TALKING ABOUT...

Sprint athletes take centre stage in Netflix series

A Netflix series focusing on sprint athletes is due to be aired ahead of the Paris Olympics and will reveal the global appeal of the sport to a wider audience, according to Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe.

Netflix series showcasing Formula One, golf and tennis have proved popular and World Athletics president Coe is hoping the six episodes based around sprinting, with last year’s world championships in Budapest as the backdrop, will have the same effect.

“It was really interesting when I spoke to the Netflix guys,” Coe said in Nassau ahead of the World Athletics Relays.

“The thing that surprised them [is] when you go to a world championships and on the first day you’re celebrating gold medals from Dominica and Ecuador, you know you are in a truly global sport.”

Budapest saw athletes from 46 countries win medals – some for the first time – while athletes from 75 countries secured topeight places.

“There’s no sport on the planet that can claim that,” Coe said.

A track and field medal, he argued, was “statistically tougher to win than in any other sport. And that’s why everything we do is to promote the cause and give them great exposure.”

It is fair to say athletics has missed the presence of a big-name pull and crowd pleaser like Jamaican Usain Bolt, whose performances and charisma guaranteed maximum exposure and packed stands.

The first name off anyone’s lips at the moment is Noah Lyles, the American who claimed treble world gold at Budapest and one of the stars of the Netflix production.

“I’m pretty excited,” Lyles said. “I love telling a story. Looking at 2023 it’s probably my best written story so far.”

With plans for a second series using the Paris Olympics as a backdrop, Coe added: “I think it’s going to blow people away just with the quality of what we have.” –