Americans await athletics comeback at 2024 Olympics

The most basic, most attractive, and most watched sport of the Olympics, athletics, has officially started at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Noah Lyles promises to help US athletics win - Photo: Reuters

Perhaps most eagerly awaiting the start of the track and field season are the Americans.

The US team got off to a slow start.

Specifically, as of the morning of August 1, after the first 5 days of official competition, the US - the world's number 1 sport - only had 5 gold medals at Paris 2024. The US ranked behind Japan, South Korea and Australia on the medal table. That poor performance partly comes from swimming - a sport that is being surpassed by Australia. The US swimming team has suffered consecutive shocking defeats in its strong events, such as the men's and women's freestyle events, and many other relay events. The blue track at Paris 2024 is strangely attractive when "a hundred flowers bloom", and almost no country clearly dominates. The Australian women's swimming team, although very strong, mostly focuses on freestyle swimming distances. And in general, a series of athletes won gold medals to the surprise of fans. That is Sarah Sjostrom - who unexpectedly won the women's 100m freestyle gold medal at the age of 30. That is Leon Marchand - the French guy who made waves at the Olympics with 3 individual gold medals (as of August 1). That is Italian swimmers like Thomas Ceccon, Nicolo Martinenghi... Pan Zhanle, a 19-year-old Chinese swimmer, created the biggest surprise in the blue track so far, when he won the exciting men's 100m freestyle gold medal. Earlier this year, Pan won this event at the World Championships in Doha. But that was the tournament that strong sports "boycotted" because it took place in an unusual way. In the past, the world swimming championships always took place in odd years to avoid the Olympics. But due to a series of changes due to the pandemic, FINA (International Aquatics Federation) postponed the tournament to 2024. This reluctant schedule was opposed by major sports. And they almost always sent a team without stars. When Pan Zhanle won the gold medal, few people appreciated that achievement, thinking that Doha 2024 was just a "second-class" tournament.

Will accelerate in athletics?

Swimming has seen a series of surprises, will athletics follow suit? Like swimming, athletics has been under the control of the Americans for many years. They have led the number of gold medals in athletics for 10 consecutive Olympics (from 1984 to present). If counting throughout history, there have only been 3 Olympics where the Americans have not been able to dominate athletics. But similar to swimming, the strength of the Americans in athletics is also declining. At the 2016 Olympics, they won 13 gold medals and won 3/4 relay races. But by Tokyo 2020, the US only won 7 gold medals. Including two painful defeats in the men's 100m and men's 4x100m relay - the most exciting competitions. Confidence in American athletics gradually returned at the 2023 World Championships, when they won 12 gold medals and regained strength in speed distances. Noah Lyles, the American sprint star, won a "golden hat trick" when he won the men's 100m, men's 200m and men's 4x100m relay. On the women's track, Sha'Carri Richardson won a double gold medal in the 100m and 4x100m relay. Since Usain Bolt retired, there has been almost no runner worthy of inheriting his title of "fastest man on the planet". And Noah Lyles, at the age of 27, promises to do just that if he maintains his form from the world championships to the Olympics. Athletics, the king of the Olympics, officially opened on August 1 (with only 2 walking events) and will heat up from today. And the king of the world sports promises to wake up.

Athletics ticket prices are shocking

Excluding the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics will be the sport with the highest ticket prices at the 2024 Olympics. Specifically, the lowest ticket price for athletics is 85 euros (2.3 million VND) and the highest is 980 euros (26.7 million VND) on the day of the men's 100m event. Swimming also has a similar price. Meanwhile, football matches only have ticket prices ranging from 24 to 300 euros (men's football final).

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-my-cho-cu-nguoc-dong-cua-dien-kinh-o-olympic-2024-20240802094419834.htm