The first cheer was loud, the second louder, and the third deafening. As the name of each American medalist in the men’s 100 meters was confirmed one by one on the big screen in Eugene’s Hayward Field, the crowd descended in rapture to clean up a historic podium on home soil.
A few years after the end of the Usain Bolt era, America is once again the superpower of men’s sprinting. As winner Fred Kerley said after upgrading his Olympic silver to gold: “We said we were going to do it and we did it. USA baby.”
It was no surprise that Kerley led the American trio with a time of 9.86 seconds. Even without the withdrawal of Italy’s Olympic champion, Marcell Jacobs, due to a semi-final injury, Kerley would have been the dominant male sprinter this year.
If Bolt was the ultimate showman who played against the crowd at every opportunity, the man who now bears the title of the world’s fastest man is his polar opposite, expressionless before races and rarely answers questions with anything other than single deadpan sentences.
His fuel comes not from a desire to be in the spotlight, but to prove that he can succeed after an unimaginably difficult upbringing.
Kerley was two years old when, with his father in prison and his mother taking “wrong turns in life”, he moved with his four siblings to be raised by their Aunt Virginia and her children.
“There were 13 of us in one bedroom,” said Kerley, 27. “We were on the pallet. At the end of the day, we all had fun, we enjoyed ourselves and are now doing great things.
“What motivates me is that I come from where I come from and not be in the same predicament. Continue to achieve great things. You don’t want to be in the same position as when you were younger.”
‘If I can do it, they can do it’
Among multiple tattoos all over his body, there are two that read “Aunt” and “Meme” – his pet name for Virginia – on his biceps.
Originally sprinting only to make him faster for American football games, it wasn’t until he broke his collarbone in high school that he decided to turn his attention to track and field.
He then ran 400 meters for most of his senior career, before moving to the shorter sprints in 2021 and lowering his personal best in the 100 meters from 10.49 seconds to 9.84 seconds in a one-year span. culminated in Olympic silver.
“Every day a bunch of young people look up to me,” he said after this world victory. “If I can do it, they can.”
His advance was so quick to the top of the 100m that there was even talk that Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds could be in jeopardy after Kerley clocked an astonishing 9.79 seconds in the heats when he slowed down. Such suspicion proved misguided with the eventual slower gold medal winning time, but Kerley was just relieved to cross the line in front.
At no point until the last few steps did he ever lead, fellow countryman Marvin Bracy behind him for almost the entire race and only victorious thanks to a pronounced punch to his chest as he crossed the line.
Bracy clung to silver by the tightest margins, clocking in at 9.88 seconds, the same time given to Trayvon Bromell, who won bronze as America completed their first clean sweep of the men’s 100m podium since Carl Lewis , Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell in 1991.