Olympic Track 2012: Breaking Down Team USA's Rivalry with Jamaican Sprinters

The rivalry between U.S. and Jamaica sprinters has become one of the most exciting Olympic rivalries to emerge in recent years. For years, Americans enjoyed more frequent victories over their sprinting counterparts in black, green and yellow.

But the Beijing Games changed the scenery. Jamaica's Usain Bolt blew everyone off the track with world records and gold in the 100 and 200, and Shelly-Ann Frazer and Veronica Campbell-Brown captured the gold in the women's 100 and 200-meter races respectively. Since then, the Jamaican team has continued its dominance in major international meets, including the 2011 World Championships.

As you wonder which side will win the unofficial medal count in the upcoming Games, here’s a breakdown of the current state of this Olympic rivalry as it heads to London.

The 100 Meters: Most Heated Rivalry on the Men's Side

It’s easy to point to the event where Team USA and Jamaica’s sprinting rivalry is burning hottest right now—the men’s 100 meters.

Even if you’ve only been half-paying attention to any Olympic news up until now, you know that the showdown between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake in the 100 meters is one of the most anticipated rivalries of these Olympic Games.

If you throw former 100-meter world record holder Asafa Powell into the mix, it begs the question: can U.S. sprinters Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay break up a Jamaican sweep of the event?

It’s pretty difficult to see a scenario where at least two Jamaicans do not end up on the podium in both the 100 and 200.

Barring some sort of disqualification or injury scenario, Blake and Bolt have just been too good. Especially Blake. The 22-year-old let it be known just this past week that he is primed to beat Bolt again (the first was at the Jamaican trials) by winning the 100 in 9.85 seconds at a pre-Olympic meet in Lucerne on July 17.

Up until the trials, Bolt and Blake seemed to be avoiding each other in big races. Blake was crowned the World Champion in 2011 in a race Bolt was disqualified from. It wasn’t until the two ran head-to-head in the trials that everyone got to see if Blake could actually be faster than Bolt when it mattered.

And he could. Blake beat Bolt with the best 100-meter time of the year, 9.75.

However, there has been some concern about Bolt’s health as of late. During the trials, it appeared that Bolt’s right hamstring was bothering him. Bolt’s agent Ricky Simms confirmed it with Reuters shortly after and conveniently made an excuse for Bolt losing:

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He had a slightly tight hamstring during the trials and that’s why possibly he didn’t push as hard as he could have. He was just protecting that. The main thing at the trials was to get through and get on the team for the Olympic Games.

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An ailing Bolt could open the door for Gatlin or Gay. Gatlin, who won gold in Athens in the 100, is attempting to complete a comeback to the sport after receiving a four-year ban in 2006 for drug violations. He beat Gay in the U.S. trials with a time of 9.8, and he also told the New York Times that he could take down Bolt in London.

Speaking out is something Gatlin is not shy about doing. While Bolt laughed at Gatlin’s claim, this certainly does add another chapter to the rivalry. There is some history between the two—Bolt revealed to CNN earlier this summer that Gatlin once spat in his lane before a race:

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I ran once with (Gatlin) in Zagreb, he did something which was really funny to me. We were walking back and forward and he actually spat across my lane. And when he did it, I knew he was trying to intimidate me and I found it really funny.

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With all of the attention on Gatlin, Bolt and Blake, there’s the possibility that Gay, who prefers to fly under the radar, could sneak up on everyone.

Since the trials, Gay beat Gatlin in the Diamond League Paris meet in early July. His 9.99 second finish wasn’t very impressive; but like Gatlin, the 100 meters is the only individual race he is entered in for London, so his focus won't be divided.

The 200 Meters: Most Heated Rivalry on the Women's Side

Allyson Felix wants that gold, and she’s never looked more ready to get it.

At the U.S. Olympic trials, Felix didn’t just win, but she did so with a scorching time of 21.69. It was a new personal best for Felix, and she had also beaten Carmelita Jeter (22.11), who also ran a personal best in that race. 

What does all of this mean? That both Felix and Jeter are ready to dethrone the 2008 gold medalist in the 200 meters—Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Felix is quite accomplished in the 200—with three world championship titles and two silver medals. But the one that has eluded her has been the gold medal, thanks to Campbell-Brown. As Felix told Bonnie D. Ford of ESPN, the image of Campbell-Brown running away from her down the stretch of the 200 finals in Beijing still haunts:

"I feel like I can’t escape it...I definitely go back to that moment of getting second all the time. I don’t think I ever really got over it. I think that I don’t want to."

While Felix and Campbell-Brown have experience with the Olympics, Jeter has the current billing of “fastest woman in the world” and holds the second-fastest 100-meter time (10.64) behind Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record. She took silver behind Campbell-Brown in the 2011 World Championships but finished ahead of Felix.

The 4x100-Meter Relay: Most Heated Relay Rivalry

In the relay events, it’s not just about individual pride and performance. Teammates don’t compete against teammates, they work together. This is what makes the relays a particularly exciting part of the U.S.-Jamaica rivalry.

There's also the matter of the baton.

In recent Olympics, the relay rivalry between the U.S. and Jamaica has had some huge disappointments due to that pesky baton, especially in the 4x100-meter relay. In Beijing, both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams and the Jamaican women dropped batons in the the event and dashed medal hopes in a matter of milliseconds.

“You can’t assume anything in the relay,” Carmelita Jeter told the New York Times. “Anything — anything — can happen.”

On paper, the Jamaicans have to be favored in the men’s 4x100-meter relay with a team that will likely include Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.

On the women’s side, the Americans recorded the best time of the year (42.19) in the 4x100 at the Penn Relays. The U.S. women also won at the 2011 World Championships.

But they will be closely challenged by the Jamaican team, which will likely include five-time Olympic medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown, reigning 100-meter Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson.

London is the perfect setting for everything to come together—free of baton dropping—to see just which team is the fastest in the world.