African Athletes React to Limited Coverage in New Season of ‘Sprint’
Letsile Tebogo, Akani Simbine, and Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith are speaking out against the very limited spotlight on African athletes in the new season of Netflix's 'Sprint.'
The newly-released second season of Netflix’s Sprint, the documentary series, centered on some of the fastest athletes in the world, is rubbing some people the wrong way – especially for its painfully minimal representation of African athletes.
Released a few weeks before the Summer Olympics in Paris, the debut season of Sprint briefly featured Kenyan athlete Ferdinand Omanyala as the only noticeable African representation across its six episodes. Perhaps that was understandable, since the first season focused on the more popular personalities in track and field to garner attention. That meant the bulk of screen time in the first season went to instantly recognizable figures like Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Gabby Thomas.
Even at that, the first season of Sprint was still criticized by some for favoring some athletes, chief among them Lyles – and by extension American sprinters. The same criticism seems to be applicable to the second season, now mainly coming from African athletes as well as fans of the sport.
Following several athletes during the Paris Olympics, the second season of Sprint barely affords African athletes significant airtime, despite Letsile Tebogo winning the men’s 200m gold medal with the fifth-fastest time in Olympics history and also leading Botswana to a silver medal in the men’s 4x400m, as well as South Africa winning silver in the men’s 4x100m event.
“This is an American show,” Tebogo wrote in an X post on Wednesday, a screenshot of which Ivorian athlete and Olympian Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith shared on her Instagram Stories with the comment, “What you say my bro.”
“Netflix can keep their ‘SPRINT’ documentary series. I watch anything and everything when it comes to track and field but they’ve lost me with this one, especially when a lot of us displayed our concerns after the first series and it’s evident that they haven’t listened to any,” X user @_OwenM_ shared, ostensibly referring to the series’ narrow focus.
“Another season and yet again Sprint looks over the African story,” South African 4x100m silver medallist Akani Simbine wrote in an X post, expressing a frustration that’s been bubbling for a while.
Shortly after the first season of Sprint, Ta Lou-Smith said she felt “disrespected by Netflix” for not being included in the final cut, despite the show’s crew following her around throughout the 2023 season.
Amidst the complaints trailing Sprint, Ta Lou-Smith also reposted X user @kemal_e_forde’s post: “Letsile Tebogo lost his mother and became Olympic Champion. A lot of athletes would have just competed based on their emotions and felt eager to end their season. But he still managed to compete for the entire season. The youngster deserves all [the] exposure in this world.”
In Sprint, Tebogo gets very limited airtime. “This is one of the most head-scratching editing/production decisions in SPRINT. Why isn't there more Letsile Tebogo?!” track and field journalist Chris Chavezponders. “He was completely ignored and not mentioned in Season 1. In Season 2, his story doesn’t really get introduced until about 22 minutes into the final episode.”
For Tebogo, “all the African athletes” deserve an apology from Netflix.