Olympic champion Usain Bolt blazed ahead of his opponents, including US sprinter Justin Gatlin, to win the 200 meters race at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
The 29-year-old Jamaican also took a tumble after a cameraman on a Segway crashed into him.
Produced by Lamar Salter. Video courtesy of Reuters.
Follow BI Video:On Facebook
As he struggled through his worst, slowest season since he became the fastest man alive at the 2008 Olympics, an atmosphere of doubt surrounded Usain Bolt for the first time.
We'd seen Bolt sleepwalk through non-Olympic years before, but this felt different. With the 2015 World Championships right around the corner, Bolt's times were so off this summer that even he had to admit that something was up. After running a 20.29-second 200 meters in New York in June — a time that didn't even crack the top 20 in the world in 2015 — Bolt sounded lost.
"I really don’t know what happened today,"he told The Guardian. "We’ve just go to go back to the drawing board and figure it out."
"This season is not going so smoothly," he added. "I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I need to get on top of things. With this pace, it looks like trouble."
In the weeks before the World Championships — to be held in the same Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing where a 22-year-old Bolt exploded onto the scene seven years earlier — Bolt found himself in the unlikely role of the underdog. American Justin Gatlin had 2015's fastest times in both the 100m and 200m and hadn't lost a race in two years.
The narrative seemed ready-made: Gatlin (the villain) would beat an injured, out-of-form Bolt at the World Championships, setting up a rematch at the Olympics 12 months from now. If everyone stuck to the script, a rejuvenated Bolt would avenge his loss in Rio, restore order to the track universe, and maybe even walk into the sunset, retiring as the world's greatest sprinter at age 30.
It would have been a great story, but it was never going to happen. To be the subject of a redemption story you have to be fallible, and when it comes to Usain Bolt at his sport's two big competitions, he's close as you can come to infallible.
Bolt came to Beijing and won both the 100m and 200m, beating Gatlin twice. He now has five of the 10 fastest 200m times ever, four of the 10 fastest 100m times ever, and the world record in both events. If he hadn't been disqualified for the 100m final at the 2011 World Championships, Bolt would have won every Olympic and World Championship gold medal in the two events since 2008.
He won the 200 meters in 19.55 seconds — the 10th-fastest time ever — despite jogging the last five meters:
He won the 100 meters, too, beating Gatlin in his strongest event with a time of 9.79 seconds. While that race wasn't as dominant as his 200m win, we got a glimpse of his casual brilliance in the semifinals, when he almost fell down before winning his heat with a blazing fast last 50 meters:
The World Championships taught us that a healthy, engaged Bolt is always going to be the fastest. There is no unpredictability — there is only Bolt being able to run faster than anyone else can run.
This is what has made Bolt so uniquely fascinating. We don't watch him to see if he'll win (as some predicted we would coming into Beijing). We watch him to see how fast he'll go.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: How billionaire Michael Jordan makes and spends his money
It's Black Monday for the world of track and field.
An independent report ordered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released on Monday "confirmed the existence of widespread cheating through the use of doping substances and methods to ensure, or enhance the likelihood of, victory for athletes and teams."
The report accuses Russia of sponsoring, covering up, and perpetuating a culture of cheating among athletes and coaches across all levels of the sport.
The report has recommended that the IAAF, track's international governing body, suspend the ARAF, the All-Russian Athletics Federation.
This could lead to Russia being excluded from the 2016 Olympic Games.
The 325-page report comes down to five main findings.
The report adds that its complete findings will not be revealed until the relevant authorities decide whether to bring criminal charges against certain people. The report's full findings are set to be released by year-end.
Said another way, this report comes up short of naming names, though that information looks set to be released in the next several weeks.
Last week former IAAF president Lamine Diack was placed under formal investigation by French authorities after France's financial prosecutor accused Diack of receiving "bribes in 2011 to cover up positive doping tests of Russian athletes,"according to The Guardian.
Sebastian Coe, the current IAAF president who is also one of Britain's most decorated track and field athletes, called these allegations "abhorrent."
WADA announced in August that it would launch this investigation, after a report from the German broadcaster ARD/WDR said about a third of all medals in long-distance track events between the 2001 world championships and the 2012 Olympics were won by athletes with suspicious drug tests.
Suspected medalists included 55 gold-medal winners.
Later that same month, Turkish runner Asli Cakir-Alptekin was stripped of her gold medal in the 1,500 meters from the 2012 Olympics after being caught cheating. Cakir-Alptekin is barred from the sport until January 2021.
But Monday's report is merely the latest black mark in what have been several long months for the sport.
In the US, distance running had a tumultuous summer after a report from ProPublica accused Alberto Salazar — the head of Nike's Oregon Project professional distance-running group and the preeminent distance coach in the US — of improperly experimenting with treatments for some of his athletes, including Galen Rupp, the most successful US distance runner in a generation and a silver medalist in the 10,000 meters at the London Olympics.
Salazar later issued an extremely lengthy and detailed response pushing back against the allegations made by ProPublica.
Few fans will then be totally surprised by allegations of cheating in track and field, which has a long and ignominious history of drugs tainting international championships and the sport's world-record book.
But Monday's report — which could lead to the exclusion of one of the sport's most successful countries from the next Olympics — could take this long and depressing history to another level.
SEE ALSO: 14 perfect photos from the track and field World Championships
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: How a struggling Soviet spy became the most powerful man in Russia
Following the bombshell WADA report that accused Russia of having a "deeply rooted culture" of cheating and widespread doping use among athletes, Russia has had two reactions: balanced and intense.
Vitaly Mutko, the Russian sports minister at the center of the doping scandal, was the latter.
Mutko fired back at the report, saying Russia is being persecuted. He threatened to remove all funding from anti-doping agencies, saying (via RTE Sport):
"Whatever we do, everything is bad. If we have to close this whole system, we would be happy to close it. That would mean no funding for any Russian anti-doping agency or laboratory."
Mutko, who is also a FIFA executive committee member and in charge of the organizing committee for the 2018 World Cup, added that cutting the funding would just save Russia money.
Richard Pound, the chairman of the independent commission appointed by WADA for the report, said it was "impossible" for Mutko not to be aware of the widespread doping and cover-ups, adding, "and if he's aware of it, he's complicit in it."
Meanwhile, the Russian sports ministry as a whole released a statement Monday night saying (via AP):
"We are fully aware of the problems in the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) and we have undertaken measures to remedy the situation: there is a new president in ARAF, a new head coach, and they are currently rejuvenating the coaching staff.
"Russia has been and will continue to be fully committed to the fight against doping in sport."
The ministry also added:
"However, there is a big difference between information that journalists provide and proven facts and evidence which naturally an investigation such as this should be based on. So, we urge WADA to rely on the real facts and evidence."
According to AP, Vladimir Putin will meet with Russia's head track and field coach on Wednesday. The meeting in Sochi is reportedly part of a bigger meeting about the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the doping report will come up.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, said of the report, "As long as there is no evidence, it is difficult to consider the accusations, which appear rather unfounded."
Nikita Kamaev, the executive director of the Russian anti-doping agency, also said the report is biased against Russia, echoing Mutko's comments. He said, "Some of the issues have a particular acuteness and are, if you like, politicized."
AP also reports the IAAF has given the Russians athletic commission until the end of the week to respond to the report.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: The New Zealand rugby team got a wild surprise at the airport
After the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) dropped its bombshell report about doping in Russian track and field, a US Olympian that competed against the athletes implicated in the scandal is speaking out.
Alysia Montaño was one of the medal favorites in the 800m before the 2012 Olympics in London, but ended up finishing in fifth place. Now, three years later, the WADA claims that the two Russian runners who finished ahead of her were doping. Mariya Savinova (who won gold) and Ekaterina Poistogova (who won bronze) are two of the five Russian athletes who deserve lifetime bans for doping, according to the WADA.
However, Montaño says that even if the International Olympic Committee retroactively bans the two runners and she gets a medal, it won't be the same as winning it in London.
"There's so much that goes into you expecting more out of yourself. It's not just the medal," she said on Periscope. "It's not just you being the bronze medalist, silver medalist, gold medalist. It's about you putting out an honest effort. Being cheated out of it, you can't ever get back those moments. You can't ever replace those feelings that I would have been able to experience."
The report could lead to Russia being excluded from the 2016 Olympic Games.
Story by Tony Manfred and editing by Andrew Fowler
INSIDER is on Facebook: Follow us here
The litany that is FIFA’s ongoing corruption scandal continues to be one of the biggest investigative takedowns the world of sport has ever seen.
Blatter has gone. Platini has gone. Bin Hammam is gone. In fact, almost everyone who has sat at FIFA’s executive top-table over the last decade has gone.
Yet, for all the carnage that lies in the wake of the bans and suspensions imposed upon football’s governors across the world, it is worth remembering that these sanctions have been enforced in response to off-field misdemeanours. Not so with athletics.
In athletics, the corruption allegations that mire the sport refer to its competitors. And there is a groundswell of opinion among some commentators that world football’s travails are small beer in comparison with what is emerging in the world of athletics.
Despite Sebastian Coe, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president, initially protesting that doping isn’t a problem in athletics, the unfolding Russian drugs scandal has seen the stock of athletics fall to possibly its lowest ebb.
The situation hasn’t been helped by the criminal investigation of Lamine Diack, the former head of the IAAF. He is alleged to have taken payments for deferring sanctions against Russian drugs cheats.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has gone much further than this, however, referring to Russia as “the tip of the iceberg”. The extent of what lies beneath will emerge when WADA releases the second part of its investigation into allegations of widespread doping and corruption in athletics.
Corruption on the field is arguably an even more insidious form of corruption than that perpetrated by officials, principally because it undermines and weakens the very heart of sport.
Furthermore, it sells fans and other stakeholders a lie. Sport marketers identify that the core product in any sport is uncertainty of outcome– that is, not knowing who is going to win a competitive contest. This uncertainty is what differentiates sport from other products, giving rise to the tension, fear and excitement many of us have experienced.
Doping seriously threatens the uncertainty of outcome, rather like a marked deck detracts from a game of poker. And this is a huge problem because it weakens and fundamentally changes the core product that sport has to offer.
If one considers wrestling (specifically WWE, although the sport is not subject to doping allegations), many people don’t see it as a sport – everybody knows who is going to win – and so it has become entertainment.
Watching a doped athlete win a race therefore challenges what we know about and expect from sport. At one level, this raises issues of trust, at another it signals a need for athletics to seriously address where it goes from here.
There have been product crises before, ranging from drug scares to food scandals. Similarly, brands have got themselves into all kinds of trouble in the past.
BP, for example, faced a serious crisis with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which it had to respond to publicly and decisively.
Make no mistake athletics is in crisis too and the IAAF as a brand needs to get in shape to overcome it. For all Coe’s assurances that there will be greater vigilance and more drug testing, the credibility and foundation of the IAAF is under severe threat.
If anything is to be learned from the likes of BP, it is that there is no place to hide in crisis situations, organisations must be seen to be taking action.
Indeed, if stakeholders feel that a brand or a company are not appropriately responding to problems, then they will begin instigating change themselves. Faced with the possibility of endless IAAF investigations, which could potentially be akin to FIFA’s perpetual navel gazing, UK Athletics (UKA) has already proposed 14 measures to save the sport of athletics and salvage something of the IAAF brand.
In amongst proposals for there to be better testing and harsher penalising, UKA has pitched the idea that world records should be reset to create a new era of clean competition.
Inevitably, this has already caused an outcry, not least among current world record holders concerned that they will lose their place in history. But there’s a lot to be said for such a radical solution, not least in the way it creates clear water between the old athletics brand and the new.
In marketing terms though, it simply wouldn’t be enough to convince cynical fans and sponsors. Trust cannot be bought with flamboyant symbolism, it must be rebuilt through sustained vigilance, and by establishing a stronger governance model that proves to people that their trust in athletics will not be misplaced.
If the IAAF thinks an independent investigation will be sufficient to placate its critics, it is naïve and mistaken. And if the core product of athletics the sport is to be safeguarded and the brand successfully salvaged, the tenacity and style Coe demonstrated in winning Olympic gold will almost certainly be needed.
Simon Chadwick, ‘Class of 92’ Professor of Sports Enterprise, University of Salford
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Swedish high-jumper Stefan Holm hasn't competed in the Olympics since the 2004 games in Athens, Greece, where he won a gold medal in the high jump.
However, at 39 years old, Holm looks like he's still got it and then some.
Holm posted a video on Instagram of him doing some high jumps on a track, and it looks he hasn't missed a beat.
It's unclear how high the hurdles are, but he gallops over them with ease.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: An Olympian jumped up an entire set of stadium bleachers in 5 leaps
American middle-distance runner Galen Rupp announced on Thursday that he will run the Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles on February 14.
Rupp, who won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 London Olympics and holds American records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, has never run a marathon.
"I'm really happy and excited to announce that I'll be running the Olympic Trials coming up in February — the marathon," Rupp said in an interview with USA Track & Field.
The top-three finishers at next month's trials will represent the US at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp qualified for the trials by winning a small half-marathon in Portland, Oregon, in December. Rupp crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 1 minute, 20 seconds, the second-fastest half-marathon by an American this year.
I would say the 10K is definitely my primary focus. I'll be running that later in the spring. Really it comes down to what I think I have a better chance in as a second event, whether it's the 5K or marathon. Obviously, you have to run the trials to qualify, and I'll do that for the marathon.
As Sports Illustrated's Chris Chavez pointed out, no American has run the 10K and the marathon in the same Olympics since Dan Browne in 2004. While Rupp's half-marathon time shows that he has a legitimate shot at competing in the marathon, it's also possible he could drop out of the race should he realize that he won't place in the top three and qualify.
Meb Keflezighi, 40, who won the bronze medal in Athens in 2004 and finished fourth in London, is among the favorites at the trials.
Chris Barnicle is no stranger to marijuana.
The former professional distance runner calls himself the "world's fastest stoner"on social media, and has discussed his marijuana use throughout his career.
So it's fitting that the toughest challenge he ever faced may not have been on the track, but in the doctor's office.
In an interview with FloTrack published Thursday, Barnicle revealed that not only did he smoke marijuana at the University of Arkansas, he also became notorious for beating drug tests.
We used to do what we’d call "great escapes." There were a couple times where me and the buddies that I smoked with would walk into practice on a Tuesday morning and an assistant coach would walk up to us like, “You’ve got a drug test tomorrow morning, Barnicle.”
The NCAA All-American said he once passed a drug test just 36 hours after smoking marijuana:
I think I have the record among our buddies of passing the test in the tightest window after smoking, which was like thirty-six hours. What I did to my body in those thirty-six hours was probably one of the unhealthiest things I’ve ever done. I ran probably about twenty-four miles. I was in the sauna the whole time between classes, I was drinking too much water and too much orange juice. That was the first time ever that I drank coffee. One of my smoking buddies suggested that I use coffee as a diuretic, so I drank a coffee with three espresso shots.
Barnicle's marijuana use never stopped him from success on the track. In 2010, he recorded times of 13 minutes, 43 seconds in the 5,000-meter run and 28 minutes, 11 seconds in the 10,000, both personal bests.
After graduating, Barnicle enjoyed a short-lived professional career that was derailed by injuries. In 2014, he launched an equally short-lived medical marijuana business in California called Zip Organics.
On Tuesday, Barnicle earned the dubious achievement of finishing last in the US Olympic marathon trials. His time of 3 hours, 45 minutes was 22 minutes worse than the slowest women's runner, and the slowest Olympic trials time by any American man or woman since at least 2000.
Barnicle was three years removed from the 2013 half-marathon time that qualified him for the trials. He said he decided to go through with Tuesday's race less than two months ago, when he learned it was in his hometown of Los Angeles.
FloTrack asked Barnicle if he had eaten any edible marijuana before the race.
"No comment," Barnicle said after a long pause. "I worked really hard to make it to the finish line and to get my name in the results. I would hate for [USA Track and Field] to be able to change that to a DQ."
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: This is how Mexican drug cartels make billions selling drugs
The Red Bull 400 is an annual 400 meter race, but what sets it apart is that the track is at an almost vertical incline, on a Slovenian hill usually used for ski jumping. The race, which requires the use of both hands and feet, is absolutely grueling.
Story and editing by A.C. Fowler
Follow INSIDERon Facebook
Follow INSIDERon YouTube
Over the weekend, Irish colleges competed in the Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the final lap of the women's 4x400 meters needs to be seen — and heard — to be believed.
After three legs, it appeared that University College Dublin (UCD, in yellow tops), was going to cruise to victory. They held a commanding 30-meter lead heading into the final lap.
On the back stretch of the final lap, just as the announcers began to comment on the tight race for second place, Sarah Miles of UCD began to tire and Michelle Finn of the University of Limerick (UL, purple and black tops) started closing in. With about 200 meters to go, Finn, who will compete in the 2016 Olympics in the steeplechase, passed Miles easily.
But wait. Just when it seemed like Finn would cruise to the win, there was another twist. The University of College Cork (UCC, red tops) wasn't done either.
If we take a step back, Cork — no relation — was about 50 meters back with a little over one lap to go.
And with about 300 meters to go, they still trailed by 30 meters, way back in fifth place.
But as the runners hit the back stretch, that's when Moore turned on the afterburners "from the depths of hell," and the announcers go bonkers.
Here is the final half-lap.
Amazing.
In the end, UCD, who had the commanding lead, finished fifth, and UL finished second.
You can see the entire race here.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: NBA owners have just agreed to put ads on jerseys
Olympian and 6-time US 800-meter champion Nick Symmonds is auctioning off nine inches of ad space on his right shoulder on eBay.
Symmonds will emblazon the winner's logo, URL or social media handle on his shoulder in the form of a temporary tattoo.
The space is available for the remainder of the 2016 track season, including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics if Symmonds should qualify, according to the listing he posted on eBay Monday.
As of this publication, the auction has received 79 bids, and is sitting at $9,700.
The auction is part of an ongoing conflict between Symmonds and US Track & Field, whose strict rules regarding athlete sponsor advertising Symmonds describes as "antiquated" and "absurd" in the listing.
Last year, Symmonds was controversially left off the American team for the world championships in Beijing after he refused to sign the statement of conditions required by US Track & Field. Under the document, Symmonds would have had to wear exclusively Nike gear at all team functions, a stipulation Symmonds said would have violated his sponsorship contract with Brooks Running.
“Sometimes people watch the Olympics and think we’re still amateurs,” Symmonds told The New York Times in 2015. “This is not a hobby. I’m the chief executive of my own company. This is my career, my job. I have to make sure I protect my contracts with my partners.”
In 2012, Symmonds held a similar ad-space auction, which was won by Milwaukee advertising firm Hanson Dodge Creative for $11,100. During the U.S. Olympic Trials, which he won, and throughout the 2012 London Olympics, in which he finished 5th, Symmonds was required to cover the tattoo with white tape.
Earlier this year, a company co-owned by Symmonds filed a lawsuit against U.S. Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee. In the lawsuit, Symmonds' caffeinated gum company Run Gum argued that by restricting the advertising of athlete sponsors, the two organizations were in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In his eBay listing, Symmonds says that a Run Gum tattoo will occupy space on his left shoulder, as it has in previous races.
The auction closes May 4, 10 days before Symmonds opens his 2016 season at the Shanghai Diamond League meet.
Symmonds is a two-time Olympian, and a silver medalist at the 2013 world championships in Moscow. He won six US 800-meter championships between 2008 and 2015.
At the 2012 Olympics, Symmonds finished fifth in the 800 meters with a personal best of 1 minute, 42.95 seconds. The run made him the third-fastest American of all time. (The second-fastest, Duane Solomon, finished just ahead of Symmonds in the same race.) The race, which saw David Rudisha of Kenya break the world record, has been called the greatest 800-meter race of all time.
During the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships, Idaho State's Shelby Erdahl suffered an unfortunate injury at the worst possible time.
Early into the 400-meter hurdles, Erdahl suffered a torn Achilles, a brutal injury that ends about any athlete's season.
Not Erdalh, however. She got back up and continued the race, walking the track, then stepping over the hurdles in what became an emotional moment.
Here's a clip of her inspiring finish:
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: The 76ers are the first NBA team to sell a jersey ad
.jpg)
The global governing body for track and field has barred the Russian track and field team from the Summer Olympics in Rio because of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs and a lack of effort to clean up their athletes, according to The New York Times.
Ultimately, the fate of the team will be determined by the International Olympic Committee. However, as The Times notes, the IOC typically defers to the governing bodies of individual sports.
Russia has been banned from international competitions for the past seven months after the World Anti-Doping Agency accused Russia of what The Times describes as "an elaborate government-run doping program."
There is some feeling that the IOC could still allow athletes who have never tested positive for the drugs to compete. However, whistleblowers have alleged that many of the steroid users have never tested positive, The Times reports.
This would be the first time that an entire nation was barred from an Olympic sport because of doping.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Here's how you can surf without water
Russia dominated the 2014 Winter Olympics, but the country is unlikely to see a repeat of that success this summer. Its athletes are now embroiled in a massive doping scandal, and as a result its track and field team has been barred from the Rio Games, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The man who recently opened up to the Times about the scandal is none other than the director of the country's antidoping lab — the person in charge of testing athletes' urine for the presence of performance-enhancing drugs.
The director, Grigory Rodchenkov, claims he came up with a cocktail of banned drugs, gave them to athletes, and then helped swap their tainted urine with clean urine collected months before. The Times called it "one of the most elaborate — and successful — doping ploys in sports history."
Rodchenkov, who has a PhD in analytical chemistry and admits to experimenting on himself, told The Times what drugs he passed to members of the sports ministry to give to athletes.
They included three anabolic steroids— lab-produced variations of the male sex hormone testosterone and given names like "juice,""roids," or "stackers" in the US — dissolved in either whiskey (for men) or vermouth (for women):
Anabolic steroids work by boosting the amount of protein the body makes naturally, which can translate into more muscle and a heftier body weight. But they're also linked with serious health risks.
Rodchenkov said his formula was exact: For very milliliter of alcohol, he used one milligram of the steroid blend. Rather than just downing the mixture, which would delay the absorption of the drugs until they could crossed the barrier of the stomach, the athletes "were instructed to swish the liquid around in their mouths, under the tongue," The Times reported.
Typically, the window when an athlete will do his or her best is fairly small. It takes time for muscles to recover or repair themselves after intense exertion. The drugs were supposed to make that window larger.
Russian athletes took home 33 medals at the Sochi games, including 13 golds. One-third of them were awarded to athletes who are now being accused of receiving Rodchenkov's cocktail. According to The Times, the names of these athletes are included on a spreadsheet outlining the doping plan that Rodchenkov said was given to him by the Russian government sports ministry.
Russia's state-run news agency, TASS, is firmly denying the allegations, suggesting The Times investigation is part of an attempt to discredit Russian sports ahead of the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this summer. The Olympians implicated are reportedly considering legal action against Rodchenkov.
In response to these claims, the Russian Ministry of Sport said the following in an emailed statement: "The Russian Ministry of Sport fully supports the IOC’s actions to protect clean athletes. We agree with the decision that athletes who are doping, no matter what country they represent, should be punished and not be permitted to compete at competitions."
SEE ALSO: Here's what the drug Maria Sharapova was taking does to your body
NEXT: The answer to treating drug and alcohol addiction may be far simpler than you think
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Usain Bolt’s key to winning
Most high school juniors have to worry about getting a job or the right internship during summer vacation. Sydney McLaughlin has to worry about the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The 16-year-old qualified for the United States' track and field team during the Olympic Trials on Sunday, when she came in third in the finals of the 400-meter hurdles. According to the AP, McLaughlin is the youngest person to compete on the U.S. track and field team since 1972.
She finished the race, which was held at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, in just of 54.15 seconds, a new world junior-record. Dalilah Muhammad and Ashley Spencer took first and second, respectively, with Muhammad crossing the finish line in just 52.88 seconds.
McLaughlin, a rising senior at Union Catholic in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, said she had a panic attack before the race began.
"Sometimes, I just forget that I'm 16," McLaughlin told the AP. "There's not as much expectation. You know, I don't get paid for this. I'm here just for fun."
"I think it was more self-doubt," her high school coach Mike McCabe said. "It was the big stage, 'I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if I belong here."
McCabe's pep talk before the race seems to have worked, as his athlete is headed to Rio.
McLaughlin will turn 17 on August 7, just two days after the start of the Olympics.
On the other side of the age spectrum, Bernard Lagat, a Kenyan-born athlete who has competed as an American citizen since 2005, blew away the competition to win the 5,000-meter run. Lagat is 41 years old, but you wouldn't guess that from his blistering finish.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Usain Bolt’s key to winning
A quote that Bruno Hortelano-Roig believes encompasses his life pretty well happens to be "mind is everything... if you didn't achieve something, you simply didn't believe in it enough."
This quote hit home for the Spanish sprinter when he learned in a post-race interview that he was the European Champion at 200 meters, because at first, he simply didn't believe it.
At this week's European Championships in Amsterdam, Hortelano finished second in the 200m dash. Nobody bothered to tell him that Churancy Martina, who beat him by a mere .08 seconds, had been disqualified for stepping out of his lane.
After he was informed of the disqualification, Hortelano corrected the interviewer by insisting that he had won silver and not gold. It was "a dream" to finished second, said Hortelano. However, after seeing the result before his own eyes, an excited Hortelano celebrated by doing exactly what he does best: sprinting away.
Here’s the video of the hilarious encounter:
In addition to winning his first European Championship title, Hortelano established a new Spanish national record by running 20.39 seconds in the semifinals.
Hortelano is a former All-Academic Sprinter at Cornell University where he graduated in 2014 as a Biological Engineering major. He will compete again this summer in the 100m and 200m dashes at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
"Honestly, I feel numb. It's really surreal. The most amazing part of this has been feeling the support from all over the globe - for that I'm incredibly grateful," Hortelano told Business Insider.
SEE ALSO: Simone Biles showed why she is so great with a near-perfect vault at the Olympic Trials
Russia has lost its appeal against the ban on its track and field athletes from competing in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the appeal by 68 Russian track and field athletes seeking to overturn the ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following allegations of state-sponsored doping and cover-ups. The appeal questioned the validity of the IAAF decision and sought to ensure the participation in Rio of athletes who were not accused of any doping violation.
The ruling could influence whether the entire Russian Olympic team is banned from the games. The IOC executive board discusses Sunday whether to impose a blanket ban on all Russian teams from the Olympics next month.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe says he is "thankful that our rules and our power to uphold our rules and the anti-doping code have been supported."
The IAAF president adds "this is not a day for triumphant statements. I didn't come into this sport to stop athletes from competing. It is our federation's instinctive desire to include, not exclude."
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says the decision to ban Russian track and field athletes from competing in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was "political."
Mutko told the Tass news agency that Russia will consider its further actions and lashed out at the verdict as unfair.
"In my view, it's a subjective decision, somewhat political and one with no legal basis," he was quoted as saying.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow regrets the court's decision.
Dmitry Peskov expressed regret over the ruling, adding that applying "collective responsibility (to all athletes) can hardly be acceptable."
Hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov, who was on Russia's track and field team for next month's Olympics, tells The Associated Press he is "very sad" to miss the games but hopes the team's ban will mean more serious reforms.
Litvinov, who was fifth at last year's world championships, says he'll "try not to lose motivation for next year." He says Russian athletics officials failed to act on doping in time and hopes "that this situation can encourage the management" to continue reforms.
Litvinov, who has been an outspoken campaigner against drug use in Russian sport, calls on international sports authorities to investigate more cases of doping in other countries, claiming in some throwing events "no one knows who really finished in which place" at major competitions.
He adds: "I want all (doping) systems to be shut down. Not just ours, but all of them."
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva says banning Russia's track and field team from next month's Rio de Janeiro Games represents the "funeral" of her sport.
In comments to Russian state news agency Tass, Isinbayeva says ironically: "Thank you everyone for the funeral of athletics. It's a pure political decision."
Isinbayeva, who represented Russian athletes at Tuesday's hearing in Switzerland, says there is "nothing concrete" behind the ruling to uphold the ban.
Isinbayeva appealed to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to overturn the ban.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt says Russian athletes being banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will "scare a lot of people" thinking about doping.
Bolt says recent actions by authorities show that "if you cheat or if you go against the rules" then "serious action" will be taken.
Russia has canceled a ceremonial send-off for its Olympic athletes heading to Rio, as the prospect of a ban for Russia's whole team looms.
South African sprinter Wayde Van Niekerk shocked the track world on Sunday with a new world record in the men's 400-meter dash.
Van Niekerk ran it in 43.03 seconds, shattering Michael Johnson's previous record from 1999.
He also won the race from lane eight, which has never been done before.
Making Van Niekerk's accomplishment even greater is that he's coached by Anna Botha, a 74-year-old great-grandmother who coached the track team at Kovsies, a South African school where Van Niekerk was taking classes. The two have formed a close bond as Botha has overseen his rise, including a win in the 400 at the 2015 World Championships.
During Van Niekerk's race on Sunday, Botha was adorably excited for her runner, jumping up and down in the stands and generally looking shocked at what she had witnessed.
Botha told City Press in 2015 of her career at her age, "I’m very blessed because I don’t have any health problems, and it is because I’m busy with young people – and you have to be high up there with them."
Despite the unusual relationship, the two worked together to a new world record.
SEE ALSO: The 47 best photographs of the Rio Olympics so far
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Usain Bolt is only 0.1 seconds away from reaching what may be peak human speed in the 100-meter race
Usain Bolt easily qualified for the 100-meter final at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.
Bolt, who went on to win the gold at Rio, only seemed to be taking the semi-final half-seriously, too.
Halfway through the sprint, he pulled away from the pack, and as he neared the finish line, checked his right and left to ensure he was in first.
That's when he gave a big smile to the cameras. Getty's Cameron Spencer caught the moment.
Other angles capture how much fun Bolt seemed to be having.
He even appeared to have some fun with Canada's Andre De Grasse afterward.
Bolt's 9.86 time in the semi-final was the fastest of the season. And he looked like he was celebrating before he even finished the race. He went on to beat it in the final, finishing in 9.81 seconds.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: We just figured out how to get super-toned calves without weights or implants
