U.S. women know that to win gold in the 100 will take something special
RIO DE JANEIRO — A stoic and determined Tori Bowie bounced into the interview area at Olympic Stadium on Friday night and barely broke stride, breezing past the assembled media with a quick apology.
Sorry, she said, there is no time to talk. “I’ve got to get ready for tomorrow.”
Minutes later, Tianna Bartoletta did stop for questions, if begrudgingly.
“It’s all business. It has to be,” she said. “Any side distraction, it drains a lot of your energy. Including, for some people, media. They drain your energy.”
For the American women in the 100 meters — Bowie, Bartoletta and English Gardner — there’s no time to waste.
The three sprinters, scheduled to run Saturday evening in the 100 semifinals, have runners to race and countries to beat, with no rival in their sights more than sprint-race powerhouse Jamaica, which during the past two Summer Games has taken the title belt — that of the World's Fastest Women — that once stood as the sole property of the USA.
Two decades ago, at least. Not since the 1996 Atlanta Games has an American, Gail Devers, claimed gold in the event. It’s been mostly Jamaica since: The country has won eight medals in the 100 during the past four Olympics against the USA’s two.
“Anybody can be beat,” Bartoletta said. “Anything can happen on any given day.”
It may take an Olympic-size effort to unseat the Jamaicans, however, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in particular. The 29-year-old Kingston native led the field during qualifying (10.96), again setting her up as the favorite to claim her third consecutive gold medal in the event.
As in other sprint events, times have dropped during the past decade. Consider the case of the final at the 2012 London Games: Veronica Campbell-Brown’s bronze-medal time of 10.80 would’ve won gold by more than a tenth of a second in 1996, for example.
Historically, Bartoletta said, a 10.81 would mean a gold medal — but “we’re not going into the race that way.”
“We learned that in London, that’s no longer true,” she said. “We’re in uncharted waters.”
Gardner, who ran a 10.74 to pace the USA at July’s team trials, made the obvious prediction: It’s going to take a fast time to leapfrog ahead of the Jamaicans.
“If I could take a wild guess, I'd say someone's going to run 10.6,” she said. “Hopefully it's me. I have one job, and that's to stop the clock and not let no other girl do it before me.”
That’s easier said than done. It’ll take perfect execution to notch the upset, Bartoletta said.
“But the only thing I can control is how well I run my race," she said. "If I win, I win. If I lose executing my perfect race, then technically that’s a victory.”
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