Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion, is preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympics, where the first and only Italian to win the Olympic sprint title will defend his title against a very focused field of top global sprinters.
Deji Ogeyingbo wrote this piece for RunBlogRun.
It’s make or break for Marcell Jacobs.
It’s hard to carry the mantle of the Olympic 100m Champion. It’s even harder when you take over the title of Usain Bolt- a sprinter who won it three times in a row. That’s the story of Marcell Jacobs in a nutshell. The unknown Long jumper cum sprinter who shocked the world to win the title at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and, almost three years later, it could all come crashing.
The years in between have been topsy-turvy for Jacobs. The expectations from fans to live up to the hype have been challenging, to say the least. How hard can it really be? Was he a flash in the pan? No one certainly is tricking their way to an Olympic 100m title. Many things will have to go right for the sprinter, and many others will go wrong for his competitors. The odds of that happening are as slim as Steph Curry missing a free throw from the arc nine out of ten times.
So, it’s been established that we’ve got a decent sprinter somewhere with Jacobs. What has gone wrong? The obvious answer is injury. The season after his Olympic wins in 2022 and 2023 has been plagued with injuries. He was able to sneak two important wins in 2022 when he beat Christian Coleman over the 60m at the World Indoors in Belgrade. That was an indicator that he was here to stay. However, his naysayers were looking for him to replicate these performances outdoors.
Leading up to the Italian Championships of that year, he suffered another knock and could only sneak his way into the semis of the world championships in Oregon in 2022. A potential match-up with eventual winner Fred Kerley was on the horizon, but Jacobs pulled out as a precaution to an injury he had suffered that seemed to reoccur. Better a withdrawal than a loss, but a defeat when you aren’t fit would leave a bitter taste in the mouth. It is either one or the other.
His decision to withdraw from Oregon increased the doubts people had about his win in Tokyo being a…
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