Olympic Games 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs announced Thursday that he will not run again until 2022. In response to a fan on a social media interaction, who asked the Italian when would be his next appearance on the track, Jacobs replied: “2022″.
Almost unknown a year ago, the Texas-born Italian sprinter claimed a shock triumph in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics as well as gold in the 4x100m relay. His stunning victory was achieved in a European record of 9.80sec.
Jacobs’s previous career highlight was this year’s European indoor 60m title. The 26-year-old was scheduled to next run on August 21 at the Eugene Diamond League meet in the United States. After that, he was to appear on September 3 in Brussels and on September 9 in Zurich for the season-ending Diamond League Finals.
After his triumphant return to Italy from Tokyo on Monday, where he was greeted as a national hero, Jacobs resumed training. However, Italian media said he immediately called a halt after a fall blamed on “the accumulated fatigue of the Olympics as well as a knee problem,” reported Italian daily, Il Corriere della Sera.
Before 2020, Jacobs had never gone below the 10-second barrier. “It’s a dream, it is fantastic. Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible,” he said after his gold-medal-winning triumph in Tokyo, the first of the post-Usain Bolt era.
“I crafted a really good team to support me,” he said of his improvement. “We changed the starts. And we work mentality. Mentality, good food, good physiotherapy.
“I really work hard with my mind. Because when I was arriving at the big moment my legs don’t work too good. Now my legs go really good when it’s a big moment.”
Jacobs added: “It was my childhood dream to win an Olympic Games and obviously a dream can turn into something different, but to run this final and win it is a dream come true.” American Fred Kerley, who took Olympic silver, said that he barely knew Jacobs.
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