There have been some electric moments thus far in the Olympic track and field competition, including some particular high notes for the American team. Perhaps most notable so far was a surprising first and third finish in the men’s 1500, where American Cole Hocker somehow found a lane in the final 100 through a field of favorites. Gabby Thomas also struck gold in the women’s 200, and we’re all anticipating history when Sydney McLaughlin races the final of the women’s 400 hurdles. Even with an occasional hiccup – like an oblivious cameraman almost taking out the field in a heat of the men’s 5000 – track has been a high-water mark for the Paris Games.
Yes amongst all that splendor, there may be one moment thus far that’s risen above the rest, an unexpected one at that. I potentially say that with bias as a former track distance runner. But even those who don’t live to watch distance track events, which is the vast majority of the planet, would be hard pressed not to have been enthralled by Friday’s men’s 10,000, the one track event where you can typically walk away from the television to run an errand and not miss anything. That wasn’t the case Friday, where the race truly started from the gun, as opposed to the typical sit and kick you’d see in championship meets like the Olympics, where there aren’t any pacers and athletes don’t race for times, only place. Which means in an Olympic 10K, you might watch the world’s best distance runners saunter at college pace for the first three or four miles before putting down the hammer. From lap one on Friday, athletes were flying.
The over 26-minute race had a little bit of everything. It started with runners from Ethiopia working together to push the pace and take the legs out of favorite Josh Cheptegei of Botswana – who somehow took all the body blows and found a way to win gold in a new Olympic record. It included a surprise surge from American Grant Fisher, who somehow hung in to finish third. And it included an outlandish 13 runners breaking the 27-minute mark, a silly number for a race where the only thing that matters is being in the top three. The race was truly breathtaking, as much as anything lasting nearly a half an hour can be.
But perhaps what was more amazing was what happened after the race. Of course, Cheptegei found a Botswana flag for a victory lap. As did Ethiopian second place finisher Berihu Aragowi and American Fisher, all expected. But they weren’t the only ones. French athlete Jimmy Gressier, who finished 13th but stuck with the pack until the final lap to the delight of the Paris crowd, also grabbed a flag and took a victory lap, celebrating a new French national record. And instead of the kind of disappointment you’d expect by athletes finishing outside the top three, you saw smiles, hugs, and the feeling that no one wanted to leave the track. The crowd hung around far longer than one would expect at the end of a long night. It was as if everyone involved – runners, fans, broadcasters – they all knew they had just been a part of something special, something magical, and they just wanted to drink in it a little longer.
I apologize if this feels a bit saccharine or naïve. I am well aware of the hypocrisies and down sides of the Olympic movement, and that as much as NBC puts on a great show, this is still a business, including for those who compete, most of whom will benefit greatly by winning a gold medal. But I firmly believe that Friday’s 10,000 is a reminder that at its core, elite athletic competition still has the capacity to be transformative, to allow athletes to expand their understanding of human capacity – and bring spectators along with them. And for all the thrill of victory and agony of defeat, sport can, in rare moments, still delivery flashes of pure wonder, where people hardly believe what they just saw. That, I believe will be the legacy of the men’s 10,000 and many other Olympic events that move beyond the crass commercialism of their presentation. And an opportunity to look past the cynicism we often bring to moments like these. And why the 10,000 meters, oddly enough, might be this Olympics’ high water mark.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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