Will Usain Bolt be challenged in 100 meters at World Championships?

Usain Bolt
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On June 6, it appeared the men’s 100 meters at the World Championships would not be an open-and-shut case.

Justin Gatlin dealt Usain Bolt defeat that night in Rome, 9.94 seconds to 9.95, a punctuation to Bolt’s crawling pace to start the season.

At the time, Tyson Gay was the world’s fastest man for the year.

Yohan Blake was set to return from a hamstring injury two days later.

Hope floated that the 100-meter final at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Aug. 11 could be a four-man race. At the least, somebody could step up to challenge the Jamaican legend. That hope is all but gone now.

Gay, the 2007 world champion and tied as the second fastest man of all time, told The Associated Press on July 14 that he failed a drug test in May. It’s since been reported he failed multiple drug tests this year. He’s out of the World Championships.

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Blake, the 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic silver medalist, continued to be plagued by hamstring problems as spring turned to summer. He pulled out of the World Championships two days after Gay’s drug test came to light.

“After the 2012 Olympics, I was telling people who weren’t into track and field, ‘Hold onto your popcorn because next year is going to be even more exciting. We’re going to have the same people,”‘ Gatlin told the AP. “Never in a million years would I think it would end up like this. I still think it’s going to be exciting.”

Gatlin followed up his 9.94 in Rome with a pair of 9.89s (one legal, one wind-aided) at the National Championships on June 21 and a 9.94 into a slight headwind in Monaco on July 19.

Bolt lowered his season’s best to 9.94 at the Jamaican National Championships on June 21 and then to 9.85 at the London Anniversary Games on July 26. Only Gay has run faster than 9.85 this year, and those times look like they could be erased.

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Now, 9.85 is a mortal time for Bolt, the six-time Olympic gold medalist whose world record from the 2009 World Championships is 9.58. It’s also an attainable time for Gatlin. The American bettered it three times last year, including a 9.79 in the Olympic final that earned a bronze medal, eight years removed from his Olympic gold and two years into his comeback from a doping suspension.

“Do I see him as a threat?” Bolt told Sport magazine. “I see everybody beside me as a threat.”

But the prevailing theory is that Bolt is capable of much faster than 9.85 come Sunday’s final. That Gatlin is not. Bolt has proven to post average times (for him) in the spring and early summer and then turn it on for major championships.

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“I want to be like Michael Jordan and the other greats,” Bolt said in Moscow, according to multiple outlets. “I want to set myself higher than the rest because I want to be among the greatest of all time and be discussed as someone great like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Pele.

“I want to be among these guys, and if I want to be that I have to keep pushing myself regardless of who I am facing so that when I retire I’ll be remembered among the greatest sportsmen.”

In 2009, Bolt entered the World Championships with a season’s best of 9.79. He ran 9.58 to win the world title.

In 2011, Bolt entered the World Championships with a season’s best of 9.88. He was disqualified in the final of the World Championships for a false start, but he came back to run a 9.76 in September.

In 2012, Bolt came into the Olympics with a season’s best of 9.76. He won his second straight Olympic 100-meter gold in 9.63.

To give Gatlin credit, the gap between silver and bronze in Moscow might be even greater. After Bolt and Gatlin, two other men from the 2012 Olympic final are entered in Moscow. Neither Churandy Martina nor Richard Thompson have bettered 10 seconds this year.

The favorites for bronze start with Jamaican Nesta Carter, a longtime member of the nation’s 4×100 relay team who has struggled to overcome Bolt, Powell or Blake to qualify for individual events. Carter has run sub-10 five times this year, including a 9.87, and he’s the fifth fastest man of all time.

But his two major meet appearances in the 100 were failures. He didn’t make it out of the semifinals at the 2007 World Championships and jogged the final 10 meters for a 10.95 in 2011.

He didn’t even make the Jamaican team at trials, taking fourth, but got in when Blake withdrew.

Brit James Dasaolu came out of nowhere to clock a 9.91 in July. It made him the second fastest Brit ever, only trailing 1992 Olympic champion Linford Christie. There’s a lot of mystery about Dasaolu, given his personal best before this year was 10.09, and he hasn’t run since that 9.91.

Frenchmen Jimmy Vicaut and Christophe Lemaitre and American Mike Rodgers are also in the hunt.

World Track and Field Championships broadcast schedule

Schedule
Preliminary Round (Bolt has a bye): Saturday, 2:10 a.m. ET
Heats (Bolt’s debut): Saturday, 12:15 p.m. ET
Semifinals: Sunday, 11:05 a.m. ET
Final: Sunday, 1:50 p.m. ET

Medal Picks
Gold: Bolt
Silver: Gatlin
Bronze: Carter

Chloe Kim, Elana Meyers Taylor among Olympians to join presidential sports council

Elana Meyers Taylor, President Joe Biden
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Chloe Kim and Elana Meyers Taylor are among the Olympic and Paralympic medalists set to join the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition.

President Joe Biden intends to appoint the snowboarder Kim, bobsledder Meyers Taylor, retired Olympic medalists Chaunté Lowe (track and field) and Tamika Catchings (basketball) and Paralympic medalist Melissa Stockwell (triathlon) to the council, among other athletes and people in the health and fitness fields, it was announced Friday.

Stephen and Ayesha Curry are also on the list.

The council “aims to promote healthy, accessible eating and physical activity for all Americans, regardless of background or ability.”

Last year, Biden appointed basketball gold medalist Elena Delle Donne a co-chair of the council.

Kim, the two-time reigning Olympic halfpipe champion, sat out this past season but is expected to return to competition for a third Olympic run in 2026.

Meyers Taylor, the most decorated U.S. Olympic bobsledder in history with medals in all five of her Olympic events, sat out this past season due to pregnancy. She took her first bobsled run in 13 months this past week in Lake Placid, New York.

There is a long history of Olympians and Paralympians serving on the council, which was created in 1956.

In 2017, Barack Obama appointed medalists including gymnast Gabby Douglas, soccer player Carli Lloyd and fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad.

Others to previously be on the council include sprinter Allyson Felix, figure skater Michelle Kwan and swimmer and triathlete Brad Snyder.

Members serve for two years and can be reappointed.

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Kaori Sakamoto wins figure skating worlds; top American places fourth

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Kaori Sakamoto overcame a late error in her free skate to become the first Japanese figure skater to win back-to-back world titles and the oldest women’s world champion since 2014.

Sakamoto, 22, totaled 224.61 points on home ice in Saitama to prevail by 3.67 over Lee Hae-In of South Korea in the closest women’s finish at worlds since 2011.

Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx took bronze, edging 16-year-old American Isabeau Levito for a medal by 2.77 points.

Sakamoto is the oldest women’s singles world champion since Mao Asada (2014), who is now the only Japanese skater with more world titles than Sakamoto.

She appeared en route to an easier victory until singling a planned triple flip late in her free skate, which put the gold in doubt. She can be thankful for pulling off the second jump of that planned combination — a triple toe loop — and her 5.62-point lead from Wednesday’s short program.

“I feel so pathetic and thought, what was all that hard work I put into my training?” Sakamoto said of her mistake, according to the International Skating Union (ISU). “But I was able to refocus and do my best till the end.

“Because I have this feeling of regret at the biggest event of the season, I want to make sure I don’t have this feeling next season. So I want to practice even harder, and I want to make sure to do clean, perfect performances at every competition.”

Lee, who had the top free skate, became the second South Korean to win a world medal in any discipline after six-time medalist Yuna Kim.

Hendrickx followed her silver from last year, when she became the first Belgian women’s singles skater to win a world medal.

FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule

Levito, last year’s world junior champion, had a chance to become the youngest senior world medalist since 2014.

After a solid short program, she fell on her opening triple Lutz in the free skate and left points on the table by performing two jump combinations rather than three. The Lutz was planned to be the first half of a combination with a triple loop.

“I am severely disappointed because I’ve been nailing my Lutz-loop for a really long time, and this is the first time I’ve messed it up in a while, and of course it had to be when it actually counted,” Levito said, according to the ISU. “But I’m pretty happy with myself for just trying to move past it and focusing on making the most out of the rest of the program.”

Levito entered worlds ranked fourth in the field by best score this season. She matched the best finish for a U.S. woman in her senior global championships debut (Olympics and worlds) since Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan took silver and bronze at the 1991 Worlds. Sasha Cohen, to whom Levito is often compared, also placed fourth in her Olympic and world debuts in 2002.

“I feel very proud for myself and grateful for my coaching team for helping me get this far so far in my skating career, and I’m just very proud to be where I am,” Levito said on USA Network.

American Amber Glenn was 12th in her world debut. Two-time U.S. champion Bradie Tennell was 15th. They had been 10th and eighth, respectively, in the short program.

The U.S. qualified two women’s spots for next year’s worlds rather than the maximum three because the top two Americans’ results added up to more than 13 (Levito’s fourth plus Glenn’s 12th equaled 16). The U.S. was in position to qualify three spots after the short program.

Glenn said after the short program that she had a very difficult two weeks before worlds, including “out-of-nowhere accidents and coincidences that could have prevented me from being here,” and boot problems that affected her triple Axel. She attempted a triple Axel in the free skate, spinning out of an under-rotated, two-footed landing.

Tennell, who went 19 months between competitions due to foot and ankle injuries in 2021 and 2022, had several jumping errors in the free skate.

“This season has been like one thing after another,” said the 25-year-old Tennell, who plans to compete through the 2026 Winter Games. “I’m really excited to get back and work on some stuff for the new season.”

Earlier, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates topped the rhythm dance, starting their bid for a first world title in their 12th season together and after three prior world silver or bronze medals.

“We skated as best we possibly could today,” Bates said, according to the ISU, after they tallied the world’s top score this season.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White are the lone U.S. ice dancers to win a world title, doing so in 2011 and 2013.

Worlds continue Friday night (U.S. time) with the free dance, followed Saturday morning with the men’s free skate, live on Peacock and USA Network.

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