My 2024 Olympic Games Experience: Witnessing Arguably the Best 100m Race in History

Paris-based former sports journalist Bob Frank continues his daily account of attending the 2024 Olympic Games.

I mentioned in the first of my daily articles about my experience of attending the Paris Olympics, that I feel very strongly that life should be about creating great memories that will last a lifetime, and last night’s athletics at the Stade de France certainly lived up to that billing.

I witnessed what some people have described as the best 100m race in history, which was the perfect way to cap off the first of four nights I am spending watching the athletics.

It certainly wasn’t the fastest 100m ever, as Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds was never under threat, but it was the first final ever that all eight finalists have broken 10 seconds (all but one of them were under 9.9) and the race for gold could hardly have been closer as just 0.005 seconds separated American showman Noah Lyles from Jamaican Kishane Thompson, both athletes clocking 9.79 seconds.

It was so close that if English Premier League VAR officials were responsible for declaring the winner, they would probably still be debating it now and would then perhaps claim Thompson had won!

Last night was the first time I had been to the Stade de France since I reported at the 2003 World Athletics Championships, and the victors 21 years ago included Hicham El Guerrouj (1500m), Eliud Kipchoge (5,000m), Kenenisa Bekele (10,000m), Allen Johnson (110m hurdles), and Maria Mutola (800m).

The 100m that year was won by Kim Collins in 10.07, and he wouldn’t even have made the final with such a time these days.

I spent 10 years travelling the world writing about athletics, and in my experience sprinters were often more difficult to deal with for the media than the more laid back distance runners. Maybe sprinters just need to be more explosive, and perhaps that is reflected is their personalities as well as on the track, although there are exceptions and I found Ato Boldon to always be good for a great quote.

I remember the first time I approached Linford Christie for some post-race quotes at Crystal Palace, and he claimed the magazine I worked for hadn’t wanted to speak to him for three years and tried to walk away (I think it was more a case that he didn’t want to speak to us as he wrote a column for a rival publication!). I persevered and got the quotes I wanted eventually, and I did find Linford became far more approachable when he moved into coaching at the end of his career.

Michael Johnson is someone I never had a pleasant experience of dealing with, and he came across as extremely arrogant and unhelpful towards the media (or maybe just to me!) and yet now he is part of the media circus himself.

In fairness, sports journalism is about creating good contacts and maybe Johnson was great with some journalists. Some of the best contacts I had were people some journalists really struggled to get anything out of, and there would be some I struggled with that others found great, so it is about creating trust and a good working relationship.

My attitude working for a specialist, and niche, sports magazine was to never stitch anyone up just to get one big story, because you would have to deal with these people again, but not all journalists were like that and one in particular took more pleasure from athletes failing drugs tests than seeing a British gold medal winner and I found that sad.

Two gold medals were decided in the field last night, with Ukraine’s Yaraslava Mahuchikh - who set the world high jump record of 2.10m when I saw here a few miles away at the Charlety Stadium last month, won the gold medal on countback from gritty Australian Nicola Olyslagers, both clearing 2.00m.

The hammer throw went to Canadian world champion Ethan Katzberg, thanks to a first round throw of 84.12m that quickly put him in control and he never looked like relinquishing his lead.

In the women's 800m heats, gold medal favourite Keely Hodgkinson was well in control as she recorded the fastest time of the rounds - 1:56.86, but the other two Brits (Jemma Reekie and 17-year-old Phoebe Gill) crashed out.

In the 400m, two Britons - European record-holder Matt Hudson-Smith and Charlie Dobson - won their heats, while Josh Kerr cruised into the 1500m final in a race won by his big rival and reigning champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. There is no love lost between world champion Kerr and the Norwegian ace, so tomorrow's final promises to be a great event.

The athletics was my second Olympic sport of the day, but my day didn’t get off to the perfect start. Stupidly, I just assumed the women’s road cycling would start at 11am as the men’s race had, so I turned up three hours early!

I could have just strolled around central Paris, and I perhaps would have done if I was a tourist rather than someone who lives here, but the Olympics has left very little time to do mundane tasks, so I popped back home, did a bit of shopping, had a bite to eat and watched some Olympics of TV before going back to watch the early stages of the cycling.

After five hours’ sleep, today is another two-sport day starting with the triathlon mixed relay (which I will write about tomorrow) and then returning to the Stade de France for another night of athletics.

Hodgkinson’s bid for gold is the big attraction tonight while medals will also be decided in the women’s 5,000m, women’s discus and men’s pole vault. There are also the semi-finals of the women’s 200m and the heats of the men’s 200m (Lyles in action again) and men’s 3,000m steeplechase. Tomorrow I only have the athletics in the evening so I may catch up on some sleep!

My Olympic schedule:?

Events been to

July 27: Cycling (men’s and women’s individual time trials).

July 28: Women’s hockey (Belgium v China, and Australia v South Africa)?

July 29: no events (just fan zones)

July 30: Men’s triathlon (cancelled)

July 31: Basketball (Puerto Rico v Serbia)

August 1: 20km race walk

August 2: no event

August 3: Men’s cycling road race

Yesterday (August 4): women’s cycling road race and athletics

Events still to Come

Today (August 5): Triathlon mixed relay and athletics

Tomorrow (August 6): Athletics

August 7: Athletics

August 8: Women’s open water swim

August 9: Men’s open water swim

August 10: Men’s marathon

August 11: Women’s marathon