The Olympic track and field trials have all but set the American roster heading overseas to compete in the Olympics, and the roster is loaded yet again.
Few athletes were more electrifying during the trials than Noah Lyles, who picked up wins in both the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter finals to ensure he will be one of Paris’ biggest stars. Sha’Carri Richardson also secured her Olympic bid after a suspension kept her out of the games three years ago.
One standout isn’t going to Paris. Reigning gold medalist Athing Mu tripped during the women’s 800-meter race at the trials and lost what was expected to be a surefire Olympic bid. The fall raised questions about the fairness of the process, as just one misstep in a race can end an athlete’s Olympic hopes, but there was nothing Mu could do about it.
Benjamin won the 400m hurdles final in Eugene by a margin of well over one second, easily punching his ticket to Paris, while Allen and Bassitt narrowly held off Chris Robinson.
Benjamin was a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, and his sub-47 second time in Eugene indicates he can contend for a medal again. Allen and Bassitt are both first-time Olympians.
The war of words wages on between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and this time it’s personal. After the latter released his new diss track entitled “6:16 in LA” earlier this morning, both rappers dropped response tracks, one after the other, on Friday night (May 3), with Drake putting out “Family Matters” and Lamar releasing “Meet the Grahams.”
Drake was first up with “Family Matters,” where things take a very personal turn. “You mentioned my seed now deal with his dad,” begins the Toronto native on his seven-minute track. “I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad.”
Among the sprawling shots he takes at Lamar on the track, he guns for his foe and his relationship with his fiancee Whitney Alford. “Don’t even go back to your hood and plant no money trees,” he states, referring to Lamar’s “Money Trees” that came out in 2012. “Say you hate the girls I fuck but what you really mean / I been with Black and white and everything in between / You the Black messiah wifing up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem.”
