As Season 2 of the Netflix observe and discipline collection SPRINT premiered on Wednesday, one of many star athletes featured, Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, has already voiced his disappointment. The 21-year-old sprinter was annoyed with what he noticed as an American bias within the docuseries, which follows the world’s high sprinters and their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
That is an American present.
— Letsile Tebogo (@tebogo_letsile_) November 13, 2024
Tebogo, who made historical past for Botswana by profitable two medals on the Olympics—one in every of them being the nation’s first-ever gold—doesn’t seem till 22 minutes into the ultimate episode. The collection had promised to function Tebogo, alongside notable Olympians reminiscent of Noah Lyles, Gabby Thomas, Fred Kerley, Kishane Thompson, Julien Alfred, Kenny Bednarek, Shericka Jackson and Indirect Seville. Nevertheless, Tebogo felt the main focus skewed closely towards the 4 American athletes, significantly Lyles.
Tebogo took to X to share his disappointment, sharing he was excited to look at however felt the present was overly targeted on American athletes, with him portrayed extra as a supporting character to the American sprinters.
His sentiments echo these of Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith, Africa’s 100m report holder from Ivory Coast, who additionally criticized the Field To Field producers earlier this 12 months after SPRINT Season 1 excluded her from the ultimate minimize, regardless of intensive filming. “I really feel actually disrespected, as a result of if you say you’ll produce a collection concerning the quickest sprinters on the earth, you need to present everybody, not solely those that win,” Ta Lou-Smith shared with The Inside Lane. She highlighted the necessity for equal illustration, noting, “I’m the African report holder; I deserve respect.”
The documentary collection is produced by Paul Martin at Field to Field Movies, the identical manufacturing firm behind different Netflix successes reminiscent of Full Swing and System 1: Drive to Survive. On social media, observe followers have begun calling on the producers at Field-To-Field Movies to contemplate a extra worldwide method in future seasons, noting that they appeared to have disregarded the American bias from Season 1.
Opinion: 4 explanation why Netflix’s collection “SPRINT” falls brief
