Welcome back to Brad’s Olympic Track & Field wrap up!

I hope you enjoyed the lengthy presentation summarizing the men’s events, and now it’s time for a show dedicated to the awesome performances of the females on the track and the field for the Paris 2024 Olympics. In the first show, I gave you a little bit of an overview about my fascination with Olympic Track & Field and I also mentioned something I talk about more in this episode, which is how great it is to see a sport where the males and females are equally represented in the categories of stardom and coverage—unlike some other sports that tend to exist in the shadow of the men’s games (like basketball).

If you want to hear a comprehensive review of this year’s Olympic Women’s Track & Field Competition, this is the episode for you.

TIMESTAMPS:

This podcast looks at the women’s performances in the Paris Olympics from Brad’s perspective. [00:49]

It is frustrating when the commentators talk about expectations of the outcomes of the races. [05:49]

The 400 was a fantastic race. Marileidy Paulino, from the Dominican Republic, had one of the fastest runs of all times. [08:06]

Depending on the race distance, the athlete learns a certain race pattern. [11:06]

Many of the athletes commented that the construction of the track and the super spikes worn in Paris made a difference. [15:38]

In some countries, if you are a number one world ranked athlete, you have a pass to be selected for your event before the Olympic trials.  [18:40]

Faith Kipyegon reigned for the third consecutive gold medal.  Jessica Hull has been steadily taking down her time. [22:00]

As usual the doping suspicions are always around.  Now days these athletes are subject to random unannounced year-round drug testing for the officials. [24:32]

Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet had an exciting finish. Sifan Hassan had an incredible race, went home, rested and came back to run in the marathon as well. [29:47]

The 100-meter hurdles is always a very exciting race most often finishing in a photo finish. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone got the world’s record in the 400-meter hurdles. [35:27]

The Steeplechase is dominated by the Africans on both male and female sides. The four by four brought the US team more medals. [44:12]

The high jump saw records broken as expected. Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine was very proud to represent her country. [48:01]

Pole vaulting found the two winners who shared the gold in the world championships meet head to head again, with Kennedy clearing the high bar this time.  It is so great to see. [49:53]

Long jumper Tara Davis Woodall from USA came away with the gold. Thea Lafond from Dominca won the gold in the triple jump.[50:29]

Shot put, unfortunately we saw the very popular Chase Ealey get knocked out in the qualifying. US did get gold in the discus with Valerie Alman defending her world championship. [51:47]

In the hammer throw, Cameron Rogers from Canada first, And the javelin was won by Kitaguchi from Japan. [52:55]

In the Heptathlon, Shari Hawkins made her Olympic debut at age 33 but, unfortunately, she got knocked out of the competition. Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam went home with the gold. [53:27]

Mixed relay is a new event in the Olympics. The teams can choose what order they wanted to run their athletes in right when they first come out. [55:04] 

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TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (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 (00:38):
This is possibly the coolest, most crazy, most exciting event to watch on track and field ’cause.

Brad (00:49):
Welcome back to Brad’s Olympic Track and Field Wrap Up. I hope you enjoyed the lengthy presentation summarizing the men’s events. And now it’s time for a show dedicated to the awesome performances of the females on the track and the field at the Paris 2024 Olympics. And I gave you a little overview in the first show about my fascination with Olympic track and field, so you can go enjoy and listening to that. And I also mentioned how it’s really great to see a sport where the males and females are equally represented in the categories of stardom and coverage. So the shining stars unlike some other sports that, uh, exist in the shadow of the men’s game like basketball, the females in track and field are center stage and, uh, none more so than Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States who had so much pre-Olympic coverage and attention lavished on her as a young athlete who’s had some struggles in the past, uh, remember she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, but was busted for a marijuana violation, which is so ridiculous that an athlete would be suspended from competition.

Brad (02:02):
It wasn’t a long suspension like it is for using performance enhancing drugs, but it’s still on the books that if you use recreational marijuana, which has to being legal in many states, um, you get a 30 day suspension from competition. So it was enough to knock her out of the Tokyo Olympics after his, her sensational victory in the US Olympic trial. So she had some redemption coming. She had a fantastic world championship title in the a hundred meters in 2023 in Budapest. So she was designated as the favorite, a lot of advertising campaign around her. She excelled in the Olympic trials right on schedule and came to Paris looking to perform at her best. And she had a fantastic silver medal in the a hundred meters. But Julien Alfred of the tiny Caribbean nation of St. Lucia got her with a sensational performance of 10.72, a national record and a wonderful gold medal for St.

Brad (03:01):
Lucia, the first medal in the Olympics of any kind in any sport. So I congratulate her. She was looking great all year. The experts were seeing her fly under the radar with, uh, comparatively zero attention compared to Sha’Carri whose billboard was plastered all over. And, um, boy, she just executed. She’s a great sprinter. She’s a great sprinter indoors at 60 meters, and she took it to everybody here with a great time. Sha’Carri in second 10 87. And then, third place, Melissa Jefferson, the young American sensation, always reliable to come through in the big meets. This is more medals for her on the world stage. And guess what? She and Sha’Carri trained together in Florida and their third training partner, TT Terry, also made the Olympic team. So those girls had a fantastic sweep in Eugene in the Olympic trials where one training group, one coaching group sweep the positions to qualify for Paris.

Brad (03:59):
TT Terry did not get on the medal stand, but she had a great Olympics. We’re gonna hear about that with the four by one relay, but that is quite an accomplishment. And their coach is none other than Dennis Mitchell, one of the, notorious track and field characters from the past. He was a top American sprinter Olympian, very decorated sprinter and very brash and and theatrical. And he was like the first performing guy. I remember seeing him, uh, in Sacramento at the Olympic trials, walking around in a full body neon skin tight suit after, before his events, whatever. So he is doing a great job with those female sprinters down in Claremont Ford, I believe it is. And they came through in the Olympics, and then we get to 200 meters. And the other, uh, high profile female sprinter that’s been heavily, heavily attentioned and promoted is Gabby Thomas.

Brad (04:55):
And she came through with a fantastic gold medal, 21.83. Um, Julien Alfred came in for a silver medal, so gold in the hundred silver in the 200 Fantastic Olympics for her and Brittany Brown getting the bronze for the United States. So with Jamaica wiped off the board, the US came through and got a metal haul. Shaka Jackson was designated as a favorite with Gabby Thomas being kind of the, um, the, the second choice. But Shaka had some better times over the past a couple years. Uh, but then she had a hamstring injury that occurred a few weeks before the Olympics. She tried to get out there and compete, and she withdrew. So it was all Gabby’s to lose, as they say from the peanut gallery. But the real athletes know that when you’re on there in the blocks and you have to execute beautifully, otherwise you will get smoked by athletes who are right on your heels.

Brad (05:49):
And, uh, I think we kind of forget that when we’re watching and the commentators say, here’s Gabby Thomas, she’s in lane five, she should win it. And it’s like, come on now. If they make one single tiny mistake, especially in sprinting, okay, maybe in the marathon, if you have a heavy favorite who’s five minutes faster than everyone else, you can probably bet on them pretty well. But in sprints we see this time and again where an athlete stumbles getting out of the box or isn’t quite right, Noah Lyles had COVID and so he got a bronze medal instead of the highly expected gold medal in the 200 meters. Nothing is guaranteed until they cross the finish line. And every time they ask these leading questions of the athletes, the athletes always answer correctly. You know, the, the, um, the sideline commentator Lewis Johnson will say something like, when did you think you had it in the bag?

Brad (06:37):
And the athlete says, when I crossed the fricking finish line. So, thank you for setting us straight athletes. When you’re asked, uh, somewhat silly questions or peanut gallery questions, I’ll call them ’cause it’s not, uh, there’s nothing like, you know, competing, running down the track and people are one 10th or two tenths behind it’s razor thin margins. And these people have to execute and focus in every single round too. So remember, getting to the final is not easy. And if you watch some of the semi-finals, which are a little harder to, to catch the action, you have to go to the streaming content, the specialized content, rather than just sitting at nighttime and watching the primetime show where they, they cut in and show you the good stuff. I’s amazing to see the quality of athletes lining up in the semi-finals and how some of them get nipped out.

Brad (07:24):
Even people who are favorites for a medal just couldn’t get it together to get in the final, the final eight for the, uh, the, the Olympic final. So Gabby Thomas, Julian Alfred, and Brittany Brown, USA, she’s from the Southern California area. I didn’t really know much about her until this year, but boy, she’s coming through and, um, qualifying for these teams last year as well. I think she’s a former medalist in the a hundred meters, so I’m making an effort to get to know, so to speak, the athletes of that one tier down from the superstars that are pumped in our face almost to excess when they, they highlight, you know, just their few select golden girls, but deserving champion Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas,

Brad (08:06):
And then we go to the 400, which was a fantastic race. Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic, who’s been the top athlete in the world in this race for the last few years. She had a sensational Olympic record of 48.17 seconds. That’s one of the fastest runs of all time. And here I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that what we saw was the greatest female performance of all time in the 400 meters, because the records on the books that date way, way back to the doping era of the eighties, and the Eastern Block athletes who now we don’t have to accuse them anymore, it has been confirmed that they were participating in a statewide, I mean countrywide, but they call it a statewide system of organized doping for their track and field athletes and swimming and the other events that they dominated with giant muscled females, that some of these records that have been on the books so long, it’s possible that they’ll never get broken because they were performed by enhanced female athletes.

Brad (09:08):
And now the testing and the regulations are so much better. So, for example, being listed four, 400 meter record on the books is 47.60 by Marita Koch of East Germany back in 1985. And I call it kind of a ridiculous record because she, um, these athletes had such an advantage with their training, their recovery, and their doped physiology that you can’t even consider them, uh, fair play competing against females of today who are trying hard, working hard, but they’re not doping their asses off. So to get a 48.17 is just a beautiful performance. I’m calling it a world record in so many ways and congratulations to Marileidyi. Second place was Salwa Eid Naser Bahrain She ran a 48.53 and third place was Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland 48.98. So three females under 49 seconds. That is absolutely astonishing, probably unprecedented even unless we go back to the eighties.

Brad (10:11):
Maybe we could find some of those meats. But, these ladies are bringing it up to the highest level. And what’s interesting about the 400 is we’ve seen Sidney McLaughlin dabble in this event and do extremely well. She came within a couple hundreds of breaking the longstanding United States record that is still held by Sonya Richards Ross, the popular commentator that we hear on the Olympics and all the major meets. And that’s been holding for at least 15 years. So a lot of people think that Sydney has the potential to bust up that American record for sure and go after the, uh, magical sub 48 barrier. I mean, if she can do 50.3 with hurdles, you can easily subtract a bit of time right away off of the potential for 400 meters. But I don’t wanna get too carried away, uh, with these prognostications and people saying, oh, she could do 47 easy if you got rid of the hurdles.

Brad (11:06):
As Sydney explains, it takes a different type of training protocol, a different type of focus. You have to get what the athletes call their race pattern down. And it’s completely different. So a race pattern is like how do you execute the various phases of the races? And the 400 meters is an especially good example. Um, you can look at YouTube videos where they say the science of running the 400 meters, and they talk about the energy systems used, uh, for cellular energy as you go around the track. So your first energy system is the a TP creatine phosphate system, and that lasts from zero to seven seconds. So you could see the athletes exploding outta the blocks in 400 meters at near full speed, even though they have to go all the way around the track. They know they get like a free first seven seconds where they can fire their muscles at maximum effort, and then they settle into the appropriate pace to get them all the way around the track of 400 meters rather than, for example, in the a hundred meters, you’re pretty much trying to fire at full speed all the way around at 200 meters.

Brad (12:09):
You’re taking a little bit off of your maximum as you run around the curve, and then you try to explode into the straightaway and hold it to the finish line. But when you see incredible performances like Gabby Thomas, uh, from 150 to 200 meters that got her the gold, she is outperforming the other athletes visibly because they are slowing down. You can’t really discern slowing down in the a hundred meters, but 200 meters requires that extra strength as well as near maximum speed. Now we get to 400 meters, the event I’m talking about, and you have all kinds of other parameters coming in because these athletes need aerobic endurance as well as that anaerobic explosive speed. So as the race gets longer and longer and they are running short on energy from the energy system that’s fueling the faster efforts they have to tap into more and more glucose burning.

Brad (13:04):
And there’s anaerobic glucose metabolism as well as aerobic glucose metabolism. The long story short is it requires a lot of different training stimulus to excel at 400 meters. And someone like Sydney, of course, has the, um, fantastic ability to transfer 400 meter hurdling excellence into flat 400 meters. But it’s not a simple switchover where, uh, she says, okay, get rid of the hurdles and, uh, turn on the stopwatch. It takes a lot of progression and a lot of training to execute the first turn correctly, to execute the back stretch correctly. And then of course, with hurdles, the complexity is astonishing. And you’ve heard some interviews where they’re talking about their step pattern. I was gonna switch from 15 steps to 14 on the 2024 season and work on that. But everything takes so much work and so much precision when you’re talking about the hurdles.

Brad (13:55):
So, uh, I predict that we’re gonna see Sydney, uh, taking a crack at some of those flat 400 meter times, but for a while when I was watching the performances of Fen cabal and Sydney McLaughlin in the hurdles and the, um, the relays, I kind of thought the 400 meters was a little soft. And I’m like, Fem Cabal, why don’t you enter the flat 400 meters instead of the hurdles? You know, Sydney’s gonna get you in the hurdles. And she is definitely one of the fastest 400 meter rudders in the world. She broke, shattered the world indoor record femme cabal did in the 400 meters, uh, earlier this year with a 49 2. And that was one of those records that has been held for decades from back in the doping era. So she was definitely primed to be a medal favorite, but of course she had, um, great performances in the relays for the Netherlands.

Brad (14:42):
And she also had a valiant performance in the 400 meter hurdles as the second best athlete of all time. We’ll talk about that shortly. So, these ladies in the 400 meters definitely represented for their event and put up some very impressive times, all in the 40 eights. So to need a 48 to medal, that is pretty stunning. And again, the US record from Sonya Richards Ross is, I believe 48, uh, six or 48 7. Sydney was a couple hundreths away from it when she participated in, in the, um, 2023 season, or 2022 season in flat 400 meters. So we’re gonna see some action in that event coming forth. But Marileidy is the, the girl to watch with that stunning Olympic record and area record of 48.17. The area, again, I’m talking about, uh, this would be the North America. So that’s better than the American record by quite a margin.

Brad (15:38):
And when you’re talking about these great times in Paris, uh, a lot of athletes and experts were touting the fantastically fast track. So the surface of the track and the construction of the track is a factor, and the athletes will reveal that certain tracks seem to be faster than other tracks. If you go to your local high school track and it’s kind of worn out, especially in lane one, that track’s gonna be slower than a brand new custom made Mondo surface. That’s the name of the company that makes these wonderful rubber tracks. And one of the aspects of a faster track is the give or the, the spring-like material, which is believed to relieve the fatigue on the athlete’s legs. So if you can imagine running on a really crappy track that hasn’t been resurfaced in many years, ’cause you have to resurface these rubber tracks over the years, the pounding and the impact trauma will cause muscle fatigue over time, especially the longer the race gets.

Brad (16:38):
And that’s why the super spikes deliver a significant performance advantage at the longer distance track and field events, more so than they do in the sprints. So in the hundred meters, um, I’m gonna maybe get challenged by some track and field experts here, but I haven’t really heard of many people contending that a hundred meter athlete can run faster in today’s new carbon plated energy returns super spikes. So-called Super spikes, uh, same with 200 400. Uh, but then when you get up to 800, 1500 and the long distance track and field events, uh, people are absolutely nodding their heads saying, look, these super spikes save at least one half of a second per lap for an elite athlete. Otto Bolden told me that himself, the, uh, popular commentator, he said at least a half a second per lap. So when we’re looking at these guys that are going after the world record at 1500 meters, the Great World record held by Hicham El Guerrouj that was set in 1998, the greatest middle distance runner of all time, he ran 3 26 flat zero zero and Jakob ran 3 26 0.7 earlier this year.

Brad (17:46):
I’s pretty exciting to see these old time world records being challenged. However, um, we have to make a little nod in the back of our head for the advantage provided by the energy return. Carbon plated super spikes. They give more of a spring-like effect. It’s not literally a spring, but it feels like a spring because it’s relieving the impact trauma in the legs and also, uh, absorbing less energy than a a traditional spike. It doesn’t have that, that give to it. And that, uh, advanced foam, that’s just a basic overview. We don’t want to get too technical here, but great, great 400 meter race, and then the 800 meter race, another heavy favorite who came through under pressure, that’s Keely Hodgkinson from Great Britain. And she was looking to have another epic showdown with the great American runner and the defending Olympic gold medalist.

Brad (18:40):
Athing Mu but she fantastically crashed out of the Olympic trials. It was a terribly sad occasion where early in the race in the first 200 meters of the American 800 meter final at Olympic trials, the athletes got tangled up and Mo went flipping down onto the track and her Olympic dream was ended extinguished in an instant. Just like that, it calls to mind the longstanding debate of whether the US should have a little leeway for their favorite athletes, where if they have a misfortune in Olympic trials, maybe they could still be considered for the Olympic team if, for example, they’re the clear number one in the world and the defending Olympic champion. But that does not happen, and it hasn’t happened for decades. By contrast, countries like Great Britain, they have a hybrid selection system and trial system where they too hold an Olympic trials.

Brad (19:35):
But if you are a number one world ranked athlete, you have a pass to be selected for your event before the Olympic trials. You don’t even have to participate in the Olympic trials. And I think there is a little bit of call or uh, justification for the US to reflect on their hardcore hard knock system where it’s all or nothing in June, in Eugene, Oregon this year to select the Olympic team. It’s definitely fair. There’s no politics involved, there’s no backstage, you know, suspicious doings where one athlete is more favored for some reason than another athlete. Uh, but if we want to field the very, very best Olympic team, I think especially when you’re talking about misfortunes that occur like a fall or you know, the famous story of Dan and Dave, the Decathletes that were promoted by Reebok back in the 1996 Olympics, and they were the two best decathletes in the world, both from the USA. Reebok watched a $50 million advertising campaign around these two guys, Dan and Dave in the new Reebok cross training shoe.

Brad (20:39):
And Dan O’Brien had a misfortune in the pole vault at trials. He no-heoghted. He’d missed three times and he did not make the Olympic team. So he sat at home watching a lot of Dan and Dave commercials when he was the world record holder and the number one decathlete in the world. Anyway, too much to get into and it’s probably not gonna change ever because a lot of people favor the harsh reality of Olympic trials and having to earn it. So there we go. Keeley Hodgkinson without that intense competition from Athing Mu in the Olympics, they were separated by just, you know, inches at the finish line. And again, at the World Championships they had a neck and neck race where Mu just won by inches. So, Keeley has had a lot of silvers in her life, and now she had a fabulous run to gold where, similar to what Jakob Ingebrigsten did in the men’s 1500.

Brad (21:32):
She took it out and she ran on the inside lane and pushed that pace almost from the gun or from the first 200 meters when everything got settled. And she just grinded away knowing that she was the fittest athlete and the fastest athlete in the field. And she took it all the way to the finish line in the 800. With the time of 1 56 72, the Ethiopian Dema got second 1 57, Mary Mora, the world champion from last year, got a bronze in 1 57 42.

Brad (22:00):
And now we go to the 1500 meters where the GOAT Faith Kipyegon reigned again with their third consecutive gold medal in the Olympic 1500 meters to go with numerous world records in recent years and world championship titles. So she is far and away the greatest female middle distance runner of all times. And her recent exploits in the last five years plus have come after she took a little break to have a baby.

Brad (22:31):
So she’s mentioning how she is performing now to honor her young child who can watch from the stands and believe the girl’s five or six years old, so she kind of knows what’s going on. It’s kind of funny when athletes say, yeah, they want to, you know, perform for their infant <laugh>. It’s like they’re never gonna remember any of this, so don’t worry about it. But a five or 6-year-old coming to Olympic Stadium and watching 70,000 people chant your mom’s name, that’s pretty freaking cool. Faith just came off another world record, world record breaking performance before the Olympics, lowering her already three minutes, 49 second, 1500 meter time. And in the Olympics she took it out and ran a 3 51. So another fantastic performance, Olympic record by quite a margin I believe. And, uh, there she goes, padding to her resume. Jessica Hull from Australia had a sensational silver medal and Georgia Bell from Britain, a sensational bronze medal in 3 52, a new national record for Great Britain.

Brad (23:33):
First I’m gonna talk about Hull. She has been on the circuit for several years. She’s a Australian, but a graduate of University of Oregon and has been working hard. You can look at her time progression over the previous five or six or seven years. And it goes, this is roughly, uh, you know, four minutes, which is a world class time. Anything under four minutes is world class. Again, Faith ran a 3 51 and her record is 3 49, so that is just out in the stratosphere. But Hull was steadily taking it down from four minutes, 3 59, 3 57, 3 58 the next year, 3 57. And then all of a sudden this year she smokes a three 50 on Faith Kipyegon’s heels, while Kipyegon’s broke the world record. I believe that was in Monaco or another city on the Diamond League circuit. And so she had a five second PR, a five second personal record, or personal best, they call it PR or PB in one year, which is a shocking rate of improvement.

Brad (24:32):
It’s so shocking that her name pops up with some doping suspicions, as it always does. When an athlete makes a fantastic breakthrough after several years of performing at a similar level of just under four minutes, um, I don’t think that’s terribly fair, and I’m not going to engage in that at all. I’m just gonna credit her for a sensational breakthrough performance. And boy, you are gonna have to weather some of those suspicions when you improve by that much all of a sudden on your fifth or sixth year in the pro circuit. But I believe the testing is really good these days. These athletes are subject to what’s called random unannounced year round drug testing from the doping officials. So what that means is any time, any place they can receive a doorbell ring and the testing, local testing agents will appear and demand that you provide a urine sample, provided you’re hydrated enough, they’ll wait around.

Brad (25:31):
Don’t worry if you need some time. But this is the highest standard of doping testing in any sport in the world are these Olympic athletes and anyone who’s under the jurisdiction of WADA, that’s called the World Anti-Doping Agency. So you also have to, obviously, if you’re gonna be subject to random unannounced testing, you also have to inform WADA and your national counterpart USADA is what it’s called in America, United States Anti-Doping Agency. You have to inform them of your whereabouts at all times. So you are required to go on the internet onto their site. If you relocate from your home base, you have to let them know, Hey, I’m heading up to my cousin’s house in the mountains and I’m training there for three days and here’s the address. And then when I’m back in my, same residence, I’m back now.

Brad (26:25):
And it’s a chore. And there are certain athletes that get suspended for what they call whereabouts violations. You’re allowed two strikes against you with the whereabouts violation. And if you miss a test for the third time, you are suspended, I believe for two years for a pretty heavy suspension. And Eid Naser the Iranian that got silver medal in the 400 meters. Uh, she was coming off a, a suspension that happened after she won the gold medal in 2019. So these whereabouts violations, boy, it’s a severe penalty, especially if you’re not like internet savvy. You have to get internet savvy really quick as an athlete. Otherwise, you’re gonna miss tests and you’re gonna be coming into scrutiny. But generally there’s a lot of, uh, suspicion around these athletes that have three strikes. ’cause it’s like, how hard is it?

Brad (27:16):
Especially if you have a strike against you or two strikes, you better be on your butt to tell them where you are at all times at at risk of a huge penalty. However, if you are involved in a doping protocol and you know that at a particular time when you’re called for a test that you’re gonna test positive, you’re probably better off hiding somewhere and taking a strike instead of submitting to the test testing positive and then getting a four year ban. So, if I’m not mistaken, the whereabouts violation is a little bit shorter of a ban than the actual positive test. There was a Spanish athlete that was one of the best in the world, Mohamed Katir. And, he was just busted for his third strike of whereabouts violation. He was one of Jakob Ingebrigsten’s main competitors in the 5,000 especially.

Brad (28:08):
He was, you know, beat out for the gold medal by Jakob, by, you know, a stride in the world championships. And all of a sudden, this guy is off the circuit now for two years. So a lot of suspicion around what he was doing. He too had a tremendous improvement curve. And now he’s gone because he can’t seem to get on the internet and tell the, uh, doping agencies where he’s hanging out <laugh>. And that was the details of these stories are pretty interesting to read and understand just what’s going on, uh, with the, um, the doping aspect of major sports. So Jessica Hull credit to her, uh, with a fantastic silver medal and a great season so far where she’s, you know, hanging out, hanging tough on Faith Kipyegon’s back and believe me, Faith Kipyegon’s notices that. She looks up at the scoreboard.

Brad (28:53):
She’s like, what is this girl still doing here? You could see that type of behavior during her world record where she just had to keep stepping on the gas and definitely whole contributed to her breaking that world record. And then Georgia Bell and Great Britain, apparently from the broadcast telling us, um, she took several years away from Elite International middle distance running to have a child and participate in some other sports like multi-sport, duathlon, triathlon, bicycling. And she decided to make a comeback. She’s 32 or 33 years old, and she comes outta nowhere, uh, even beating her much more heralded teammate, Laura Muir, who was outta the medals, I believe your might have got fourth with a personal best time of her own the previous national record holder. And here comes Georgia Bell to bust the British record and run a 3 52 and get on the bronze medal stand in the twilight of her career, a pretty sensational performance.

Brad (29:47):
So then we go to the 5,000 meters, and this was the valiant attempt at double for Faith Kipyegon, and she got nipped at the finish line by her teammate, Beatrice Chebet, who is the greatest long distance runner that we’ll call that 5,000, 10,000, marathon type runner where faith is a middle distance runner, which we’ll call 800, 1500. And then, uh, crossing paths in the 5,000 similarly to Jakob Ingebrigsten. I call him the best middle distance runner in the world overall because he excels at both 1500 and 5,000 meters. Unlike very few people that can double like that, mostly you now see specialists at, for example, the 1500 where you have Cole Hawker with his savage kick in that speed. He’s quite good in the 5,000, but he is not gonna be considering himself world class or a metal contender at the longer distance because it takes too much, too much endurance training as opposed to the, uh, the middle distance training, which is more emphasis on hitting those fast times and running 3 27 for 1500 meters.

Brad (30:54):
But Faith, fantastic at both events almost got she was, she was looking good for a gold medal. And then, Beatrice was right there on her heels and out sprinted her in the final straightaway, 14 28, 14 29 for faith. And notably in the bronze medal position, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, and remember that name because she is, clearly the most amazing and extraordinary distance runner of modern times, maybe of all times. And we’re gonna find out why as I go through some more results. So the 5,000 meters was in the middle of the week for the Olympic Track and Field program, and then the, uh, females closed. The one of the final events on the track and field calendar was the, uh, women’s 10,000 meters. So that happened on the last day on the track, or the second, no, last day on the track.

Brad (31:46):
It happened on Friday. And Beatrice Chebet doubled, came back after running the 5,000 a few days prior and ran a 30 43, very close to her was Nadia Battocletti from Italy. So she broke through this African domination in these long distance events. She also had a nice fourth place finish in the 5,000 so great Olympics for ti. She ran a national record of 30 minutes, 43 seconds. And then a third place in the 10,000 meters was Sifan Hassan. So Chebet got gold at 5,000 and 10,000, and Hassan got bronze in 5,000 and 10,000. Sifan also medaled in the Tokyo Olympics in the 1500, the 5,000 and the 10,000. So here she is coming back to Paris and meddling in the 5,000 and the 10,000. What a great Olympics for her. So what does she get to do after she finishes that 10,000, go to celebrate in the Olympic Village?

Brad (32:45):
No, she has to go home, <laugh>, get a meal, get a massage, hopefully, and rest up because she has announced that she’s entering the marathon on the final day of the Olympic Games on Sunday. So Friday night, she’s bronze medal in the 10,000 coming off of her bronze medal in the 5,000, she shows up on the marathon starting line. No one knew what to expect, and she goes out there and wins the gold medal in a new Olympic record of two hours, 22 minutes. And they have a fantastic sprint finish. Remember, this is 26 miles through the streets of Paris with an incredibly hilly course, the hilliest course I’ve ever seen or heard about in the Olympics. And they still break the Olympic record, but she got into a sprint in the final with the, in the final stages with the world record holder tickets, Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia, who stunned running onlookers in 2023 by running a two 11 marathon to shatter the previous world record and do something that no one had any idea females were capable of.

Brad (33:51):
I mean, it just unbelievable performance. So Assefa was a strong favorite in the marathon, along with some of the other marathon veterans like Hellen Obiri from Kenya, the defending champion from Tokyo was, was back in the top, uh, in the sixth or seventh. But these are the fastest, uh, female marathoners in the world. And Hassan, despite running two track and field events, comes out, hangs in the pack, very patient, gets into a sprint finish with the Assefa, was really exciting. They crashed into each other on one of the sharp turns right before the finish line. And of course, Hassan with that superior track speed. Remember, this is a 1500 meter medalist from Tokyo sprinting to a marathon victory in Paris, just absolutely indescribable and unfathomable. If you think about the guys that won medals in the 1500 meters, or the gals Kipyegon, Jessica H’ull, Georgia Bell, Cole Hawker, Josh Kerr, Yared Nuguse and if you went up to them and asked them, Hey, do you think you could compete in the marathon?

Brad (34:53):
They would laugh in your face. It’s just unfathomable for someone to have that kind of range. And her career resume, she actually has a world class time at 800 meters all the way up to marathon. And I don’t think that’s, uh, ever been anywhere near approached by any other athlete, male or female, in the history of the Olympic Games and world class running. So congratulations to Hassan and I cut in the lineup there after the 10,000 meters to announce the marathon results. And then we’ll go back to the other track and field events.

Brad (35:27):
And that means the a hundred meter hurdles. And this is possibly the coolest, most crazy, most exciting event to watch on track and field because it’s always super, super close. There’s often a lot of carnage because these females can easily hit a hurdle going at that speed and wipe out their entire race going from, you know, potential gold medal like Lolo Jones famously did many Olympics ago, I think that was in Athens.

Brad (35:57):
Uh, she was leading over the ninth hurdle. One more hurdle to go. She’s got a clear lead over the field. She hits it, uh, wipes out and and staggers across the line in fifth. So she went from gold to heartbreak in <laugh> in one stride. Anyway, Messiah Russell, for the USA came through with a beautiful gold medal at 12.33. And the French female mala, uh, got a silver medal to the great delight of the crowd. And as I told you, during the men’s show, the French were screaming so beautifully for their own athletes, and these athletes were excelling above and beyond what they were expected to. But it was very difficult to get into the medals, and this was the only French medal in track and field. Mayela was overcome with the motion when she looked up at the scoreboard and realized she was second, because again, these finishes are so close for some reason, the hurdles are always super tight where it goes to a photo finish more often than not.

Brad (36:51):
The world, previous world champion and one of the favorites, Jasmine Camacho Quinn from Puerto Rico got the bronze medal. And I think, uh, I can speak for all the hurdlers saying they are so happy just to make the final and then to get a medal of any color. It’s just a very, it’s a very it intense battleground and the challenge of executing and competing against so many athletes of similar abilities. That’s what makes it so exciting. The US has long been dominant in the a hundred meter hurdle events. They’ve had sweeps in the Olympics and World Championships. And boy, getting on that team and making top three, we left people at home such as <laugh>, uh, Kinny Harrison, world record holder. Famously she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She got fourth or fifth in the trials and she was like screw this.

Brad (37:41):
It went out to a meet on the circuit and shattered the world record ran a 1220, which has now been broken, uh, by, uh, the African athlete, uh, uh, Amison from Nigeria. But she broke the world record after not making, even making the Olympic team. So you can see, uh, just how tough it is. And Messiah Russell really persevering and, uh, some of her interviews are very spicy and colorful, and she’s talking about how, uh, how much of a struggle it’s been to be an elite track and field athlete, get the support she needs, get the sponsorship she needs. She felt like she was overlooked. And then when she was asked about the semi-final race, she kind of broke character and was really funny talking to Louis Johnson track side. And she said, yep, well, I saw that girl from Netherlands.

Brad (38:27):
I said, oh, we racing today. Huh? We racing, okay, we racing. Oh, it was great. Um, so, you know, she had a pretty good lead, but someone was going after her. And so she got competitive and, uh, had a great semi-final setting her up for victory in the final. Now we get to the 400 meter hurdles, one of the marquee events of the Olympic Games because the queen of track and field is there to reign. And it was not disappointing. Of course, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, with a new world record again, she’s now broken the world record six times. Another marquee, highly touted, highly publicized performer, but she is a champion. She goes about her business with such tremendous focus and intensity. She doesn’t get caught up in the hype. She just goes out there and executes every time they interview her. She’s on that same wavelength where she’s not, um, you know, she’s not too, stuck on the significance of the moment.

Brad (39:22):
She’s just focused like a track and field athlete. She’s probably not considering the fact that she’s a heavy favorite or the ramifications or anything like that. She’s just focused on doing her best. So, a very highly regarded athlete, highly celebrated, everyone loves her so many commercials. So it’s good to see these athletes making money, pitching their Neutrogena skincare and their sunscreen and whatever else is coming up because they work hard. They’re some of the best athletes in the world and collectively are vastly underpaid in comparison to major sports athletes. So Sydney just advancing the sport, and I think enough has been said about her that probably everyone in America knows who she is. But to come through in the Olympic Games under that kind of pressure and that kind of expectation, boy, I mean, can you imagine waking up being her on the morning of the 400 meter hurdles finals?

Brad (40:15):
And again, this is one of the last events of the meet. So she’s been sitting in Paris watching other people excel and watching American athletes go crazy. Well, without having the chance to get on the track until later in the meet and show her stuff. So a lot of patience and a lot of focus for that. Actually shattering the world record really. ’cause her previous world record was 50.65. She took it down to 50.37, which is amazing. And of course, that prompts the conversation, unfortunately happened soon after she crossed the finish line of the commentators saying, well, next is she’s gonna go under 50. And I kind of recoil. Even though it’s exciting to talk that way, I feel like sometimes we get so carried away that it takes away from the appreciation of what just happened. I especially am annoyed when the athletes in the press conference talking about their gold medal and a question will come, well, are you gonna defend your title in 2028 in Los Angeles?

Brad (41:11):
And it’s like, why do you even have to ask that? Why don’t you ask how awesome it is to have a gold medal right now? And what just happened an hour ago? We’re always looking forward to more, more, more and want the athlete to break the record again after she’s just broken the world record for the sixth time. So I want to take a deep breath and say, Hey, look, um, if Sydney decides to retire on the spot, <laugh>, we got a lot to celebrate. We got a lot to reminisce about, and we gotta just focus on enjoyment of the process as fans and as athletes. And here’s a fantastic shocker for the silver medal. Anna Cockrell, United States coming in with a amazing 51.87 that is non-American record or anything of the sort because Sydney’s in front of her, but it’s a new personal best for her and it makes her, I believe, the fourth or fifth athlete of all time in the Women’s 400 meter hurdles.

Brad (42:05):
And that is a clutch performance in the Olympics, a sensational performance to have that breakthrough from going as a 52 athlete. And that happened pretty quickly recently also. So she’s a 53 or 54 athlete where there’s a whole pack of women running at that world class speed. I mean, anything 54 is world class, 400 meter hurdle, or, but when you get down to 50 twos and forget about 50 ones, you’re one of the greatest of all time. So Anna Cockerell, former USC athlete, originally fromTennessee or Florida, Ana, doing, doing fantastic out there to come through under pressure. And then Femke Bol who was the number two female 400 meter hurdle of all time. She got the bronze, you could see that she was disappointed with the bronze and her time of 52 1 because she has run as fast as 50.95.

Brad (42:56):
So much so than when we saw that time earlier this year. We were wondering, Hey, can Simca take it to Sydney and give her a little competition there? Sidney’s world record being 50.6, Simca was on her heels as she always is. But Sidney is clearly superior. And what happened this time apparently was Femke Bol was trying to hold her off being that they were in lanes, five and six or four and five. And so she possibly, or very likely took it out a little bit too hard because she was, you know, seeing the giant breathing down her neck and that possibly took it out of her, took her out of her own best race pattern. Hindsight of course you can reflect and say, look, she should have accepted that.

Brad (43:45):
She’s basically battling for a silver medal. She’s not going to defeat Sidney McLaughlin la the greatest track and field athlete on the planet. So, she should have, you know, kept with her technical specs like keeping her 14 strides or knowing that she leaves a little in the bag after 200 meters, even if Sydney passes her. So she, you know, slipped from silver to bronze, but you gotta celebrate the incredible Olympics that she had.

Brad (44:12):
The steeplechase, Winfred Javi from Bahran. Winifred Javi won again, I believe she defended her title. That’s an Olympic record, fantastic performance for her. She’s very consistent at the top of her game. Chemuta ifrom Uganda in second National record and, Faith Cherotich from Kenya. The Africans have dominated this event on both the male and the female side, and it’s great to see them excelling at steeplechase and the four by one.

Brad (44:38):
Well, guess what? The women took care of business and got their gold medal. Why is it so hard for the men to get their act together? We had the fastest females on the planet and this wonderful quartet of Melissa Jefferson, TT Terry, Gabby Thomas, and Kerri Richardson coming through 41 78, defeating the great team from Great Britain as well as Germany getting a nice bronze medal. And again, as I reminded you, Dennis Mitchell’s coaching group, these three women trained together all the time. Melissa Jefferson, TT Terry, and she, Carrie Richardson with Gabby Thomas slotting in there to run a fantastic curve of being the 200 meter specialist. TT Terry split on the second leg. Somehow they can time these, these people accurately. During the ring relay was under 10 seconds, so she had a sensational leg again. And these girls are locked tight as the best relay team in the world.

Brad (45:30):
They won the world title, I believe, with the exact same lineup. And then we get to the four by four where the women, again, USA women have dominated this event like no other event in Olympic track and field. I think they’ve won, you know, eight straight or something. We just have more firepower and a deeper team, which also helps in the prelims because we can sub people out comfortably knowing that we’re still gonna win by 30 meters so we can save our, our best athletes. For example, Sidney McLaughlin Veroniewas busy running the 400 meter hurdles. She didn’t have to run the qualifying heats. So other athletes in the relay actually get awarded a gold medal because they participated in qualifying. So when you look at the four by four United States team, the final four that you saw on TV were Sha’Carri Richardson, little Sidney McLaughlin, Verone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes.

Brad (46:21):
However, in the qualifying, Quin Hayes and Leah Butler and Caitlyn Brown all ran legs. And so they all get gold medals. They have to cough up more gold medals. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I ran the qualifying, I got my team there. So that’s kind of a cool thing about the relays. And Sydney, ran a relay split of 47 7, which I believe is the fastest ever recorded or very close to that. And so she’s just a cut above, you know, all the other athletes on the track. It was sensational. And that goes with more credibility to the speculation that she could, uh, challenge for the 400 meter supremacy and be the best of the world at that. Paulino would give her a a little run for her money for sure. And the Netherlands, of course, fem Ka bowl once again. Uh, besides doing so in the mixed relay, uh, the four by four mixed relay, the Netherlands won gold with the sensational comeback by femke Bol on the final lap.

Brad (47:12):
And she did the same thing, uh, here in the female four by four, bringing the Netherlands back from a fourth or fifth place and then being patient, taking her time with that beautiful serene look where you don’t see any strain on her face. Her legs are just moving fast, but it looks like she’s jogging and she’s coming down the home stretch, passing the other teams and bringing in a silver for the Netherlands. Uh, great Britain gets a fantastic, uh, bronze medal and a bunch of them have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 females, uh, participating in that. So they had a complete, uh, switch of the teams to give more people a chance, uh, to win medals, which is really cool. I talked about the awesome marathon performance by si Asan. And then, uh, the Walkers the winner was from China, uh, GAU Perez from Spain, Montag from Australia.

Brad (48:01):
The high jump as expected, the recent world record holder who broke the 37-year-old world record in the high jump, her name is Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine. She won the gold medal and what a season she is having because that world record almost seemed unbeatable. It had held for so long. It was set back in the doping era by an Eastern Block athlete named Stefka Dinova, and IC took it down. She’s so proud to represent Ukraine and she makes a point of saying how she’s doing this. For the people who are still under siege with war, including her own town, there was a feature on her where they’re showing, you know, warfare going on. She’s had to be a globe trotting, for the last few years of the war in order to pursue her track and field career. So everybody can be happy when you see Ukraine winning a gold medal.

Brad (48:51):
And by the way, you didn’t see any Russian athletes in the Olympics because they were banned due to their falling out of favor in global sports because of the, uh, war that they’re waging against Ukraine. Um, the runner up at the same height, but with fewer misses, uh, Maik wins the gold, but the runner up is Nicola Olislagers from Australia. She herself had a gold medal at world championship level, so she’s gotta be happy with the silver. And these two have really distinguished themselves as the top two high jumpers in the world. And then cool, sharing the bronze medal was Eleanor Patterson from Australia and Irina Garko from Ukraine. So we have Ukraine, gold, Australia, silver, and then in Bronze Australia and Ukraine. And, those two, uh, cleared 1.95 meters, Maik and Ola loggers cleared two meters, which is about six seven mauch chick’s. Recent world record of 2.10 meters is six 10 and change. So they are raising that bar and had a, had a great high jump competition.

Brad (49:53):
The pole vault, I told you I think in the previous show, how it was so great to see the sharing of the gold medal. Not only by the high jumpers Tim Berry and Baim, but also the pole vaulters Katy Moon of the US and Nina Kennedy of of Australia. They shared the World Championship gold medal last year. This time they took it to each other on the track, uh, going for the gold, fighting it hard, and Kennedy cleared a higher bar, 4.90 meters. So that’s her season best. She gets the gold by herself. Katie Moon comes in with the silver and Alicia Newman comes in for Canada with the bronze,

Brad (50:29):
The long jump. USA Tara Davis Woodall, one of the great reformers and show people in track and field. She’s the one that wears the cowboy hat all the time. And, she comes through with the gold with a fantastic jump of 7.1 meters, having a great time and so full of energy and happiness in life. She’s married to the prominent Paralympic athlete Hunter Davis. Hunter Woodall. And so that team is going home with a gold medal and wow, great to see her excelling and coming through under pressure as one of the favorites. Mihambo from Germany Silver Medal and then Jasmine Moore, the United States with the bronze medal, also winning bronze medal in the triple jump. And believe me, to double in these very technical field events is super impressive. I believe that’s the first time it’s ever happened. So congratulations coming home with two bronzes, Jasmine Moore.

Brad (51:22):
So, triple jump, I’m gonna go backwards ’cause Jasmine got the bronze rickets from Jamaica, got the silver and Thea Lafond from the small nation of Dominica, another Caribbean nation bringing home a gold medal, the first medal for them. So we have, Julien Alfred of St. Lucia bringing home gold and Thea Lafond from Dominica with fantastic triple jump of 15 meters that’s about close to 50 feet doing that hop step and jump.

Brad (51:47):
Shot put, unfortunately we saw the very popular Chase Ealey get knocked out in the qualifying and it kind of shows how tough it is to make the Olympic final and execute. You only have three throws to try to get there to the top of 16 or whatever they take for the final. She had a couple fouls, so she threw it, she put her foot past the ring or didn’t throw it into the designated area. So she had a lot of pressure on her third throw and she kind of took it a little easier than she used to usually does. It didn’t go far enough. So she had two fouls and a throw that did not qualify her in the top 16, even though she’s one of the best in the world. So instead, the gold was taken by Oguneyle of Germany 20 meters, Maddison-Lee Wesche from New Zealand second and Jiayuan Song from China. Third. however, we did get gold in the discus with the very popular Valerie Alman defending her world championship title. Great athlete executed under pressure 69 meters for the discus, beating Bin Feng from China and ELlkasevic from Croatia.

Brad (52:55):
Hammer throw medals were Cameron Rogers from Canada, Echikunwoke from United States with , silver and Jie from China with the bronze. In the Javelin Kitaguchi from Japan, Van Dyk from South Africa and Oogrodnikova from Czech Republic. So didn’t get to see too much of that covered on TV They just show some highlights. They’ll show one throw from Kitaguchi and she wins the gold medal. And then on to the next thing. I wish they would cover the field events more ’cause people would get more, more interested in them and know more about these athletes.

Brad (53:27):
But the Heptathlon was a great battle. My former podcast guest, Shari Hawkins, making her Olympic debut at age 33, and she had a tough time in the high jump. Didn’t clear a height. It was the second event of the seven in the heptathlon. And unfortunately, if you have a zero score in one of the events, you’re not gonna be anywhere near competitive. So, that kind of knocked her out of contention for the whole Olympics, but she bravely soldiered on and did some good performances in the other six events and had her Olympic experience. But again, at the top of the world, Nfissatou from Belgium won another gold medal. This is defending her title from Tokyo with a great performance. 68 80 is her total points. That’s the accumulation of points in all the seven events. Katarina Johnson Thompson, who’s a former world champion, got the silver and Noor Vidts from Belgium. Another Belgian on the podium got the bronze in the Heptathlon. And boy, if you got to catch any action from these females, they are highly regarded as the best all around athletes in the world because they’re disparate skills of having speed, power technique throwing in the technical events like the Javelin and the shot put, the US favorite Anna Hall, who got the gold medal I think she’s gold in in the world’s previous,. She had knee surgery this January. She had made a valiant comeback to even make the Olympic team, and I believe she got fifth. She wasn’t at her best. She was disappointed with fifth, but wow, you gotta give her a lot of credit for coming off the surgery table in January to the Olympics and coming top five.

Brad (55:04):
I mentioned briefly the mixed relay. That’s a new event in the Olympics in the last couple Olympics where it’s two males and two females. The Netherlands won because Femke Bol motored down the home stretch and got the gold again for the Netherlands. United States team mixed with Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadman running the man legs and Shair, little and Kaylin Brown running the woman legs with the silver, and then Great Britain with the bronze. And, what’s interesting about the mixed relay, when they first brought it out to competition the teams could choose what order they wanted to run their athletes in.

Brad (55:39):
And so we saw this really interesting event where Poland ran, man, man, woman, woman. So they had a huge athlete after their two men ran legs where the other countries were running with at least one female. And then the women were trying hard to hold on and the men were closing on him like crazy. And then world athletics decided, Hey, let’s enforce that. It’s boy, girl, boy, girl. So now you see the females closing in on the anchor and Femke Bol has excelled again at the world championship and Olympic level pacing herself and then coming through and taking the gold in the final home stretch.

Brad (56:17):
That wraps it up for the Olympic summary. Hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got to see some action. Everything’s there waiting for, for you on YouTube. So if I get you excited with covering one of these events, go back and watch the 400 hurdles. Go back and watch the 400 meters, the hundred, the 200. Everything is so awesome. The field events, the high jumpers. I’m so excited to share this with you. And I can’t wait till 2028 and be back in my hometown of Los Angeles. The Olympics coming again. It was so wonderful to see that in 1984. I caught a lot of track and field action there every single day, and I will be there for sure, bringing you coverage to think. I’m gonna set up a podcast studio in LA and just go to town, <laugh>. It’s a great week of action and it’s gonna keep me buoyed for years to come with my own training and competitive goals. I hope the same in some way for you. Thanks for watching listening. Send me some feedback, why don’t you? Podcast@bradventures.com.

Brad (57:13):
Thank you so much for listening to the B RAD podcast. 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.