Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs exclusive: ‘I’ll arrive in Paris, not as an outsider, but as the main protagonist’’
Italy’s first 100m gold medallist is laser-focused on retaining his title at next year’s Olympic Games. He spoke to Olympics.com about the mindset required to make it - and stay - at the very top of his sport, and how hardship, challenges and daydreams fuel his desire to become a double Olympic champion.
Athletics
Real Madrid have Barca, the Yankees have the Red Sox, and Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier.
There’s nothing quite like a great sporting rivalry when it comes to capturing the public’s imagination.
In the case of Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, his nemesis right now is the USA’s 100m world champion Fred Kerley.
After a decade in which Usain Bolt won almost every race that mattered over track & field’s most mythical distance, athletics fans have been craving something that could breathe new life into the sport.
In Jacobs and Kerley, they have their wish.
“Whenever you want and wherever you want, but remember that when it mattered more it ended like this,” Jacobs posted alongside a picture of him dipping for gold at Tokyo 2020, after a back-and-forth spat with Kerley on social media.
Call it beef, call it a publicity stunt - call it what you want. In a time when the top athletes are accused of not facing each other enough, this fighting talk has got people across the world champing at the bit at the prospect of their next race.
And they may not have to wait long.
On 2 June, the two champions will face off against each other at the Diamond League in Florence for the first time since Tokyo 2020.
Fireworks are to be expected but for Jacobs, at least, this is just the first of the upcoming goals he has set for himself.
Marcell Jacobs: Paris 2024 and the desire for an Olympic double
Jacobs’ objectives have shifted since he burst onto the global scene with a shock victory in the 100m final at the last Olympic Games.
It’s the sort of change that can only happen when you’ve been crowned a champion.
In Tokyo, he made history even by making the final - no Italian male had done so before him. However, you can’t enter new competitions with the same aims when you’ve reached the very pinnacle of your sport - even if your means of achieving those goals remain similar.
“In Paris, it has to be the same, you have to see it in the same way” Jacobs explained in an exclusive with Olympics.com when referencing his planned approach to next year’s Games in France. “I will arrive as an Olympic champion, with so much more experience, so many more skills, so many years of speed work, mentally prepared, and focused on the fact that I’m not arriving as an outsider but as the number one protagonist.”
Being number one hasn’t always been easy for Jacobs, who has found the crown sometimes weighed heavy on his head - particularly as his ascension to the throne had been so unexpected.
“After you have achieved it [the Olympic title] what can you do?” he asked us. “Then it’s up to you to stay strong and determined, to say that in a few years there’s another one.”
But if there’s one thing that Jacobs believes makes him stand out from many of the other athletes who want to claim his title, it’s a continued love affair with the sport he has dedicated his life to.
“When I hear athletes say that even getting up in the morning is a sacrifice, I don’t feel the same way,” he said. “For me, it’s no sacrifice. When I wake up in the morning to go training, I like it. I like it when I know that in the afternoon there’ll be a heavy training session or a competition. I’m not even able to spend time at home but I like it. It makes my day.”
Marcell Jacobs: The daydreamer on a quest for immortality
While the banter between Jacobs and Kerley may have raised some eyebrows in the athletics community, you also get the impression that the Italian thrives on the competition.
This is what fuels him to be at his best.
“I have to take everything that’s negative as a lesson,” he said. “When I watched the final of the World Championships [which Kerley won] I was on the couch with my physiotherapist because of my injury. When I saw everyone else running, the same opponents from Tokyo, and I was not there, I died of envy.
“But a lot of times these beatings have served me well. Experiencing those feelings brings out a good anger in me, a desire to prove to myself how strong I can be. It may sound ugly, but these beatings are fundamental to me.”
Now Jacobs has the chance to take this “good anger” and turn it into something truly special. A second gold in as many Olympic Games at Paris 2024 would, in his own words, make him “part of history”.
It would also help people answer a question that has been hanging over the sport since the retirement of Jamaica’s - and indeed the world’s - greatest sprinter: Who can replace Usain Bolt?
Both Kerley and Jacobs are laying out their claims for the throne, but there is a difference with the American, who manifests "greatness" in hundreds of Twitter posts as if calling in his right to be the best runner on the planet.
By contrast, Jacobs is a dreamer. And if he fulfils those dreams he has the chance to go down in history as the greatest sprinter of his generation.
"I have always been known for daydreaming. I imagined things," he told us. "Even in my current state, I can imagine everything that my future could be and what I desire. And I enjoy living this way, living through dreams and working to achieve them.”