"Those are big stories" - Justin Gatlin weighs in on the absence of hurdlers from Season 2 of 'Sprint'

Former American track and field athlete Justin Gatlin recently commented on the absence of hurdlers from the second part of the track docuseries Sprint. This comes just a few weeks after the show's release on Netflix on November 13.

The show featured numerous track and field athletes such as Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson, Letsile Tebogo, etc. who competed in the 2024 quadrennial games. However, not a single hurdler was featured in this show despite hurdles being a prominent part of the track.

In a recent episode of his "Ready Set Go" podcast, Gatlin shed light on this and stated that the makers of Sprint 2 missed some big stories by ignoring the 100m hurdlers. He also mentioned the struggles of Alaysha Johnson and Paris Olympics gold medalist Masai Russell which in his opinion was a "big big story". He said (at 14:28):

"And I understand that the common viewer just see sprint and they just compartmentalize like, oh that's sprinters, that's fast runners. They don't realize like hurdlers are sprinters too. Why didn't we get a chance to see hurdlers?

Gatlin further added:

"Look at Alaysha's story where she's coming from. She had to make her own clothes when she was in school and being at the Olympics not having a contract, jockeying for the gold and not having a contract, that's a big big story. Look at Masai, coming out of college, losing the year before to come back and win this year. Those are big stories."

During the episode, Justin Gatlin also mentioned 100m hurdler Cyrena Samba-Mayela for being the only French track and field athlete during the Games to earn a medal.

Sprint 2 also faced the heat in recent weeks due to the negligible presence of African track athletes in the docuseries.

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Justin Gatlin comments on the characterization of Fred Kerley in the first season of Sprint

Justin Gatlin in a red and black dress at the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing 2015 (Image via: Getty)

Justin Gatlin shared his thoughts regarding the portrayal of Fred Kerley in the first part of the Netflix docuseries, Sprint.

In an episode of the Ready Set Go podcast that featured Kerley, Gatlin remarked that the show failed to portray several track athletes in a 'blindsided' fashion. He also added that several other back stories relating to Kerley could have been shown in the documentary. He said (at 1:14):

"I didn’t like it because in certain aspects and also it blindsided a lot of the characters.The portrayal of you (Fred Kerley) was never the champion you were. It should have shown your back story."

The first season of Sprint featured numerous characters such as Sha'Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Noah Lyles. It was released earlier this year in July.