Olympic Track and Field 2016: Complete Guide to Men's Events in Rio
Where do you begin when talking about men’s track and field at the Summer Games in Rio?
It may depend on which muscle fibers you favor. If you're of the Type I variety, you no doubt love the marathon and will savor Meb Keflezighi, Mo Farah, Galen Rupp and the other endurance athletes.
If you love a Type IIb muscle, then you’re into volcanic sprinters like Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt.
And if you’re some sort of hybrid freak—like the Type IIa fiber—maybe the decathlon will butter your bread. Look no further than defending gold medalist Ashton Eaton there.
What else should we expect? Team Russia won’t be in attendance thanks to its implications in its state-run doping conspiracy that calls into question the medals won from the last three Olympics.
That opens the door for the presumably clean athletes who remain, so let’s do our best to paint as complete a picture as possible as we preview the men’s track and field events from Rio.
The Schedule
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The track and field events run from Friday, August 12, through Sunday, August 21. For television and live streaming visit NBCOlympics.com.
Marquee Events (all times ET)
Sunday, August 14: 400-meter final, 9 p.m.; 100-meter dash final, 9:25 p.m.
Tuesday, August 16: 110-meter hurdles final, 9:45 p.m.
Thursday, August 18: Decathlon final, 8:45 p.m.; 200-meter dash final, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, August 19: 4x100-meter relay, 9:35 p.m.
Sunday, August 21: Marathon, 8:30 a.m.
Top Storylines
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Usain Bolt Looks to Go Out in Style
If Usain Bolt's press conference, which had dancers who looked displaced from a Las Vegas burlesque show, was any indication of how he plans on going out, then we're all in for a show.
Bolt will attempt to sweep the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and 4x100-meter relay for a third straight Olympics. He'll also try to smash his world-record times of 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds, respectively.
"As a young kid, you grow up looking forward to the big games," Bolt said, per Paul Myerberg of USA Today. "I just think over the years I've really gotten into it. Championships are what matter. So I always come out here and give 150 percent. This is what I do. I enjoy it."
Bolt missed Jamaica's Olympic trials due to a hamstring injury, which greatly hampered his pre-Rio (pRio?) preparation. Perhaps this year, like no other before it, makes him vulnerable, what with the lack of prep and having that hamstring injury nestled somewhere in the back of his mind.
Bolt said he needed those races in the trials, and he didn't get them. So he'll either come in fresh and sharp or dull and unprepared as talent—new and old—take aim at him.
So Too Does Justin Gatlin
We could probably do an entire slideshow on the 100-meter dash alone. Justin Gatlin, another veteran of the Olympics and the last gold medalist in the 100-meter dash not named Bolt, will look to go out a winner too.
"It's an Olympics, it's going to be special, so I know everyone's going to bring their 'A' game," Gatlin said, per CNN.com. "So I've got to make sure I'm ready."
Gatlin has inched closer in recent years to Bolt, but Bolt always manages to get to the tape first.
Team USA's Ashton Eaton Defends His London Gold Medal
The best, and consequently most underrated, athlete in the world is the winner of the decathlon, an event that needs speed, endurance, strength and finesse.
And Ashton Eaton of the U.S. guns for second-straight gold.
"The Olympic Games are so much different from anything else," Eaton said following his trials win (h/t SBNation.com). "You don't even talk about world records, in a way. If it's there at the very end, sure, I'll run to get it. Other than that, it's event to event."
Will Eaton break the world record he set in 2015? Probably not, but he is the favorite to win the decathlon against Germany's Arthur Abele and Canada's Damian Warner.
Can’t-Miss Events
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100-Meter Dash
This is the headliner of track and field most years, and 2016 is no different.
Bolt sprints for a third-straight gold medal against Gatlin to see who will claim the title of world's fastest man.
The factory settings for Bolt's software come with its own heckling and taunting app, but he's backed it up with world record after world record.
Win or lose, he's the biggest story from the most talked-about event.
200-Meter Dash
See above.
Marathon
Heading to the other end of the aerobic spectrum, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge will vie for a gold medal and look to secure his rank as one of the all-time great marathoners.
He has marathon wins in Chicago, London and Berlin over the last two years and set a career-best 2:03.05 in London in April. SI.com's Chris Chavez thinks a win in these games moves Kipchoge into GOAT status.
And, really, what better way to conclude track and field than with a 26.2-mile jaunt through the Amazon?
Shot Put
Enough with the runners, how about the world's best shot putter?
Enter Team USA's Joe Kovacs. His story arc is Hollywood-ish: Family tragedy. Missed the 2012 Olympics. Now leads all shot putters.
Last summer at the world championships, Kovacs threw the shot 22.56 meters, the eighth-longest in history.
Now Kovacs will take aim at former U.S. Olympian Randy Barnes' 23.12-meter toss, a world record that still stands.
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Locks for Gold
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Usain Bolt, Jamaica
He's got all that swagger for a reason, and it doesn't weigh him down. Bolt is going for gold in all three of his high-profile events—the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay—for a third-straight Olympics, the Triple-Triple.
Expect Bolt to go out in style at his final Olympics. "I'm going to win the 100m," he told CNN's Amanda Davies. "I never try to predict times, I avoid that because you never know. I'll win all three gold [medals], there's never anything else for me when it comes to a championship."
Who wouldn't want to see that?
Wayde van Niekerk, South Africa
Wayde van Niekerk blazed the fastest time in the 400 meters at last year's world championships with a time of 43.48. Not only did that win him gold, it was the fastest time since 2007.
Can Van Niekerk touch Michael Johnson's world record of 43.18? Odds are he'll be close. And if he is? Gold.
Ashton Eaton, USA
The title of world's greatest athlete will go to Eaton for a second straight Olympics.
He was hampered by a leg injury at the trials, and he easily made the team. Will he become the first back-to-back winner of the decathlon since Great Britain's Daley Thompson pulled off the feat in 1980 and 1984?
"The Olympic Games are so much different from anything else," Eaton said after the trials, per Liam Boylen-Pett of SBNation. "You don't even talk about world records, in a way. If it's there at the very end, sure, I'll run to get it. Other than that, it's event to event."
David Storl, Germany
We previously highlighted shot-putter Joe Kovacs, but it may be David Storl's gold to lose.
He won the silver medal in the 2012 Olympics and hasn't finished worse than second in seven major competitions dating back to 2011.
Storl took the silver behind Kovac at the 2015 world championships, and it appears Storl is sitting on a big number in Rio.
Potential Breakout Stars
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Wayde van Niekerk, South Africa
South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk will likely win gold in the 400 meters and wow crowds while doing it.
"My mother was also an athlete who did sprints and the high jump as well, but then she got pregnant and ended up stopping," Van Niekerk said, per Olympic.org. "I just carried on the legacy. Sport has always been something my family does."
At 24 years old, he takes on some of the more experienced runners in the world—like America's LaShawn Merritt—but as he proved at the 2015 world championships, he can beat them and beat them good.
Boris Berian, United States
If you're all about the Olympic back stories, most of you likely know about 23-year-old Boris Berian, who is competing in the 800 meters. Within the last two years, Berian dropped out of college and was essentially penniless, started working at a McDonald's and then rose to American middle-distance prominence. He even got Nike to drop a lawsuit, which may prove to be harder than winning a gold medal in this or any solar system.
"He's come out of nowhere, and also he has this role in this sport, which is great," U.S. marathoner Meb Keflezighi said, per Jere Longman of the New York Times. "I don't think he ever envisioned that. It just came. It's an amazing journey."
This narrative will be filled will all kinds of goo, but that's what fuels the Olympics.
Trayvon Bromell, United States
Trayvon Bromell could be standing in the blocks as a relative unknown. Then about nine seconds later, he could be a star. Imagine a life changing before your eyes in under 10 seconds.
Bromell is the 21-year-old 100-meter-dash upstart. He finished just behind Gatlin at the trials, and he could sneak onto that podium and become the new face of American sprinting.
"He has perfect technique. I actually watch his form because I want my form to be better," Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse said, per NBCOlympics.com.
Team USA Outlook
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It's not Team USA's fault that for the past 12 years Bolt and the Jamaicans have stood tallest on those most coveted podiums in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
That said, the red, white and blue have a chance to fill out many of the silver and bronze categories, and maybe a few gold.
Eaton should take gold in the decathlon, and Kovacs has a good chance in the shot put. Gatlin will challenge Bolt in three events, while Merritt will do his best to take down Van Niekerk in the 400 meters.
Michael Tinsley stands a great chance at gold in the 400-meter hurdles, and Christian Taylor should win the triple jump.
A grand total? Team USA stands to earn somewhere around 12 medals in track and field. Most of those, one presumes, will be silver and bronze.
Predictions for the Biggest Men's Track and Field Stars
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Usain Bolt, Jamaica
No surprise here, Bolt attempts a third-straight triple-gold effort.
Sports Illustrated's Chris Chavez wrote, "He is already the first man to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the 100, 200 and 4x100 meters with his memorable wins in Beijing and London. He has slowed down in times since London but remains unbeaten at a global championship."
He's so good that even being a step slower is still a step ahead of the rest of the field.
Mo Farah, Great Britain
Mo Farah will compete in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and try to defend the two golds he won in those events from the London Games.
LetsRun.com poses, "The questions facing the rest of the field hasn't (sic) changed for four years: How do you outkick a guy that nobody can outkick? And how do you drop a guy that nobody can drop?"
It appears Farah's versatility at any distance and any pace makes him the prohibitive favorite to sweep these events.
Ashton Eaton, United States
The world-record holder in the decathlon guns for a rare feat: winning back-to-back gold medals.
It hasn't been done in 32 years.
The greater shock will be if he doesn't win gold.
Team USA, 4x400-Meter Relay
Didn't give these guys much love until now, but ever since losing to the Bahamas in the 2012 Olympics, Team USA has returned to its rightful place atop this relay pyramid.
On IAAF.org, its preview notes:
"The US will once again pose daunting opposition led by national champion, world leader and 2008 Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt (43.97) and supported by 2013 world 400m silver medallist Tony McQuay (44.24), who didn't even make the US individual 400m team this time around, plus the likes of Gil Roberts (44.67) and David Verburg (44.82).
"
That's an impossibly formidable foursome, and this team should reclaim gold in Rio.
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