There was an interesting piece on the Canadian broadcast where they discussed the role that “Champs” plays development of younger athletes…the desire to rise to the top of the peer group…Bolt acknowledged that noise at any other meet is nothing compared to his memories of competition that Jamaican schools have
[FYI: “Champs” is, more or less I believe, an annual high school meet but at the national level, massive draw, decisive splits in the crowd supporting local school, compared to even our largest, Ontario High school, nearly unbelievable]
I can definitely understand this. I only ran senior year in HS but the state meet was amazing. Roughly 10,000 spectators. It was WAY bigger than any nationals I’ve been to. That sort of experience early on would be an insane motivating factor.