Olympic sprint champ Jacobs says reconnecting with U.S. father "gave me the desire to win"
02 August 2021
Italy's surprise 100-meters Olympic gold medalist Lamont Marcell Jacobs opened up Sunday about how reconnecting with his American father over the past year has helped spur him on.
What he's saying: The Texas-born sprinter told reporters after setting a European record of 9.80 seconds to win gold in Sunday's event that getting back in touch with his father "gave me the desire, the speed, that something more that helped me being here and win the Olympics."
Driving the news: The 26-year-old athlete was born in El Paso to a U.S. serviceman father and Italian mother before moving to Italy with his mom as a baby. He's received encouraging messages since he reconnected with his Dallas-based father, Jacobs notes.
- Jacobs' mental health coach told him "if you want to run fast, you need to get to a place that feels good for you with your father," he recalled.
- "You are in your blood American ... and you need to speak with him to arrive at the Olympic Games and maybe win," he quoted the adviser as saying.
The big picture: Sunday's race was the first Tokyo Games men's 100m final since athletics great Usain Bolt retired.
- Jacobs wasa relative-unknown before he won the race, leaving American Fred Kerley with a silver medal and Canada’s Andre de Grasse with bronze.
Zoom in: Kerley told reporters he "didn't know nothing about" 26-year-old Jacobs before his win, while De Grasse said: "I thought my main competition would be the Americans ... he really shocked me and surprised me, so really congrats to him."
- Even Jacobs seemed shocked by his win, describing the result as "incredible" and "like a dream."
- "I think I need four or five years to realize and understand what's happening," he added.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with further comment from Jacobs on his father.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.