What happened to Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith at the African Championships 2024? Everything about the Ivorian sprinter's disappointing experience

The three-time Olympic medalist, Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith recently made some allegations against the organizing committee of the African Championships 2024. This comes on the first day of the six-day event that is being held in the economic capital of Cameroon, Douala.

The Ivorian sprinter alleged that the organizers of the Championships didn't provide her and her Ivory Coast team with transportation facilities, and owing to this they had to reach the premises of the stadium by booking a taxi. Moreover, as per Ta Lou-Smith, one of the African teams was reportedly provided with transportation benefits along with police escort.

The Bouafle native has highly condemned this act by the organizers in her social media X (formerly Twitter) handle. Expressing her disappointment, Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith wrote:

"My team have to take a yango ( taxi) to go to the stadium because the transportation sucks."

Replying to a fan, the 35-year-old further stated:

"sis I am telling you. I want to cry because why? And on top of that , we on the taxi we see another African team with a police escorte. Like why not do it for everybody?"

In her series of tweets, Ta Lou-Smith also stated that she had high expectations while coming for the Championships and opined the organizers should provide better facilities for the professional competitive athletes.

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Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith clinches gold at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational 2024

Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith (Ta Lou-Smith Instagram)

Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith produced a superb performance in the Women's 100m event of the Jamaican Athletics Invitational 2024. The 35-year-old clinched gold in the event, registering a blistering run time of 10.91 seconds.

The Ivorian athlete was in a fierce battle with the Jamaican duo of Krystal Sloley and Kemba Nelson during the race but raced past them comfortably to clinch the first gold medal of her season. Consequently, Sloley and Nelson finished with silver and bronze in the event with run times of 11.09 seconds and 11.12 seconds, respectively.

Speaking about her superb victory after the event, Ta Lou-Smith was overjoyed with her performance during a post-match interview. She stated (via worldathletics):

"To open my season with 10.91 is great. I was thrilled to see the crowd, and hearing the applause when my name was called was incredible."

This was the first 100m event for the Ivorian sprinter in this 2024 season. After clinching a few bronze and silver medals at the relay events during the Mt.Sac Relays and World Athletics Relays, this was her first medal in an individual event this season.