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villa-ru-
As which country...
I definitely couldn't. Then again, with some googling and conveniently optimistic maths...I've raced it once, last month, and ran 12.6s
The slowest guy in the preliminary rounds ran 12.1s
I reckon I could take half a second off if I trained for 4 years, or learned to use the blocks
Also would need a Tongan passport and hope nobody else tried to run fasterAlright fine, no chance of me being the surprise 46yr old Tongan via SE London sprint sensation in LA
duncs
Kind of feels like the coverage and commentary almost promotes this idea though. Seem to recall a few times the commentary or chat would be talking about someone who just 'picked some sport up' after watching a previous Olympics and being inspired to then train at it over the years between. This is one example that presents it in that way like they're saying she started doing Park Run a couple of years ago and now she's an Olympic Track medalist, but she has a significant background in competing in running before that. I'm sure there are a lot of other stories of people who were alright at something when they were a kid, at college or University or just something they picked up as a teenager for extra curricular stuff that then slipped off who think they could probably get into the Olympics, whether they could or not who knows. Then there is also just deluded people who think everything is easy until they step up to actually do it and they fall on their arse.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/11/georgia-bell-paris-olympics-athletics-parkrun