Netflix set the tone of the Olympic month correctly with its latest docu-series ‘Sprint’. With the Olympics just days away, the track and field community is reminiscing about the things that went down last year in Budapest. The 2023 World Athletics was an exhilarating event, and the docu-series casts light on how the globe’s top stars prepared for the tournament. The show is expected to bring more exposure to the sport, but not everyone’s on board with its narrative style, and that pack includes Fred Kerley.

SPRINT centers heavily around the USA’s biggest track runners, including Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson. With the Paris Olympics just around the corner, fans are justifiably curious to see how their journey to the French capital began in Hungary. However, Olympic medalist Kerley doesn’t seem to be a fan.

In a post on X yesterday, the three-time World Championships gold medalist Kerley vented his frustration about how Netflix portrayed his beloved sport. “That show is not about sprinting,” the caption of the post almost allows one to hear his disappointing tone. Considering how the streaming platform garnered a lot of admiration with shows like Break Point and The Last Dance, fans expected another series with insights about track and field in Sprint, only to be left wanting more.

Kerley is currently one of the top contenders for the 100m gold at the upcoming Olympics, but his screen time in the new show hasn’t been the most. Fred also has been talking about how a world record in the 100m race is his target at the moment. Naturally, he and his fans were expecting to give Kerley more exposure ahead of the big rumble in Paris.

Now that it’s apparent that Lyles and Richardson are the stars of the show, Kerley called the show “…a YouTube doc,” in another of his recent social media posts. And some track loyalists also seem to be in agreement.

The community split over Fred Kerley’s opinion

One fan is bewildered by the fact that Kerley was first given a mention way deep into the show. For someone like Kerley, being too far away from the limelight isn’t something regular, and yet, Netflix chose to give him the stage only in episode five, and fans aren’t having it. “Crazy they waited till episode 5 to introduce you to the show,” wrote Jan in response to Kerley’s grievance. So does that come down to one more loss for Kerley to Noah Lyles?

The track and field community got to see a furious Kerley over the team selection for the 4x400m relay at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Albeit he did not take Noah’s name for a single instance. But his X post comment “@usatf y’all play that favouritism like mf. Y’all like puppets. For sure yes man” indeed appeared to be a jab at Noah’s selection over him. Though he had cleared the air about this later, his rivalry with Noah was not unknown. Considering that, one fan wrote, “Ahh damn. this low key hater energy.”

The fight to be on Team USA is an intense one. With several emphatic names in contention, the USA’s sprinting squad is stacked to the brim with talent. However, those talents often do not get their due exposure and visibility. This is a trend globally and the US is not an exception as well. Noah Lyles himself had pointed out that the track and field athletes are cared for in the US only in the Olympic year.

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Therefore, fans had expected the documentary to dive deep into the individual preparation strategies and resolute mentality of the athletes who might have turned more eyes to the sport. But they only found a scratching-the-surface approach. Looking at that, one dejected fan wrote, “The largest streaming platform had the opportunity to increase the profile of a sport that’s been on a heavy decline of global visibility and it chose to engage in soft politics and ego fuelling,” agreeing with the two-time Diamond League winner.

On the other hand, another fan thinks Fred shouldn’t let his intrusive thoughts win and apparently called for accepting things as they are. “With this attitude you probably not gon be in any show moving forward fam,” said a concerned track follower who just wants to see the sport get more attention around the world. One more expressed the same emotion as they wrote, “LOL well well well,” apparently with a subtle sneer.

Have you watched Sprint yet? How did you find it to be? Tell us in the comments!