Looking back at the list of 400 million women in the 2016 Olympic Games, you may have a fair guess as to which young person may become the main contender for the gold medal this summer, even if you have been in a coma for the past five years.
As early as 2014, Sydney McLaughlin Is declaring that she is a freak who has the potential to become the best genius on the planet. She has left her mark in the avid track and field Eugene, because she won many of the world’s best players in the U.S. Junior Championships. First place.
At the age of 14, McLaughlin was already faster than any 15- or 16-year-old girl. By the time she was 16 years old, she broke the world youth record and booked a position on the U.S. team to Rio, where she became the United States. The youngest track and field athlete in 44 years.
In the almost unrestricted climbing process, McLaughlin has been breaking more records ever since, until the U.S. Olympic trials held at Hayward Stadium earlier this summer, at the time, with an inevitable feeling. Not only did she become the fastest 21-year-old player ever, but the fastest woman full stop.
Four days later, away from the sea, Carsten Warholm With Kevin Young’s 46.78 points finally broken in 1992, he is becoming the unlikely conqueror of the oldest world record in men’s track and field.
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“Unlikely” is not because Warholm’s performance was unexpected. In fact, the situation is quite the opposite, as the Norwegians have been knocking on their doors for the past few years, even in uncompetitive “matches” played in sparse stadiums during the 2020 pandemic season.
“Unlikely”, because just in 2015-McLaughlin was destroying another world’s best age-Warholm was first a decathlon athlete.
Going back to those 2016 starting lists and your coma and awakening, even knowing that he will exceed expectations by breaking the national record and reaching the semi-finals in Rio de Janeiro, but choose 20-one-year-old from Ulsteinvik as your future world champion.
Except in twelve months, this is exactly what he was in. At the end of his first full season in the discipline, he won a surprising gold medal at the London World Championship, his roar and Viking helmet celebrated becoming The iconic image of the capital for a soggy night.
Whether they came here as a product of the Olympia factory of the American university system, or through an unconventional multi-sport competition, what McLaughlin and Warholm shared was the opportunity to be in the course of a lap and ten obstacles. Light up these Olympics.
Both are looking for the first Olympic champion and both realize that despite their dominance, despite their star qualities, and despite their being the fastest ever, they would easily go home without it.
McLaughlin knew best that he had seen a so-called adult come and go. At the 2019 World Championships, McLaughlin, who has become the new face of American track and field, is ready to confirm her global arrival after turning into a professional player in a huge commercial tug-of-war competition, but she was caught by teammate Dalila Mohamed. (Dalilah Muhammad) obstructed. For the second time that year, she had to break the world record and beat her.
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Mohamed is 31 years old. McLaughlin avenged the defeat in the US trials. It seems that the baton has been late, but the defending champion is still ranked second in the world and has proven her ability. Keep your best condition on the biggest stage in the United States. That’s before you consider Femke Bol, the Dutch sensation, six months of McLaughlin’s junior year, and on the same frightening trajectory, she achieved an amazing victory in Stockholm in July and made history. No. 4 on the list.
At the same time, Warholm has not been defeated since 2018, but earlier this year, when Rai Benjamin nearly broke his obsessive world record, he suffered almost all kinds of fail.
The American’s score in the US trials was 46.83, only 0.05 lower than Yang’s, and faster than Warholm’s at the time.
Although McLaughlin and Mohammed have resumed their competition this season, Warholm and Benjamin have not yet clashed at a critical moment. The two were originally scheduled to meet in Monaco, but after seeing Warholm regain the advantage in breaking the world record, Benjamin decided it was best to leave the showdown to Tokyo. Due to some strange seeds in the semifinals, we had a dress rehearsal, but the rematch itself will be a different beast.
The beauty of this event now is that it may be one of the greatest 400m hurdles ever-but it is not even the best game of the week.
