social media? No, it’s not Noah Lyles. It’s not Sha’carrie Richardson. It’s Chopra from India. He has like 5 million followers owing partly to the fact that he’s from a huge nation and seems to have built a bit of a fan base, also extremely unlikely track and field nation where you don’t see much happening from athletes in India. But here we go into Javelin Pakistan and India, and third place Grenada taking the medals. Who would’ve thought that?

Brad (01:21:53):
The decathlon, which happened early in the track and field week. That’s the last event I’m gonna cover and then wrap up this show. Markus Rooth from Norway. I’m considering this a huge upset. He sets a national record as a very respectable performance of 87 96, um, by his Fortune. Two of the top guys had to drop out including, the world record Holder Warner from Canada. But what this guy did in the Olympics, if you were able to catch it early in the week, he just set personal bests in like event after event. And he was so pumped. Like you saw him in the a hundred meters and then the hurdles and then, I’m not doing the sequence events, right, maybe the high jump and he’s just, it just elated that he’s beating his best performance from previous.

Brad (01:22:38):
And it’s pretty cool to watch the competitors in the decathlon and for the females, the heptathlon because they’re so supportive of each other and they realize that it’s such a long two days where you’re not really, you know, staring down your competition and going head to head and talking trash, like the 1500 meters where they have to battle in the most direct sense. So what’s happening is there’s so much precision and technique and volume to cover when you’re trying to get competent at 10 events that you really see a more supportive atmosphere. And so, like in the, a hundred meters, for example, the last place guy in his heat of eight is sprinting for his life and diving at the tape and then looking up at the screen and raising his arms and triumph, even though he just got smoked because guess what, it’s only one of 10 events.

Brad (01:23:30):
Maybe he was a little weak in the a hundred meters, and so he just wanted to be, you know, close enough to get enough points to go and can’t wait to get to his javelin and pole vault. So it all mixes together where everyone’s, you know, celebrating and supporting everyone else, even to the extent of, you know, giving little tips and advice, when they’re trying to high jump or or pole vault or what have you. So, a real community of athletes that work harder than perhaps any other track and field athlete being that they have to spend so much time getting good at all these different events that require both power endurance technique. And Markus Rooth kicking butt., Leo Newbar from Germany was second. He’s an NCAA product. And then Lyndon Victor from Grenada getting a nice, bronze.

Brad (01:24:17):
So that was a recap and a lot of editorializing about the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris on the men’s side. And I’m gonna get the women their own show and go over each one of those events. Hopefully you’ll get a kick outta that too. Let me know some of your comments and some of the things that you enjoyed about the telecast and some insights. Thanks for listening, watching.

Brad (01:24:43):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.radpodcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.

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