For the longest time in track and field, there was only one athlete who was guaranteed to be in the winning column. That athlete is Usain Bolt. Barely any athlete could come close to him, pretty evident in that his records set more than a decade ago on 100 meters at 9.58 seconds and 200 meters at 19.19 seconds remain untainted. He did a fabulous job of putting Jamaica’s name forward in the sport, showing absolute mastery on the track. But once Bolt retired in 2017, a power shift began happening in male track and field.

Most of the events at that time were dominated by Jamaican track athletes. But after Bolt’s retirement, the US, which took a back seat in that era, slowly started creeping back. This became even more prominent when Noah Lyles came into the picture and started winning almost all of the competitions, making the US the leaders in male track and field.

This has irked the Jamaicans, as they had enjoyed the center stage for so long. The country is desperately looking for someone who could take the world by storm again and restore Jamaica’s dominance. American track and field legend Michael Johnson realized this and talked about it in the second episode of Sprint Season 2.

He said, “The Jamaicans want to get back in top of the men’s sprints, especially seeing how the Americans have been dominating. They want a new king.” This is an understandable statement to have, as in the yesteryears, the second and third-best athletes in their countries were defeating the best of the US.

Alongside Usain Bolt, even track stars like Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell were fully dominating the track scene at the time. Yohan’s best at 100m, which is 9.69 seconds, is the second fastest in history after Bolt and joined alongside Tyson Gay. On the other hand, Asafa Powell’s figure of 9.72 seconds follows right after, placing him in the third position.

Thus, as a country, when you’ve seen such dominance from your athletes in the past, you would expect the same with your present roster too. This is why Jamaica wanted a great athlete to represent them in Paris. Looking at their performances, the country might have found one athlete who lives up to their expectations.

Jamaica track and field found a new star at the Olympics

The aspirations of Jamaican track and field fans rested mainly on two male athletes, Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson, as they were their two best athletes in the 100m Olympic trials. Unfortunately, Oblique couldn’t live up to the expectations, as even though he finished first in the heats, beating Noah Lyles, the Jamaican ended up finishing dead last in the finals with a time of 9.91 seconds.

On the other hand, Kishane Thompson had a different story to tell. Coming into the Olympics with a brilliant performance of 9.77 seconds at the trials, many felt that he would be Noah Lyles’ biggest challenge in his route to the gold medal. This notion was completely right, as Kishane ended the finals with the same time as Noah Lyles with 9.79 seconds. But it was later found out that Noah had run.005 seconds faster than the Jamaican handing him the victory.

Thus, Kishane Thompson had to settle for silver instead. But the potential he showed during that race certainly promises a bright future in the track and field for him. In fact, there might be a strong chance that Kishane would be considered as one of the top contenders for the gold medal in LA. If he’s successful in his pursuit, Jamaica will finally find their new track and field king.