Tokyo Finally Gets Its Spotlight

We all remember what happened five years ago.  It's not like anybody can forget.  And, of course, the Tokyo Olympics were severely impacted as a result.  Tokyo spent a billion dollars to tear down and completely rebuild its National Stadium, only for it to set empty as the weirdest Olympics in history took place inside.  There were some great moments at the 2020-21 Olympics.  Just nobody got to witness them in person.

Now, finally, four years later, the best track & field athletes in the world return to Tokyo for the World Championships.  And, this time, they get to do it in a full stadium.  It's a fitting reward for both Japan and the athletes.  After the COVID Olympics, it's all come full circle and everyone is back in Tokyo.  Only this time, they'll do it with people in the stands cheering them on.  Which is the way it should be.

One result of the 2020 Olympics being delayed was a full five-year run of there being a track & field global championship every year.  It started in Tokyo with the Olympics.  Now it ends in Tokyo with the World Championships.  During the week, USATF made an Instagram post celebrating the 15 athletes who've been on all five teams.  That really is quite an impressive streak if you think about it.  Especially when you consider that 15 includes some of the biggest names in the sport...and some others you wouldn't expect.

This World Championships also gets the event back on its regular two-year cycle.  Because of the Olympic delay, the 2021 World Championships were pushed back a year, as well, so we ended up going three years between the 2019 Worlds in Doha and the 2022 Worlds in Oregon...then only just over a year until the 2023 Worlds in Budapest.  Now we're back to two years in between.

They've also made a schedule change that will apply to all World Championships moving forward.  The 2019 Worlds were in October.  In 2022, they were in July (partially because they had to squeeze them in around events that were already scheduled for that summer).  Then the last World Championships in 2023 took place in late August.  World Athletics has since set mid-September as the regular date for the World Championships so that it can serve as a culmination to the season.

At the Tokyo Olympics, they controversially decided to move the marathons and race walks to Sapporo because of the intense summer heat in Tokyo.  With the World Championships being held later in the year, World Athletics determined that moving those road events wouldn't be necessary.  Well, as fate would have it, Tokyo is in the midst of a heat wave, with summer-like temperatures.  As a result, while they won't be relocated, the marathons and race walks have had their times adjusted.  They'll now start a half-hour earlier than originally planned.  But at least they're actually in Tokyo.

The race walks will actually get the World Championships underway.  It's the 35 km walk, an event that's only in the World Championships.  At the Paris Olympics, it was replaced by a mixed marathon team race walking event, which ended up being a one-and-done on the Olympic program.  In LA, the mixed 4x100 relay will make its Olympic debut.  They aren't having a mixed 4x100 here, though.  That won't make its World Championships debut until 2027.  So, we'll have to make-do with just the mixed 4x400 for now.

In 2023, Femke Bol fell in the final steps of the mixed 4x400, costing the Netherlands the gold.  It was such a great way to start the World Championships!  Having that mixed 4x400 final as the last event on opening night was a stroke of brilliance!  The meet ends with a bang with the men's and women's 4x400 relays, so it only makes sense to have it start with a bang with the mixed 4x400.  Especially since it's such an unpredictable event.  And where did the mixed 4x400 relay make its Olympic debut?  Oh, that's right!  Tokyo!

As for what will happen at this year's World Championships, I really have no idea!  They're later in the season than they've been in the past.  Will the athletes who posted good times in April or May still be in peak form?  Or did those who didn't compete early in the season plan their schedule just right so that they can peak now?  There are a ton of athletes with injury concerns, too.  Ryan Crouser, for example, has been out almost all year.  So, we have no idea where his fitness is at!  Crouser is far and away the best shot putter in the world though!

Crouser's one of a handful of athletes with a unique chance to bookend this five-year journey with two gold medals in Tokyo.  While others who didn't win gold at the Tokyo Olympics will have a chance at redemption.  Noah Lyles settled for bronze at the Olympics.  Grant Holloway was upset and took silver...his only loss in the past decade!  You know he wants to rewrite his Tokyo story!  So does the entire U.S. men's team for that matter.  The Tokyo Olympics were an incredible disappointment.  Crouser and the 4x400 relay were the only two gold medals of those Games.  Contrast that to last year's Olympics, when the U.S. men won a medal in every track event except the 800 (where Bryce Hoppel was fourth) and the 4x100 relay (which has been a problem for 25 years).

There were two iconic races at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago.  One was the men's 400 hurdles, where Karsten Warholm broke the world record and Rai Benjamin ran the second-fastest time ever.  Benjamin won the Olympic title last year.  Their showdown could be another epic.  Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, meanwhile, won't be running the 400 hurdles this time around.  She'll be running the straight 400 meters instead.  And it's not crazy to think she could medal.  Maybe even win.

Ultimately, though, we come into these World Championships with a lot of unknowns.  Which isn't a bad thing.  The unpredictability is part of what makes it fun.  And I definitely think we'll see some people crowned World Champions this week who weren't on anybody's radar coming in.  The post-Olympic Worlds are always transitional as people take the year off or those who didn't make the team look to leave their mark.  And let's not forget the younger athletes who are using this opportunity to burst onto the scene.

Will some of the favorites also win?  Of course!  It'll be shocking if Mondo Duplantis, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Grant Holloway don't win.  Ditto with Femke Bol in the women's 400 hurdles with McLaughlin-Levrone doing the open 400.  And some Olympic champions will look to hopefully get that World Championship that's so far eluded them (Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men's 1500, Val Allman in the women's discus).  There are those hoping for Olympic redemption (Chase Jackson, Molly Caudery), and those looking for their breakout "I'm here!" moment (Anna Hall).

Plenty of rivalries will be front & center, too.  Noah Lyles vs. Kishane Thompson in the men's 100.  Lyles vs. Kenny Bednarek in the 200.  Benjamin vs. Warholm.  The women's 100, where there are about six favorites, including the legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who's calling it a career after this.  The women's 400 should be a great race between McLaughlin-Levrone, Mariledy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and Bahrain's Salwa Eid Nasser.  And what can Faith Kipyegon do?!

Those are just some of the names who'll be featured this week in Tokyo.  And there are so many others who I didn't mention.  Track & field is the biggest sport at the Olympics, with the most medal events and the most athletes.  The World Championships are even bigger.  They've been waiting all year for it, too, so we should really see something special.  Actually, they haven't just been waiting a year.  They've been waiting five years!

Track & field's five consecutive years of a global outdoor championship, something that had never happened before and likely won't again, comes to an end in Tokyo.  It's a full circle moment.  Because it's ending right back where it started.  Except this time, it'll be completely different.  The athletes won't be competing in an empty stadium in silence.  They'll hear the roar of the crowd in a full stadium.  It's what they, and Tokyo, deserve.