“Do the Dr**s Again”: Track and Field Community Lose All Hope Over Paris Olympics 2024 100m After Major Hype

There are just 58 days left until the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and excitement is high for the 100-meter sprint event. Everyone worldwide is eager to find out if an individual can even approach Usain Bolt’s fabled 9.58-second record. But the recent performances by the renowned sprinters seem to have left them disappointed. Out of that, while venting their dissatisfaction, some of them came up with crazy solutions to this lackluster performance for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

A recent Instagram post by World Athletics featured Lamont Marcell Jacobs and Andre De Grasse competing in the 63rd Ostrava Golden Spike over the 100m distance. De Grasse defeated Jacobs in the race with 10.10 seconds. He then won the 200 meters in 20.09 seconds. marked the first time De Grasse has competed in the 100/200 double on the same day since Aug. 4, last year. De Grasse looked satisfied with his performance in the race.

“It’s early in the season but I’m happy with [the result]…I wanted to come out here test my fitness plus my endurance and see where I’m at,” De Grasse told World Athletics at Mestský Stadium in the Czech Republic. alongside, he also came up with a promise.

“The weather was a little bit chilly for the 200 but next time I’ll get the sub-20 [seconds],” he asserted. But a time around 10s in one more race of the season involving some of the best sprinters did not sit well with the enthusiasts. De Grasse is a back-to-back Olympic bronze medalist in 100m. Whereas Marcell Jacobs pulled off a surprise victory at the Tokyo Olympics when he posted his personal best time of 9.80s in the 100m race. Not finding such able sprinters even close to their peak performance, the post quickly sparked a furious discussion.

Fans anticipate the worst fate for the 100m race at the Paris Olympics

One admirer went up to the extent of suggesting the sprinters resort to doping to improve their timing. The fan wrote, “Just let them do the dr**s again, bruh. I’m getting annoyed.” This recalls a social media post made a few days back that subtly hinted that because of USADA’s tough testing regime, doping has reduced significantly. That is the reason why performance is falling. Tara Davis-Woodhall had reacted furiously to that, thrashing the allegation that everyone was on dope.

One fan conveying a pessimistic outlook on the next events and noting the slow performances wrote, “This Olympics will have the slowest 100m of the millennium.” Sadly, De Grasse’s performance in the past few races can understandably fan such emotions. De Grasse won his 100m season opener in 10.11 on April 27 at the East Coast Relays in Jacksonville. Following that secured the runner-up position at the Marrakesh Diamond League in Morocco on May 19 with a time of 10.19.

Notably, the Canadian back-to-back Olympic bronze medalist in 100m hasn’t run under 10 seconds in 19 races since the 2021 Diamond League Final. On that occasion, he placed second (9.89 personal best). The last time he went close to that was on June 16, 2022, at the Bislett Games Diamond League event in Oslo, Norway (10.05). On the other hand, His training mate Marcell Jacobs is also not in good standing.

Jacobs clocked a season’s best time of 10.07 seconds to win the 100m at the Roma Sprint Festival recently. Back then, he had also hinted at eyeing even LA2028 after Paris. But one enthusiast was not even expecting him to win. They questioned, “You really thought the crazy jumper will beat a sprinter?” Some even predicted, “Slow, Jacob’s won’t make the semi-final 100m at the Olympics with how slow he’s been running.”

Notably, Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman, who have recently made ambitious claims about breaking Usain Bolt’s record, have also drawn fiery reactions on online platforms after their around 10s timings. But what makes Bolt’s record so special? Before automated timing became necessary in 1977 to set a world record, milestones were manually timed. After this, record times also changed, from tenths of seconds to hundredths. Notably, from this point, men’s 100-meter world record has never lasted more than three years and three months since 1987, until August 2009.

Bolt’s 9.58s (44.72 km/h) record at the Berlin 2009 World Athletics Championships has been untouchable for a staggering 15 years. Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake’s 9.69-second times in 2009 and 2012, respectively, have only gone closest to that till now. Understandably, a user boldly stated, “Yea nobody touching Bolt’s record. I don’t care if it’s early season and nobody’s in shape yet.” Notably, a few days back, Paralympic medalist Hunter Woodhall had attributed the slow timing to the early season. But no one seems to pay heed to that.

One user lashed out, “& these sprinters think they can touch Bolt’s record, laughable. They aren’t even coming close. When Bolt did 9.58, 5/8 sprinters went sub 10, and two did 10.0 flat. The sprinters of today cannot compare.” Indeed, the sprinters still seem to go a long way to topple the iconic record. In remains to be seen if they gain the momentum to finally get to that in the Olympic arena.