By David Melly
July 3, 2024
As we nurse our collective Eugene hangover, a few things are starting to come into focus. One: that was really fun. Two: please God, don’t let anything newsworthy happen between now and Paris. And three: Team USA is sending a really strong team to the Olympics.
Of course, the U.S. isn’t alone in that. Plenty of other delegations are also stacked to the brim with talent, so American dominance of the medal chart will require A+ days from its superstars. At Trials, our friend Katelyn was unafraid to rile up Jamaican Twitter with her bold, perhaps slightly jingoistic, predictions of American medal sweeps, but it’s not as unlikely as you’d think. At our home Worlds in 2022, Team USA swept three events: the men’s 100m, 200m, and shot put. In 2016, the women swept the Olympic podium in the 100m hurdles. So as we turn our (admittedly American-biased) eyes toward Paris, here are the events we’re watching for potential sweeps:
Men’s 200m: The team that swept in 2022 is back in action, and arguably better, as Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Kenny Bednarek claimed their spots in the hotly contested event. They’ll have to go through Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, but with Lyles having not lost a 200m race since his bronze in Tokyo, Bednarek clocking lifetime bests in both the 100m and 200m last week, and Knighton showing no signs of rust in his season debut, they’ll be a formidable trio.
Women’s 100m hurdles: This densely-packed event is probably less of a lock for a sweep as Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn have proven their championship mettle and former NCAA champ Ackera Nugent clocked a lifetime best 12.28 in the Jamaican Trials. But with national champ Masai Russell, Alaysha Johnson, and Grace Stark clocking the #1, #3, and #3 (tied) times in the world in the final at Hayward, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
Women’s Shot Put: Canadian Sarah Mitton is on one this year, with a 20.61m world lead in May and a World Indoor title in March. But Chase Jackson is the 2x defending World champ for a reason, Jaida Ross is coming off an undefeated season in the NCAA, and Tokyo silver medalist Raven Saunders improved their season’s best from 19.17m to 19.90m in one weekend. If anyone knows how to perform when it counts, it’s these three athletes.
Men’s 110m hurdles: The hurdles is a high-risk, high-reward event as one foot brushing a 42-inch hurdle can be the difference between victory and disaster. But that doesn’t change the fact that the three sub-13 second performers in the event this year are all Americans on Team USA, and all three clocked those times in the Olympic Trials final. The trio of Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts, and Freddie Crittenden finished 1-3-4 in Budapest. The man who took second in that race, Hansle Parchment, is the Olympic champ but only finished third in the Jamaican Trials final in 13.19. He’s also 34 years old, and Father Time does come for us all, whether we’re Olympic gold medalists or bloggers nursing chronic plantar fasciitis.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
