The New Fastest Man In The World!

This past weekend at the Texas Relays and the Florida Relays, we saw some of the most amazing performances that we have seen in 2024. In the men's 100m in Florida, we saw Favre Ache from Auburn become the first collegiate athlete to break the 10 second barrier this season, smoothly running a time of 9.99 seconds for the win. Over in Texas, it was even more sprinting excellence, as Gabby Thomas flexed her sprinting versatility over both the 100 and 200m, clocking times of 10.88 and 22.08 seconds. And not to be outdone by these individual races, was a thrilling 4x400m relay race ending on the men's side at the Texas Relays, where with just one lap to go, Athletic Texas had a massive lead of probably close to 20m, but like a predator stalking his prey, Chris Bailey made his move down the final 100m to win this relay by exactly 1 tenth of a second, closing his final 400 in 44.9, which proved to be the fastest relay split of the entire competition. It really does seem as though every single competition brings out something brand new to look forward to, and especially in the sprints this year, we are getting some incredibly deep talent that stretches all across the world. And speaking of global talent, there was also one athlete who did something quite unexpected in his recent races, in fact it was so unexpected that most people didn't even know his name until just a few days ago. Now before we dive into this one athlete, it is important to mention that for much of 2024, there has been much debate on who is the actual fastest athlete in the world right now this season. In the early stages, there was a case to be made for Fred Curley, who ran a time of 10.03 seconds for his 100m season opener, but then came Letsele Toboho of Botswana, who pretty much swept the floor clean with his 200, 300, and 400m exploits, and these season's best still remain as the fastest times in the world this season for all three of these events, which may or may not be the first time that this has ever happened across these three sprinting disciplines. With Toboho's rapid rise in sprinting excellence and his seemingly unstoppable versatility in pretty much anything that he runs, I have been super intrigued by his raw talent that seems to transcend what any 20 year old is currently capable of, and while he is certainly an incredible talent that likely has many more great races ahead of him, I must admit that I made a mistake, in fact I think that I made a pretty huge mistake, because one athlete from this year's Texas Relays kind of shocked the world with his performances, and this athlete is Pablo Mateo from France. In the 100m dash, Mateo dropped a massive personal record of 9.92 seconds, which was actually fast enough to place him almost a tenth of a second ahead of any other runner on this day. This time was also fast enough to make him one of only six athletes in the history of France to break the 10 second barrier under any condition, so he is certainly doing something that very few athletes have ever done. However, what happened literally less than 30 minutes after this 100m race is what really convinced me that this man is currently one of the best sprinters in the world. In the 200m dash, Mateo ran yet another masterclass of a sprinting race, this time clocking a time of 20.03 seconds, which proved to be just barely fast enough to win this entire competition outright, as he finished but 0.002 seconds ahead of the second placed athlete on this day. This was a razor thin margin, so he just barely pulled off the victory here, and this 100 and 200m double, less than 30 minutes apart, places Mateo up with the best in the world right now. In fact, his 100m time would have been the world's fastest at the moment, however the wind for this one race was slightly over the allowable limit, as his wind reading for this 100 was positive 3.0m per second. But if we convert this time to no wind at all, it still comes out to a very impressive clocking of 10.03, and if we convert it to the maximum legal wind of 2.0, he would have run a time of 9.95. Even if no wind had been present for this competition, he would have still been tied at number 4 in the world right now, with Fred Curley at 10.03, but his 200m clocking was already wind legal, and this time currently places him second in the world at 20.03, only falling behind Litsili Teboho from Botswana, whose 19.94 was actually into a pretty strong headwind. This double in this amount of time from an athlete who had previously been nowhere close to these times is actually pretty insane, and given that France is not typically known as a sprinting powerhouse, does make these performances all the more unexpected. However there was also one more bit to this story that threw me for a loop, and we were able to uncover the truth in an interview just after his performance. Against all odds, Pablo Mateo ran these two top 5 world-ranked times this season in under 30 minutes on just 3 hours of sleep, and he also outright admitted that he was still incredibly tired after he ran these races. For the previous few years, Mateo has been slowly but steadily improving in the 100 and the 200m, reaching PBs of 10.15 in 2023, and he also ran a 200m best back in 2020 at 20.82 seconds, but 9.92 and 20.03 are completely different stories, and if Mateo does stay in shape and can hopefully show up to the next track meet well-rested, we very well Now if all of this racing and sleep deprivation weren't already enough, Mateo also managed to run the opening 100m leg for his relay team in this year's relay races, and while there was no official split times listed, he was absolutely moving, and his team went on to place first in under 39 seconds. So far in 2024, Mateo has run all-time personal records in the Indoor 60, the Indoor 200, the Outdoor 1, and now the Outdoor 200, and at just 23 years old, he is clearly timing his races perfectly, and given that he is from France, he could potentially qualify for this year's Olympic Games and be on his home soil, which is a massive advantage for an athlete from so many different perspectives. You've got your home crowd to cheer you on, you know the arena better so you're more capable of focusing on the performance at hand, and you don't have to travel across the world and potentially be jet-lagged, which can be quite taxing on an athlete looking to compete. If Mateo can maintain this kind of running and potentially improve, we're looking at someone with a realistic shot of running very well in the Olympic Games, and while a medal during the finals is currently looking like a very tall order for anyone, given the crazy depth that we have, including Lyles Curley, Tavoho Coleman, Blake Knight and Hughes, Degrasse Benerick, Jones Thompson, Omeñala, and the criminally underrated Oblique Seville from Jamaica, perhaps there is a small chance for Pablo Mateo to find his way into the top three in one of these sprinting events, but again, this will be a very tall order. And now I want to hear from all of you, what do you think about Pablo Mateo's times in this year's Texas Relays, and how fast do you think he will go in 2024? Thanks for watching everyone, and as always, until next time.