Who will be in it?

– Netflix announced the following athletes are featured in the new season:

• 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles

• 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas

• 100m Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley

• 100m Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson

• 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred

• 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo

• 100m Olympic bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson

• 100m Olympic finalist and 4x100m Olympic gold medalist Twanisha Terry

• 100m Olympic finalist Marcell Jacobs

• 200m Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek

• Shericka Jackson (who withdrew from the Paris Olympics 100m and 200m due to injury)

• 100m Olympic finalist Oblique Seville

Introducing New Characters

– It will be great to see Julien Alfred and Letsile Tebogo featured in the documentary series after neither athlete was included in Season 1. Even when the series focused on Lyles’s quest for the 200m gold medal, there was no mention of Tebogo being his biggest challenger, despite it being Tebogo who gave Lyles a close run at the London Diamond League before the World Championships in Budapest.

– Alfred made history as the first Olympic gold medalist for St. Lucia. Tebogo also delivered the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Botswana.

– Melissa Jefferson told reporters in Paris that she was initially followed by cameras for Season 1 of SPRINT but did not make the final edit.

”I actually was supposed to be a part of the SPRINT series originally and you know that didn't necessarily pan out in the way we had hoped,” Jefferson said. “So is this one of those things where I knew what I was getting into. I knew there was always a possibility that I may or may not be used. It did kind of suck in the process because you get your hopes up a little bit because you're like ‘Wow, this is great exposure for me.’ But I think now that I'm on the podium people are going to be having a little different tune to sing. I like to say that everything happens for a reason and let the chips fall where they do.”

– Kishane Thompson will be introduced to viewers after a strong start to the summer with a 9.77s victory at the Jamaican Trials. Thompson’s absence from Season 1 is easier to explain, as he did not contest the 2023 World Championships while dealing with injuries. Oblique Seville should also get some airtime after beating Lyles at the Racers Grand Prix in June and then again in the Olympic 100m semifinal. However, he ended up last in the Olympic final.

– Box to Box Films co-founder Paul Martin was a guest on The CITIUS MAG Podcast in July and shared insights into the behind-the-scenes of how the production team cast a wide net following athletes in Season 1 before finalizing the stories for the six episodes.

Who Is Missing From The List

– Notably missing from the list of athletes (which, we should note, could be subject to change based on the final edit) are Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Box to Box Films’ cameras were in attendance at the New York City Grand Prix when Thompson-Herah finished last in the 100m in 11.48 and had to be helped off the track. A few weeks later, she announced she would miss the Jamaican championships so she would not be able to defend her 100m and 200m Olympic titles.

Fraser-Pryce has been quiet on social media since she withdrew from the 100m semifinal due to a hamstring injury. In the hours leading up to the race, videos surfaced on social media of the three-time Olympic gold medalist not being allowed into the warmup track area because she was not on the team bus. It appeared that Sha’Carri Richardson was also having access issues but still went on to race and finished with a silver medal in the 100m final. This was set to be Fraser-Pryce’s final Olympics – she was trying to become the first Olympian to medal in the 100m at five consecutive Games. (In fact, Richardson is the only 100m Olympic finalist featured from Season 1.) Fraser-Pryce has not been announced as part of any of the upcoming Diamond League meets.

– Richardson is also not listed on the list of athletes announced by Netflix. This would be a surprising omission after she was one of the key stars of Season 1, which included a full episode dedicated to her victory in the 100m at the World Championships in Budapest. Aside from her brief post-race TV interviews with NBC’s Lewis Johnson, Richardson only briefly stopped to talk with the media at the Paris Olympics following the 4x100m relay. CITIUS MAG has asked Netflix for clarification on Richardson's status for Season 2 of the series.

– Zharnel Hughes, who opened up in Season 1 with his story about not being accepted by British fans when he was cleared to represent the UK, is not listed in the initial release. After a breakout year in 2023, he has only managed to run a season’s best of 10.00 this year and did not advance past the semifinals of the Olympics. He was part of Team GB’s bronze medal-winning team in the 4x100m relay.