There will be 206 countries represented at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But two nations are expected to take center stage in the track and field competitions: the U.S. and Jamaica.
Starting at the Berlin Games in 1936, when U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens won four gold medals, American athletes, including Carl Lewis, Florence Griffith Joyner and Allyson Felix, dominated for years in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter events. But the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics put Jamaica on the map.
Although Team USA won gold in the men’s and women’s 4×100 relays in Beijing, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt stole the show when he ran everyone off the track with world records and gold in the 100- and 200-meter races. Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown captured gold in the women’s 100- and 200-meter races.
At the London Games four years later, Americans Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross won gold in the women’s 200- and 400-meter races. However, a defining moment in the rivalry took place in the men’s 4×100-meter relay.
Coming into the competition, Team USA had a record of 15 wins and was the early favorite when sprinter Ryan Bailey readied to receive the baton. Bolt had other plans that night, propelling Jamaica to a come-from-behind triumph and establishing a world record, ultimately leaving the American team behind.
Jamaica’s success continued at the 2016 Rio Games, where Bolt — in his final Olympics — won the 100 meters over American rival Justin Gatlin, as well as the 200 meters. Meanwhile, Jamaican Elaine Thompson, who has world records in the 100 meters and the 200 meters, won gold in both events. Team USA did not walk away empty-handed, though, claiming gold in the women’s 4×100 and 4×400 relays and the men’s 4×400 relay.
At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Thompson defended her gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events while helping Jamaica win the 4×100-meter relay. Meanwhile, Team USA won gold in the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relays.
Now attention turns to the 2024 Paris Games, where the rivalry will feature American Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone competing against Jamaica’s biggest stars, including Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson.
In the men’s events, Lyles is likely to face stiff competition from 22-year-old Jamaican star Kishane Thompson.
His emergence comes as he prepares for his first Olympics. He told Jamaica’s Nationwide 90 FM: “Life was very humbling. Nothing was given to me, and I had to really work for it and get through my trials and tribulations. I kept striving harder and never gave up on myself and did what I had to do, even more than I had to do, and it kept me grounded.”
At last month’s Jamaica Olympic Track and Field Trials, Thompson ran a blistering 9.77 seconds in the 100 meters, becoming the fourth-fastest Jamaican of all time. Thomson told reporters he’s capable of running even quicker, saying, “I am not sure how fast I can go, but the time did not surprise me tonight.”
Lyles, however, is not shying away from competition. Asked about Thompson’s pace, Lyles said last month, “I hope he stays healthy.”
In the women’s events, Richardson will compete in the 100 meters against Fraser-Pryce and Jackson, who is targeting her first individual Olympic gold in both the 100-meter and the 200-meter events. All are chasing the 100-meter world record of 10.49 seconds, set in 1988 by Griffith Joyner.
Jackson is coming off a successful performance in last month’s Jamaica National Championships, where she bested Fraser-Pryce, her Olympic teammate, in the 100 meters.
“I don’t have an [individual] Olympic gold medal,” she said after the race, “and that is something that I am definitely looking forward to this year.”
Meanwhile, Richardson’s focus in Paris centers on redemption after she missed the 2020 Olympics because of a failed drug test for cannabis. She will enter as the 2024 Games as arguably the top contender in the 100 meters.
Richards-Ross, a four-time gold medalist and NBC analyst, says a gold medal in Paris only “starts her legacy.”
“She’ll win the Olympic gold medal in the 100, and now it starts the conversation of where she stands in the history books,” Richards-Ross told NBC News. “She’ll have to come back and do more. You’re not going to be a legend off of one Olympic gold medal. It starts her legacy, but it starts her legacy in the best way possible. If she wins this Olympics, she’s on track to be in the conversation as one of the greats.”