Sports

Noah Lyles repays American sprinter by winning Olympic gold in 100-meter dash

Published

4 months ago

August 5, 2024

IAM

SAINT-DENIS, France — Maybe it is time to stop complaining in regards to the state of sprinting in the United States.

On Sunday, three American sprinters made it to the 100-meter final, with the leader of the group, Noah Lyles, taking victory with nothing left to lose in some of the competitive finals in Olympic history.

A near-perfect race and a fall at the tip, but Lyles, 27, edged Jamaican Kishane Thompson with a private better of 9.784 seconds. Thompson also clocked 9.79 seconds, but Lyles finished 0.005 seconds faster. Lyles’ teammate Fred Kerley took bronze.

The race was so close that Lyles, in real time, said he thought Thompson had won. “We were waiting for the names to come out, and honestly, I walked up and was like, ‘I think you’ve got the Olympics, dawg,’” Lyles said.

Thompson, who was competing in his first Olympics, remembered Lyles coming over after the race but had no idea what had just happened.

“When we both crossed the finish line, he said, he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, man, I think you made it,’” Thompson recalled. “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m not even sure,’ because it was so close.”

Lyles was flying blind in the race. Thompson was in lane 4, and Lyles, who was in lane 7, didn’t see how strong Thompson was racing. Luckily for Lyles, he listened to the inner voice that spoke up as he approached the tape. “Something said I had to lean in, and I thought, ‘I’m going to lean in,’ because that was the kind of race it was,” he said.

It turned out to be a bull’s eye.

American sprinter Noah Lyles (third from left) crosses the finish line to win the boys’s 100 meters final in the course of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on the Stade de France on August 4 in Paris.

Michael Steele/Getty Images

Of course, that is what the Olympics are all about. An athlete trains for years to give you the chance to compete when the test comes. We’ve seen Simone Biles do it in gymnastics, Katie Ledecky do it in swimming. On Sunday, the world saw Lyles do it on the track.

The better part of Sunday’s race is that Lyles was the loudest voice in the room — raucous, talking trash and calling names. And in the moment of truth, he lived as much as expectations.

“I mean, it’s good to support that,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of scenarios where athletes come in as favorites and they don’t make it. Knowing that it could happen still drives me, and it’s just continuing to go that extra step, knowing that at any moment someone could come along.”

At the beginning of the season, many track pundits predicted that 2024 could be a weak 12 months for sprints.

“Well, it wasn’t a bad year in terms of top-100 results,” Lyles said.

It was a fantastic race, a dramatic victory and an invigorating moment for American track and field. Since the 100-meter dash became the cornerstone of Olympic competition, the United States has been a dominant force. Excluding Sunday’s result, the United States has won 16 of the 29 men’s gold medals and nine of the 22 women’s gold medals in Olympic history. But there was a major drought.

The thought loomed over not only Lyles’ heads but all the American sprinting community that American sprinters, once a feared commodity on the international stage, had lost their confidence. No one feared American sprinters as much as they once did, even going back to names from years past like Charley Paddock, Eddie Tolan, Jesse Owens, and Wilma Rudolph.

Because of Bob Hayes’ “Bullet” on the 1964 Tokyo Games, critics coined the term “Fastest Man in the World” and gave the title to the winner of the 100 meters. Carl Lewis won back-to-back 100-meter Olympic titles in 1984 and 1988, after which Maurice Green—a relative unknown—showed how deep the United States’ sprint bench was when he won gold on the 2000 Sydney Games.

Who would have guessed when Justin Gatlin won the 100-meter dash in 2004 that his victory would prove to be the last Olympic gold medal for the United States in the event until Sunday evening when Lyles was forced to run the race of his life.

American sprinter Noah Lyles (second from left) crosses the finish line in the course of the men’s 100 meters final in the course of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on the Stade de France on August 4 in Paris.

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Critics mistakenly attribute the United States’ Olympic medal drought to poor training. The truth is that sprinting remains to be extremely popular in the United States. It’s just that many sprinters come from outside the country.

The United States training system continues to draw and train lots of the world’s best sprinters. The proven fact that athletes can earn scholarships to school makes the system attractive to international athletes.

Julien Alfred, who became St. Lucia’s first Olympic champion on Saturday by defeating Sha’Carri Richardson to win the ladies’s 100 meters, ran in college for the University of Texas. While Lyles decided to show pro after highschool, Kerley attended community college. They are a part of a rebirth.

Lyles said Sunday he wants his gold-medal performance to catch the attention of U.S. sprinters, citing the critically acclaimed Netflix series for instance.

“I would like to see the continuation of being able to leverage moments for our sport,” he said. “What we need to do as a sport is leverage it and say, ‘Hey, we need to make this as accessible as possible for people to come and watch. It needs to be accessible because this is a global sport and we need to be able to show it to the world.’”

Before the media session ended, a reporter asked Lyles what he expected from his individual Olympic performances, which could yield at the least two more gold medals. This week, he’ll run the 200 meters and the 4×100 relay.

“I want my own shoe,” he said without hesitation. Lyles noted that the good Michael Johnson never owned a shoe of his own. “I need my very own trainer. I need a sneaker; there’s no money in spikes.

“I think considering the number of medals we brought home, the publicity we got, the fact that it didn’t happen is crazy to me.”

Lyles won an exciting race on Sunday and gave the American sprinting community a beautiful gift: its prestige was restored.

William C. Rhoden is a columnist at Andscape and the creator of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. He directs Rhoden Fellows, a training program for aspiring journalists at HBCUs.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com

Sports

In 2025, the Basketball Africa League play-offs will move to South Africa

Published

3 hours ago

November 22, 2024

IAM

The 2025 Basketball Africa League season will feature a brand new venue for the finals and playoffs and will also start at a brand new location.

The BAL 2025 Playoffs and Finals, scheduled for June 14, 2025, will happen at the recent home in Pretoria, South Africa. This will be the first time the BAL playoffs and finals haven’t been held in Kigali, Rwanda. The BAL 2025 season will also debut in a brand new location in Rabat, Morocco on April 5, 2025. During the BAL 2025 season, 12 of the best club teams from 12 African countries will play 48 matches in Rabat, Kigali and Dakar, Senegal, before traveling to Pretoria for play- offs.

“Over the first four seasons of BAL, we have seen tremendous growth in on-court competition, attendance and engagement from fans and partners in Africa and around the world,” BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall said in a press release. “Our groundbreaking fifth season will build on this momentum and continue to showcase the level of talent and passion for basketball in Africa, including through the first BAL games in Morocco and the first BAL Finals in South Africa.”

The 12 teams will be divided again into three conferences of 4 teams each. The group stage of the Kalahari Conference will happen from April 5 to 13, 2025 in Rabat. The group stage of the Sahara Conference will be held in Dakar from April 26 to May 4, 2025. The group stage of the Nile Conference will be held in Kigali from May 17 to 25, 2025. Eight teams from the three conferences will qualify for the play-offs in Pretoria, which will start on June 6 and end with the BAL 2025 finals.

“The Kalahari conference marks another expansion of BAL into a new country on our continent and we are more than satisfied,” FIBA Africa president Anibal Manave said in a press release. “The competition continues to grow each year, providing greater exposure for our sport and helping to raise the level of basketball in Africa, making the league increasingly competitive.”

National champions from Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia routinely qualify for the BAL. The remaining five teams are from FIBA Africa’s Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments.

In the 2024 BAL season, Petro de Luanda of Angola became the first team from Sub-Saharan Africa to win the championship. According to BAL, the 2024 BAL season reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, set an attendance record of greater than 120,000 fans in the 4 host countries and generated greater than 1.2 billion views across the NBA and BAL social media channels.

Marc J. Spears is Andscape’s senior NBA author. He used to have the option to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been able to do it for years and his knees still hurt.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com

Sports

NFL star Terrell Owens signs a contract with Michael Strahan’s talent agency

Published

16 hours ago

November 21, 2024

IAM

NFL Hall of Fame receiver and podcast host Terrell Owens has signed with a talent agency to further strengthen his claims within the entertainment game.

According to , Owens was signed by SMAC Entertainment, headed by host and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and his business partner Constance Schwartz-Morini.

NFL insider Jordan Schultz has also joined SMAC Entertainment.

“We are excited to add TO and Jordan to the SMAC family. They are both at the top of their game and set the standard in their industry,” Schwartz-Morini said in a written statement. “TO and Jordan have already brought an infectious energy to our team, and we are excited to help them realize their vision for careers in media, business and branding.”

A five-time first-team All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler, Owens played for the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. In 2018, he was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

A member of the 2000 NFL All-Decade Team, Owens finished his profession with 1,078 catches for 15,934 yards, 14.8 yards per catch and 153 touchdowns, rating third all-time in receiving yards and touchdowns.

Since retiring from skilled soccer in 2012, Owens has already made several moves. He has appeared in several movies and tv shows, including “,” and in addition had his own reality show, “, on VH1.

He currently co-hosts the podcast with former NFL player and sports analyst Shannon Sharpe.

SMAC Entertainment is home to stars similar to rapper and actor Common, Wiz Khalifa, Strahan, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders and current NFL players similar to Stefon Diggs and DK Metcalf.

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com

Sports

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker brings an NBA championship desire with his Olympic experience

Published

1 day ago

November 21, 2024

IAM

The gold medal went to the USA Basketball team. Mission completed on the 2024 Paris Games. U.S. men’s basketball coach Steve Kerr just answered his final query during his final news conference on Aug. 10 after his team defeated France within the gold medal game.

However, before leaving the stage of the press conference in Paris, Kerr stopped to deliver an unsolicited message to media around the globe.

“Devin Booker is an amazing basketball player. Nobody asked about him. He was our unsung MVP. I just desired to say that,” Kerr said.

The “underrated MVP” compliment meant so much to the Phoenix Suns guard.

“It meant everything. No one really asked him,” Booker recently told Andscape. “That was probably something that was weighing on his mind throughout the entire process. A 12 months ago I said what I desired to do for this team and what we desired to do for the country.

“It was a lot larger than all of us. Survival was something we’d discuss for the remainder of our lives.

The USA Basketball team was centered around NBA star icons LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. There has also been some discussion amongst media and fans in regards to the lack of playing time for Jayson Tatum and, to a lesser extent, Tyrese Haliburton. Lost within the shuffle was the all-around, unselfish play of sharpshooter Booker wearing the armband.

Guard Devin Booker throughout the final men’s basketball game between France and the United States on the Olympic Games on Aug. 10 at Bercy Arena in Paris.

Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images

Booker was fourth in scoring for the U.S., averaging 11.7 points, 3.3 assists and a couple of.2 three-pointers made early in all six Olympics, and likewise had the perfect plus/minus (plus-130) for an American. Kerr was impressed with Booker’s deal with a difficult defense, regardless that he is thought for his offense, ball movement and the way he has adjusted to not being one in every of the highest options on offense.

“I just understood what was at stake,” Booker said. “I’m proud to be from this country. I’m happy with playing basketball. Even though it wasn’t invented in America, we dominated for a very long time. Obviously the world is incredibly talented and the sport is growing, however it was just one other message to allow them to know who we’re.

Booker said he also learned in regards to the preparations from his all-star team, watching the preparations on and off the court. The 28-year-old added that he gained lifelong friendships.

“It’s cool to see that everyone has their own issues,” Booker said. “In my 10 years in the NBA, I’ve learned that you have to choose what you can use for yourself. But the level of detail, the attention to detail, the intensity – it’s all consistent across the board.”

As for Durant, Booker said the bond between the 2 Sun stars “is close and grows stronger every day.” They live about five minutes from one another within the Phoenix area and commonly spend time at home and on the road. Most recently, Booker had to steer the Suns without Durant, who was sidelined with an injury.

The amazing Durant averaged 27.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and three.4 assists, which were tops for the Suns. However, the 14-time NBA All-Star has been sidelined since November 8 with a left calf strain. Suns players Bradley Beal (calf) and Jusuf Nurkic (ankle) were also sidelined. The Suns are 1-5 without Durant, which incorporates 4 straight losses.

Booker and Suns sans Durant’s next rivals shall be the New York Knicks on Wednesday evening (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET). Over the last six games, Booker is averaging 24.1 points, shooting 43.2% from the sphere and making 16 of 43 three-pointers. Suns guard Tyus Jones said there was numerous pressure on Booker offensively due to the injury.

“We’re asking a lot of Book,” Jones said after Monday’s 109-99 loss to the visiting Orlando Magic. “It’s numerous pressure for him. We are very focused on it. They are physical with him, holding him and grabbing him, throwing two or three bodies at him all night long. So he’s got so much on his plate and we just need to proceed to seek out ways to get him open within the moments we will and proceed to assist him when other players are taking shots and making plays.

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (left) with Suns forward Kevin Durant (right) during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 31 on the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

Booker currently has two Olympic gold medals, 4 NBA All-Star appearances and one NBA Finals appearance. The only thing missing from the Suns’ second-leading all-time scorer is an NBA championship. Since the Suns joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1968, they’ve yet to win a title.

After experiencing the joys of winning a gold medal, Booker as an NBA champion wants the gold Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy much more.

“Most of the guys that were there did it,” Booker said of his Olympic teammates who were NBA champions. “They were champions. This is standard for them. Anything lower than that, they need nothing to do with it. It’s contagious…

“That’s all I want. That’s all I want.”

Marc J. Spears is Andscape’s senior NBA author. He used to have the ability to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been capable of do it for years and his knees still hurt.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com