Ivorian sprint mermaid, Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith has said that her horrible performance at the just ended 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France has been put to bed.
In the absence of the most fearful Jamaican trio – Shericka Jackson, Elain Thompson-Herah, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the women’s 100m final, most pundits were hoping to see the Ivorian sprinter who had finished 4th in a consecutive Olympic finals to claim a medal in France at least, but in the final analysis, the 35-year-old could not muster the needed power to see her achieve that.
In fact, Ta Lou-Smith ran the fastest time in the preliminary round having finished 1st in heat 8 in 10.87 seconds, ahead of Fraser-Pryce [10.92], and Gina Lueckenkemper [11.08] of Germany.
She went on to finish 2nd in semi-final 1, crossing the line in 11.01 seconds behind the winner – Melissa Jefferson of the United State of America who finished 1st in 10.99 seconds.
In the final, however, the experienced Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith could not find her fast sprinting legs, finishing 8th in 13.84 seconds.
But on Sunday, August 25, she came close to her former self having finished 2nd in the women’s 100m dash at the 2024 Silesia Diamond League in Poland. She crossed the line in 10.83 seconds, same as the ultimate winner – Tia Clayton of Jamaica.
In fact, Clayton, Lou-Smith and Davis, who made up the final podium, were separated by just one-thousandth of a second in that enticingly tight race.
Speaking in a post race interview, Ta Lou-Smith said she was delighted with her finish in Poland:
“To me, it feels good to get this 10.83 seconds.
“After the Olympics, I felt very disappointed. I was mentally down, but I have a good team, good husband, family and friends who support me and help me to stay grounded.
“So I am very glad for what I did today and we are going to move forward from this. We will see what I can do at the next competitions.
“This is what we have in the sprints – you achieve the same result but you finish second.
“But we just need to continue the work to finish not with the same time, but with the best time.
“For me, this Sprint era is brutal. It is important not only for me but for all African people, all young people who do not believe in themselves to prove that you can achieve it.
“It just shows the magic that wherever you are, you can dream big and do what you want to do.”
By James K. Attaglo Wilson
