From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
How are you Italians, aren’t you bothering too much this summer? We joke of course (although …), but at the moment, our neighbors have the unfortunate tendency to gain too much to let slip away without saying anything. Euro football is still going on, there is a little cultural tradition behind it. But the 100m of the Olympic Games, so that, we did not see it coming. No one, for that matter. Lamont Marcell Jacobs, crowned this Sunday evening in Tokyo, really chose his day to reveal himself to the whole world.
The surprise is immense. Where to start ? The 26-year-old sprinter had no solid reference before showing up to these Olympics. Semi-finalist of the 2019 Worlds and of Europe in 2018, for the last major championships disputed, a year 2021 where he is gaining momentum, all the same, with a title of European champion indoors over 60m, and then two small passages under the 10 seconds at the beginning of summer. But not enough to make him a candidate for succession to Usain Bolt. Especially in this way. The Italian broke Jimmy Vicaut’s European record for the first time in the semi-finals (9”84), before putting it back in the final (9”80). Unimaginable.
🏃🌪🥇We expected from Grasse 🇨🇦 (🥉, 9.89), or Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 (🥈, 9.84), we finally had Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Olympic champion in the queen athletics event. A time of 9.80 for the Italian ⚡
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“I am surprised by the stopwatch, it was madness tonight, breathes Andre De Grasse, bronze medalist as in Rio. 9’80 from the Italian, I didn’t expect that. I thought my main competition would be the Americans, but he came to play and it smiled on him, so kudos to him. “The Americans had indeed gone through the window, the world champion Christian Coleman for a while with his three“ no shows ”, the big favorite Trayvon Bromell from the semi-finals.
The last in line, Fred Kerley, had to settle for the money behind this near-unknown. “I really didn’t know anything about him,” he almost laughs. The first time I ran with him was at the Monaco meeting in July. He did a fantastic job. Even the person concerned does not really believe it, in fact. “I don’t know if I realize what I did. It’s a dream, it’s fantastic, he exclaims. Maybe I’ll realize it better tomorrow, but now it’s just amazing. “
A first since Linford Christie for Europe
Born in the United States, in El Paso, Jacobs moved to Italy, his mother’s country, when he was a child. He who initially wanted to do like his father and play basketball, finally did well to persevere in athletics. He has just offered the very first Olympic 100m title to Italy, and in the process brought the crown back to Europe, which had not seen the color since the Englishman Linford Christie, crowned in Barcelona in 1992.
“It was my childhood dream to win the Olympics. But to compete in this 100m final and win it… my dream is coming true, he can hardly believe. I want to thank my family, who have always supported me, my children and my mom, who has always been my No. 1 supporter. “
The story in five minutes
And since there are evenings like this, Italy does not have one gold medal to celebrate but two. When Jacobs crossed the line, Gianmarco Tamberi had barely stood up, overcome with emotion after winning the height competition, tied with Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim (2.37m). The two fell into each other’s arms, before leaving for a memorable lap of honor. We attended the five most beautiful minutes in the history of transalpine athletics, and frankly, it was good.