Deji Ogeyingbo is rewriting the history of Athletics

I have already posted about RunBlogRun, a blog curated by Larry Eder, active since 2007, publishing dozens of articles each month. I am regularly visiting the blog and I find many of its articles quite interesting.

Unfortunately today I was in for a great disappointment. While perusing RunBlogRun I stumbled upon an article on S.A. Fraser-Pryce. As the faithful readers of my blog know, I am not a Fraser-Pryce fan. And the existing infatuation with the "pocket rocket" raises my hackles. I decided to read the article that was about Fraser-Pryce's injuries and how they may compromise a bid for a third gold medal over 100 m in the Paris Olympics. 

A parenthesis is necessary here. Fraser-Pryce won the Olympics for the last time in 2012. She won the world title in 2019 and 2022 and has more gold medals than anybody else in the 100 m event. But when it comes to the Olympics one should not forget that it was E. Thompson who won the title in 2016 and 2020 (well, 2021). So, given the fact that in Budapest, despite an explosive start, Fraser-Pryce could offer no resistance to S. Jackson and S. Richardson, I don't see how one can consider her seriously as a contender for a gold medal in Paris. (But then this position of mine is perhaps due to the fact that I am not a Fraser-Pryce fan).

But it's not the talk about the olympic chances of Fraser-Pryce that is setting my teeth on edge. It's a sentence in the article that I find insulting to the great women champions of the past.

Deji Ogeyingbo, a Nigerian T&F Journalist and frequent contributor to RunBlogRun, decided to rewrite the history of Athletics. The alternative would be that he simply ignores that history, but I cannot believe that somebody who presents himself as an athletics specialist can ignore such basic facts. Anyhow, one reads in the article that Fraser-Pryce was the first woman to win back-to-back olympic titles in the 100 m. Nothing is further from the truth. Not only Fraser-Pryce is not the first, but she is not even the second.  

World Athletics published an article entitled "Wyomia Tyus: Still fighting for recognition as the first back-to-back Olympic 100 m champion". The opening lines of that article are great.

Quick: Name the first athlete to win the 100 m at consecutive Olympic Games.

Carl Lewis? Wrong.

Usain Bolt? Nope.

The first person – man or woman – to accomplish the feat was Wyomia Tyus, the US sprinter who unexpectedly won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Games and successfully defended her title four years later in Mexico City.

And yet, more than half a century later, Tyus’s place in Olympic history as the first back-to-back 100 m champion is often overlooked.

Her feat has by now been replicated by C. Lewis (but as we know he obtained the 1988 title due to the disqualification of B. Johnson, while himself having been the recipient of an, at the time, prohibited substance), G. Devers, S.A. Fraser-Pryce, U. Bolt, and E. Thompson-Herah. But even if we limit ourselves to the women olympians, one cannot ignore the two victories of G. Devers in 1992 and 1996.

So, why did Mr. Ogeyingbo do this blunder? I am afraid that there is a certain hagiographical tendency when it comes to S.A. Fraser-Pryce. This is partly due to the way she is promoting the image of herself. But the facts are there and she is definitely not the first woman to win the gold medal in consecutive Olympics in the 100 m event. As for her Paris chances? Well, as you may have guessed, she is definitely not my favourite.