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Tales from the
Olympic
Mixed
Zone
ORIN GORDON
One of things you must put on your bucket list, if you can, is sitting trackside for a 100 metres final. In one of the three
Olympic games I attended – Beijing in 2008 – I had that privileged seat. Low down, right beside the track, near the finish
line. The power and the glory of the fastest men and women in the world thundering down a short length of track in the
race of their lives is an otherworldly, pore-raising experience.
The record books will tell you that the men run the race in just under 10 seconds, and the women a tick
over that. It feels like an eternity, and if you’re listening to live commentary from someone like the BBC’s excellent
Athletics correspondent Mike Costello, you will hear 50 different actions and reactions described over the course of
those 10 seconds.
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