SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — When action at the Olympic track starts Friday, Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles and the rest will be going for gold, a $50,000 check and a chance to go out with a clang.
All winners in track and field will be given the honor of ringing the big bell inscribed with “Paris 2024” that’s located on the edge of the track at Stade de France.
As part of the legacy of the Paris Olympics, the bell eventually will move from the stadium to a permanent home at the rebuilt Notre Dame Cathedral.
“Doesn’t matter how loud this crowd gets, people will hear that,” said sprinting great Carl Lewis, who joined Allyson Felix, Marie Jo Perec and Paris Games organizer Tony Estanguet in testing out the bell Thursday.
Estanguet called it a great way to engage with the fans, and part of organizers’ broader plan to blend a taste of Paris and its culture into every venue. During the first week of the Olympics, rugby was at Stade de France and those players took turns at the bell.
Now, it’s track’s turn, and ringing it will be a privilege, not a right.
“It’s just for the gold medalists, and it’s a great way for them to celebrate,” Estanguet said.
The first bell ringer will be the winner of the men’s 10,000 meters, which caps off opening night on the purple track surface.
Runners to watch include defending champion Selemon Barega and this year’s world leader, Yomif Kejelcha — both from Ethiopia — and world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda.
Also at stake is a $50,000 first prize that World Athletics is giving for the first time to winners in all 48 Olympic track events.
First to cash in Thursday, at an event not held in the stadium, were 20K racewalk winners Brian Pintado of Ecuador and Yang Jiayu of China.
Sha’Carri Richardson takes center stage
American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson will be on the track Friday morning for a first-round heat in the 100.
All things considered, this should be nothing more than a warmup and a tuneup for the 24-year-old, who came to France as a favorite and only saw her status improve when Shericka Jackson of Jamaica said she was bowing out of the 100.
But remember this: At Olympic trials, Richardson wobbled out of the starting blocks in her first race and needed to turn on the jets after a bad start. She won the heat with her right shoelace untied.
“I think she’s positioned perfectly,” Felix said. “She’s coming off a world championship. She looks to be the overwhelming favorite. I think she just has to execute.”
Super Saturday featuring Richardson and Noah Lyles
Noah Lyles opens up action in the first round early Saturday, then Richardson is back on the track trying to win the gold medal.
Lyles comes in as the defending world champion, though any inkling that this could be a cakewalk has been erased thanks to a new name in track — Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
It is Thompson, not Lyles, who has the year’s fastest time at 9.77 seconds. But Lyles has more big-race experience. This will mark his second Olympics, on top of three world championships, where he has won six gold medals.
Lyles has made no secret about his desire to duplicate what he did at last year’s worlds by taking the sprint double.
“For me, it’s another chance to assert my dominance,” he said. “It’s another chance to stay consistent, another chance to kind of continue on this quest that I’ve had with myself.”
A real rivalry at 1,500 meters
One of the most anticipated races for track aficionados is the men’s 1,500 meters, which features defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and world champion Josh Kerr.
They do not particularly like each other. It’s a back and forth that has played out at meets and on social media for the last few years. They are in different qualifying heats Friday but headed for an expected showdown in the final Tuesday.
“It’s a sumptuous thought,” said World Athletics President Seb Coe, who won two Olympic titles in the event. “It’s the two best 1,500-meter-milers of their generation potentially going head to head, and there’s an added piquancy because this is probably not a friendship made in heaven. That doesn’t bother me, either. We want that kind of thing in sports. It could be a race for the ages.”
A record-setting track?
Will world records fall on another speedy Olympic track? Only time will tell.
But it is the mission of every track maker to turn their running surface into the fastest.
The track in Paris was produced by Mondo at a factory in northern Italy. The company has built the track at every Summer Games since 1976.
Experts there said they used rubber granules that were more elastic and cohesive to produce the upper layer of the track. They also made a statement by making the track a bright purple, the first time that color will show up on an Olympic track.
The rest, as always, is up to the athletes.
“It’s not the track that’s fast, it’s the runners who are fast,” Lewis said.
On a fast track three years ago in Tokyo, three world and 12 Olympic records fell.
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