Sprint: The World’s Fastest Humans (2024)
As we near the halfway point of the Paris 2024 Olympics we’re super excited that one of our favourite events has finally begun, track and field. Specifically, we love the sprints, the 100 and 200 metres. But the crème de la crème of track and field is the 100-metre sprint of course, the event that crowns the fastest man and woman on the planet! Just in time for us to immerse ourselves in the power and drama of these races, Netflix brings us the six part documentary, Sprint: The World’s Fastest Humans.
This eye-opening series provides an inside look at the training, travel, support systems, family lives, backgrounds, and competitions of the elite athletes who specialize in the 100 and 200 metre sprint events. As one might expect, it takes a certain type of personality to survive and thrive in the world of professional track and field which one might describe as cutthroat competition with a smile and an embrace. Remember, except for relay races, track and field is an individual sport. This means that athletes are competing as much against themselves as those who line up in the starting blocks alongside them. While some of these world class sprinters seem to be humble, quiet, and even a bit withdrawn, far more seem to be brash and bold. (Recall the trash talk of boxers before a Las Vegas bout and you’ll get the picture!) This is what Jamaicans would call (and the super star rapper, DJ, and Grime musician Wiley would concur) boasty!
While the series follows an international group of the top sprinters in their competition circuits including World Championships and various Diamond League events, it mainly focuses on American and Jamaican sprinters due to their world dominance in these two races. As four-time Olympic medal winner and go-to US track commentator Ato Boldon observes, the sprint rivalry between Jamaica and the USA should bring to mind the Yankees and the Red Sox. To that end, the documentary also takes viewers inside the national championships of both nations.
The key sprinters who go under the microscope are the American Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, and the unparalleled Jamaican superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and her country women, rising star Shericka Jackson and five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah. But the series also follows the ongoing physical troubles of the 2020 men’s Olympic 100 metre winner, the Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs and the rise of the British-Caribbean Zharnel Hughes, now Britain’s fastest man since breaking the record that track legend Linford Christie set in 1993. Christie’s poignant advice to Hughes? “Never train like a champion, always like a contender, because champions have nowhere to go.”
Besides highlighting the training and to a lesser extent the nutrition of the athletes (some of it surprisingly poor), the series delves into the mental and emotional states of the competitors, many of whom seem to deliberately cultivate personas to cope with the pressure and stress. In Lyles’ case his persona is admittedly a part of his bid to bring track the recognition which sports like basketball and baseball commonly receive. However, Lyles seems to have forgotten (or at least the film does not reveal his understanding) that his cultivated showmanship is obviously following in the footsteps of the naturally charismatic Jamaican track legend Usain Bolt who already brought track and field to another level internationally with his eight Olympic gold medals from Beijing (2008), London (2012), and Rio (2016).
The series follows Lyles as he transitions from a 200-metre specialist adding the 100-metre race to his repertoire, as Jacobs fends off claims that his 2020 Olympic 100 metre gold was a fluke, and as Richardson recovers from a 2020 Olympic disqualification. We also see Fraser-Pryce contemplating her post-Olympic retirement and Thompson-Herah’s training woes as she leaves the storied Jamaican MVP track club headed by the legendary Francis brothers (Paul and Stephen) and embarks on a new path with her husband as coach.
Besides superstars like Boldon and Christie, the series also relies on the wisdom of legends like Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt and the insights of coaches who lend emotional, psychological, physical, and tactical support. What Sprint does so well is to take the viewer into the culture of track and field which is much bigger in Europe and Jamaica, than Canada or even the USA. As Bolt points out, “Sprinting is a lifestyle in Jamaica…Jamaicans no longer recognize silver and bronze medals. They want winners and winners only.” Noting the sprint dominance of Jamaican athletes, Dennis Mitchell, head coach of Star Athletics Track Club (Richardson’s base) comments matter-of-factly, “To have the Jamaicans be so dominant in the event that I coach is disheartening!”
Sprint also reveals some of the technical aspects of the sport – think stride length, technique in the blocks, start reaction time, and acceleration – which require discipline, power, and focus especially in front of tens of thousands of fans in noisy stadiums. To understand this just look at the muscled bodies of sprinters which exude strength and explosiveness. The bodies of these athletes look dramatically different from those in the mid-range races (like the 400m, 800m or 1500m), and the distance runners who become progressively slenderer with less-pronounced, often elongated muscle tone.
The series also gives an inside look as these world class athletes train on the track, in the gym, and in the pool. But what becomes clear is how much of their success in the approximately 10 seconds of the 100m and 20 of the 200m, has to do with the mind. As the film reveals, these athletes routinely travel together, stay at the same venues, eat in the same cafeterias, and compete in the same events. Therefore, socially, they constantly walk a tight rope of being polite, even friendly, to their fellow competitors while also exuding the bravado and confidence necessary to succeed in their respective races. To that end, one of the most pressure-packed spaces is the holding area into which the runners are led before being escorted onto the track. Let’s just say the tension is palpable and those who triumph on the other side are not just physically, but mentally tough.
Sprint is definitely worth a watch, especially alongside the sprint events at Paris 2024. And stayed tuned, season 2 is coming this fall!