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Kousha Navidar: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar in for Alison Stewart. The 2024 Summer Olympic Games just wrapped up in Paris this past weekend, and while many Americans are typically only really interested in the big three sports, we're talking basketball, baseball, or football. Our horizons open up for a bit about two weeks every Olympics. A new Netflix documentary spotlights seven athletes in track and field coming from different countries, all on the road to the games in Paris. For a lot of viewers, the most exciting event is the 100-meter sprint.

The winner is declared the fastest woman or man in the world. What does it take to be the world's fastest? Throughout the doc, we learn more about the training, coaching and mental challenges faced by the world's fastest humans, including the United States star athletes Noah Lyles, who won the 100 last week, and Sha'Carri Richardson, who scored her first gold in the 4x100 relay race, as well as ten times Jamaican gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and British 100 meters and 200 meters record holder Zharnel Hughes. The docuseries is titled Sprint. It's out on Netflix, and executive producer Warren Smith joins us today to discuss. Warren, welcome to all of it.

Warren Smith: Thanks for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Great to have you here. Listeners, call us. Are you a fan of the track and field events at the Olympics? Do you have a favorite runner? Who is it? What do you admire about them? How did they perform in Paris? Have you seen Sprint on Netflix? What questions do you have for Warren? Give us a call, send us a text. We're at (212) 433-9692, that's (212) 433-WNYC, or you can always hit us up on Instagram or on X. Our handle is @AllOfItWNYC. Okay, Warren, you've done a bunch of sports documentaries, rugby players, Formula One racers, golfers. Why sprinter is next for you?

Warren Smith: I think we looked at the world from a perspective of box to box. We really liked the world of track and field and athletics. It was one of those sports where up to a point, you always knew who were the winners and losers in that sport. You knew the field, whether it were back to Carl Lewis. Over here in the UK, we had a guy, Linford Christie, who won the gold Olympics and then all the way through to Usain Bolt. We sat there in a meeting, actually, with Netflix over lunch. We didn't really know who were the men and women that were now setting the records or winning the golds.

We wanted to sort of look into that world. Netflix agreed, and we started with a bit of development. We got ourselves on a plane to Jamaica and Jacksonville, Florida, and a few of the training camps. It was pretty clear quite quickly that there is a lot of not only talent on the track, but a lot of personality and character in this world. I think that was where we got excited and thinking, well, how can we help elevate this sport? It isn't just every four years that people care about the 100 and 200-meter sprints.

Kousha Navidar: You often see these athletes make national headlines every four years. How did you want to showcase them outside of the spectacle of the sports and the fans?

Warren Smith: I think the key thing for us is when we got into the world, realizing how different, say, the US team and the athletes train to the Jamaicans or Marcell Jacobs, who's from Italy. I think for that, it was just capturing their own worlds and just really embedding with these amazing athletes to follow them in Season 1 on the way through to the world championships. We've been privileged enough, there will be a Season 2, I can say, in through the Olympics. We were there in Paris the last two weeks, and it was an incredible moment to see some of the athletes we've been following for the last two years, medal and do so well, the Olympic Games.

Kousha Navidar: Let's get into some of those characters that we see, some of those people. We'll start with a clip of Noah Lyles and his mother, Keisha Caine, reminiscing about Noah's childhood with asthma, actually, while going through scrapbook photos and keepsakes. Here it is.

Noah Lyles: I didn't get to really participate in sports till I got about seven or eight. There wasn't a time that I can remember where asthma was not an issue. I can't remember a lot of nights where I wasn't at the hospital getting medication to just try and calm down the episodes.

Keisha Caine: It's like your first lock of hair from your first haircut. We would have nights where I would just sit up and hold him all night. Sometimes we were the only two awake in the house. We would talk and I would say, "Noah, one day this is going to go away, and your life is not going to always be this way." Oh, I got some good stuff. Aah. I knew we were going to beat it. Then we're going to create the best version of Noah we can create. Look at all these medals.

Noah Lyles: You don't have to pull them all out.

Keisha Caine: Doesn't matter. You still earned it. I have instilled in them like you are here for a purpose, and that is how legacies are created.

Speaker 1: Noah Lyles has always said he wanted to be the face of the sport. He wanted to be the next Usain Bolt. This is how you cement your legacy. Defend the throne.

Kousha Navidar: That's a clip from the docu-series Sprint, now on Netflix. Warren, can you tell us about Noah Lyles's work ethic as an athlete? How does he prepare for an upcoming race?

Warren Smith: Noah, obviously, is the showman. I think he likes to put himself front and center, but I think he's a very down-to-earth individual. I think Keisha, his mother, plays a huge part of that, which I believe we captured in season one. I think sometimes when people see the showman out there, they don't really realize the hard work that goes into getting there on the blocks, on a 100-meter race, whether it be the world championships or the Olympics, and a lot of hard work.

That hasn't just started now. That started as a child. He speaks in Season 1 about the fact that I don't think he participated in any sports until after he was seven years old because he wasn't able to, because the asthma. He's in and out of hospital all the time. Through the dedication of himself, I think his brother's also a professional athlete, and his mum and dad also were athletes.

I think it was very much the family business for the Lyles. I think he was always destined to make it into the track and field world. That hard work and dedication starts with early mornings, late finishes, training at the track. We've followed that. Our teams have had privileged access with Noah and all of the other athletes to be able to demonstrate. It isn't just turn up, and they're fast. They really are putting in the graft.

Kousha Navidar: One thing that you just said that really sparked interest for me is covering the full 360 nature of these athletes lives. It's not just one athlete, though. You have so many athletes that are at the top of their game, and you have to travel to several countries, speaking to so many people, current athletes, coaches, family members. How did you get all of these world-class athletes to be a part of the doc? Was that tough?

Warren Smith: It can be tough in a lot of sports. I actually think in the world of athletics, it wasn't as tough as maybe it can be in some of the other documentaries that we do. I think the reason for that is because the world needs this. The world wants this. These are the greatest and fastest human beings on the planet. I think for them, they want Netflix and the viewers to see that. I think they deserve it. Whether or not you take the Olympic Games this week, the basketball team there can win a gold medal, but they can go back to their NBA contracts and have this amazing career, aside from the Olympic Games.

For these sort of sprinters and all the other track and field athletes, this is their Super Bowl, this is their moment. I think we're trying to give them an opportunity to showcase themselves on the world stage. I think that's why they open the doors. I'm not saying it's always easy because dealing with the team in Jamaica or the team in the US, it needs it. I think the makeup that we try and build as a team from box to box is making sure that we have team members that can connect with those individuals, whether it be the coaches, the athletes, or the agents, which obviously also need to be spoken to.

Kousha Navidar: Like you said, you're offering a platform where otherwise there not might be one as readily available compared to some other sports. A text just came in about the docu-series. I want to read. It says, "I watched Sprint as a great lead-up to the Olympics. Got me super pumped for Olympic track. I'm a huge fan of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and loved seeing her highlighted in the doc. I was gutted that she had to pull out of the Olympics."

Listeners, thank you so much for that text. First of all, if you have a question for Warren, if you have seen this Sprint doc, if you have a favorite track and field person that was at the Olympics that you'd like to give a shout out to, give us a call, send us a text. We're at (212) 433-9692, it's (212) 433-WNYC. Warren, we also hear in the docuseries from retired athletes such as Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson, and Allyson Felix in the series. Let's listen to a clip of Bolt talking about Noah Lyles.

Usain Bolt: Noah Lyles is a great athlete. He's full of energy. He has the crowd mentally. He's very strong. He believes in himself. If he [unintelligible 00:09:52] I'm not going to be happy. [unintelligible 00:09:56] are meant to be broken. I wish him all the best, but it's not going to be easy.

Kousha Navidar: It's so funny to hear him say, I'm not going to be happy. What does he think about Noah Lyles's Persona as an athlete?

Warren Smith: I think Usain Bolt very much was a showman himself, and he's not wrong there. His world record is going to be very, very hard to beat in both the 100 and the 200 meters. I think Noah touches on it. You need star quality, you need main character energy, I think he says. I think Usain Bolt definitely had that. That's what this new wave of athletes have, whether it be in the female side of Sha'Carri or with Noah. They have this confidence in their ability that they can stand up there and say what they need to say about themselves and deliver on the world stage.

I think Usain Bolt was probably one of the biggest athletes in history to do that. Prior to him, I don't think a lot of the athletes maybe were doing that as much. Usain talk the talk, but he definitely walked the walk. It was a privilege to have him in our show. It was amazing to have him sit for an interview and just talk about the world of track and field because I don't think he's really done that since retiring a few years ago.

Kousha Navidar: Well, there are a lot of ways in which the documentary, I found, at least, goes into an element of sportsmanship, but also just being a sports challenger, that often doesn't get talked about. Think about mental health especially. There are so many moments that really hone in on how difficult being an athlete can really be on mental health. Why was that angle important to you?

Warren Smith: It's always important to understand what makes these athletes tick. It's a very isolated, individual sport. Yes, they work in teams, in training, but when they go out there on the start line, it's all down to themselves. They have amazing support teams behind them, whether it be coaches, masseuses, physios, etcetera. When they go on the line, they're also representing themselves, but they're representing their country. A lot of pressure comes with that. That ability to shut out the noise and focus on themselves, to run is really important.

Being able to deal with that and that process is a huge thing. Noah spoke quite freely during the Olympics about seeking help from a therapist and talking to people about how can he help himself be stronger mentally. Because essentially if you can feel like you are the best, because they are very, very fast, but they all need to have that edge, that 1.1% over their competitor. The mind is a powerful thing. If they can sort of focus that and make sure they're in the best mental state when they line up on the line, I think they're going to be in the best place to try and win the race.

Kousha Navidar: We've got a caller. Let's go to Paula Whitney in Crown Heights. Hey, Paula Whitney, welcome to the show.

Paula Whitney: Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking my call.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, sure.

Paula Whitney: I saw a lot of the track and field. I admire Noah Lyles's athleticism, but he's very disrespectful. He's not sportsmanlike. I don't respect that aspect of his game. That's all.

Kousha Navidar: Paula Whitney, thank you so much for that call. It brings into mind that showmanship element that you had mentioned, Warren, about how we as athletes, not by myself, but how those athletes present themselves to the public. It also reminds me of Sha'Carri Richardson reputation in the media, which is touched on in the documentary. She and many others have said maybe it isn't fair. Let's move to Sha'Carri. How does she deal with pressure of being in the spotlight?

Warren Smith: I think Sha'Carri is supported by an amazing team down in Florida that's led by the coach, Dennis Mitchell, who was a former athlete for the United States as well. I think for Sha'Carri, it's about, from what we were able to capture at least, it's about having that real great support unit with her. Obviously, she's an amazing talented who has been since being college athlete through to her professional career and winning a gold medal at the Olympics, as well as the silver in the hundred meters.

For us, it was documenting that and documenting what a brilliant relationship that she had with Coach Mitchell. I think that for us was a huge privilege to be able to see that. I think one of my favorite moments of Season 1 is between the 100-metre semi and 100-meters final, where Dennis has literally 20 minutes to change her mindset, talking about mental strength to change her mindset from almost not making it through to the final. She got through as a fastest loser and turning into a positive. He does it in just a few words where he walks us to the line and he says, I've just got one thing to say to you. Who's the fastest?

The hairs went up on the back of my neck when I saw that in the edit for the first time. Because for us to actually see those moments and to hear those moments was unbelievable. Obviously, the respect of Dennis, that's then in her head going into the 100-meters. Whether or not Sha'Carri would say that helped to get over the line, I'm not sure. For us, as program makers, we felt extremely lucky and privileged to be able to witness that. Hopefully,the viewers did as well.

Kousha Navidar: Yes. That that organic commentary and experience being able to capture it is really special. We got to take a quick break, but we'll be back. We're talking to Warren Smith, the executive producer of Sprint, the docu-series available on Netflix now. Going to take a break. When we come back, more of your texts and talking about more of the athletes that the docu-series highlights. Stay with us.

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Kousha Navidar: This is all of it on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, and we are talking about the docu-series Sprint, now available on Netflix. We're talking with the executive producer Warren Smith. Sprint looks at some of the fastest people in the world getting ready to run in the track and field events at the Paris Olympics. Before the break, we had talked about the mental state that we see with a lot of these athletes, some of the mental challenges. There are some tough moments in the doc, Warren, when these super competitive athletes lose, and they're angry. Did you talk to them ahead of time about including the tough moments and what their feelings about showing this much vulnerability were? What was that like?

Warren Smith: Yes, a clear example of that is someone like Marcell Jacobs, who is the current Olympic champion. Before the show airs on Netflix, we always like to be able to show the athletes what's coming up and basically so they're aware before it drops on platform. What was really refreshing is Marcell's take, which was a pretty tricky year coming into it as Olympic champion, but not even qualifying for the world championship finals and just being hit by injury after injury. The brilliant thing about it is he watched the show and went, "You know what? You captured it perfectly."

It's exactly how it played out for me. For me, it's sort of that's where at box to box, how we really hope to-- The success of our shows is when the athletes and the people that feature watch them backs, they actually say, "You know what? That was what it was like." Obviously, not every time everybody's going to be a winner, especially in a sport like track and field, there can only be one winner. There's a podium, there's three people that can get a medal, but really there can be only one winner.

There's going to be a lot of people that are disappointed with their final result. Navigating that wasn't a too tricky, actually, because I think people realize that I've got to go again. I want to do it in the Olympic year. I want to prove that I can get Olympic medal. For us, that's been a great transition into Season 2 where we're able to follow [unintelligible 00:17:52] Marcell Jacobs, you'll see this in the second season.

He's changed everything in his life. He's actually moved to the United States. He's changed his coach. We film him having his first-ever Thanksgiving. Everything that happened. He moved away from family and friends to try and help himself going into the Olympics. I think that's the thing. People need to feel those rock bottoms so that they can follow athletes on either a rise next season.

Kousha Navidar: You're talking about those rock bottoms, and you say there's only one winner in a race, which is true. In these races, like we saw last week, thousandths of a second is what separates them. That rock bottom, it can feel really hard. You mentioned Marcell, there's also Shericka Jackson that I'm thinking of. There's this part of the documentary talking about Sherika finishing behind Sha'Carri in the women's 100-meter race on her 29th birthday back in 2023. Let's listen to that clip.

Speaker 2: You have to know how to bounce back from a bad race or a race that you think you could have executed properly. The race already gone. There's nothing you can do. I know probably when I get back, coach will tell me what I did wrong. Like, "Oh, I feel like I got a good start." He was like, "No, I don't think that was the best part of the race." For me, I think they made mistakes. Now, we ready by world championship. World championship is the goal.

Kousha Navidar: Warren, how do you think these setbacks also affect the athlete's reputation in terms of what fans are expecting from them.

Warren Smith: A sport like athletics is an interesting one because it's not like a golf tournament or a tennis tournament where they turn up every week, and every single person goes against each other, and you can win. The track and field world, they always try and avoid each other as much as possible so that when they land at the Olympics or the world championships, they're not fatigued about that.

In Season 1, we see probably for the first time that season, Sha'Carri and Shericka coming up against each other. I think it fuels those athletes going past that. I think someone like Shericka ended up with the gold medal in the 200, Sha'Carri in the 100. All in all, they both ended up successful in [inaudible 00:20:21] and in their 2023 athletic season.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, there's so much to cover. You shot clearly so much content. How did you make the hard choices about what to leave on the cutting room floor?

Warren Smith: Look, across all of our shows, whether it be Drive to Survive, Full Swing and Sprint, there is always stories that are left there, but what we hope for is some of those narratives can play out in future seasons. For example, there's athletes that maybe didn't quite make it into season one, but probably will be prevalent in season two because they've come through. Aatually, we had an amazing ability to build trust and be around those athletes during Season 1. If it doesn't make Season 1, it doesn't mean it is always gone.

There's always an opportunity for it to come back. We hope that we're going to be around the track and field world for a long time. There is stuff that you lose sometimes. You think, well, that was a brilliant moment, but we can only make, I think it's six 45-minutes episodes in season one. There is always going to be moments that you love but just can't make it into the series.

Kousha Navidar: Any lessons that you learned from that experience that you're applying to Season 2?

Warren Smith: I think the lessons that we learn about these shows are making sure that-- As I said earlier, the athletes watch it back and say, that's the moment. Making sure you don't leave things out that really were pivotal for their year, I think that's the key thing. The worst case scenario is, we can manage it when people-- I think sometimes it's very sad where people aren't in the season, and they felt they will be, but as I say, I think those are the lessons, is just making sure that we're capturing the real narrative.

Sometimes it isn't always about who wins. Some of the best stories are about those people that nearly make it or sometimes finishing just outside the medals is as dramatic and as emotionally driving as a narrative than actually getting gold. As a production, as producers, that's our key, to make sure that we're hunting out all the narratives for all eight people that line up on the block.

Kousha Navidar: It's so interesting that you just brought that up because we got this text here that I think is spot on. It says, "Thanks, Warren. Looking forward to the next season of Sprint. Would be great to feature some of the outlier athletes from smaller islands like St. Lucia, Dominica, Granada, et cetera, who are getting medals with tiny budgets for Olympic level games. This is from Philippe from the small village of Brooklyn with," with three emojis, a bicep flex, sunglasses and crying, laughing emoji.

Just want a journalistic integrity. That's the full text there. About two minutes left in this segment. Looking at Philippe's text, for you at Paris right now, what was super exciting for you to see at those games after working with these athletes for so long?

Warren Smith: The most exciting thing, I would say is probably one of the most exciting moments of my career, was I stood at the finish line of the 100 meters in the Paris stadium with our camera crews, and we looked at eight athletes lining up. We knew that every single one of those athletes, we had their narrative to tell. The men's race in particular, any one of those could have won, and we could have told that story.

In fact, we got probably the greatest ever 100-metre race documented. We've been following, whether it be Letsile Tebogo, whether it be Noah Lyles, Fred Kerley, Marcell Jacobs. We had it covered. To answer that text, Julien Alfred from St. Lucia, she's very much going to feature in Season 2 and obviously winning the gold medal. We feel very privileged that these athletes have given us the opportunity to follow them over the last year, year and a half.

Kousha Navidar: I got to ask, has it made you more interested in getting outside and running? I don't know if you're a runner, but has there been any reverse osmosis inspiration for you in your life?

Warren Smith: Yes, I'm going to tell you, the next sports day at my child's school, I'm winning that race. Now, I've watched the athletes, and I've seen them run. I feel like I've got the technique.

Kousha Navidar: Did you learn any technique? What's something interesting about the training? A little tidbit. We've got about 30 seconds left. Are there any tidbits?

Warren Smith: My problem is if I ran in a race like that, I'd probably pull my hamstring. I think it's the power that they push back on and actually push down into the ground. I think sometimes you feel you need to be light. When you watch someone like Kishane Thompson, who is Jamaican athlete that got the silver medal, the power that they generate through the track, pushing down that force is just something that you cannot believe the power that these athletes hold. I'm not sure I'll ever have that power, unfortunately.

Kousha Navidar: Well, at least, we can watch the documentary and live it out vicariously. Warren Smith is one of the executive producers of the series Sprint. You can watch it now on Netflix. Warren, thank you much for your work and for hanging out today. Really appreciate it.

Warren Smith: Well, thank you very much for having me.

Kousha Navidar: All right, that's our show for today. Coming up tomorrow, food writer and recipe developer Kiano Moju fuses Kenyan and Nigerian culinary traditions with California culture to create delicious, unique meals. Coming up on tomorrow's show, she joins us to talk about some of the dishes featured in her new cookbook, AfriCali. Hope you all have a great day. Enjoy the weather. Stay safe. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Take care.

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