Christian Olsson of Sweden winning the Triple Jump in Berlin Golden League meeting (© Getty Images)
Soon after claiming athletics' biggest single financial award this year, Christian Olsson offered perhaps the understatement of the year.
“It feels like it just tops the season off with a really, really big exclamation point!”
Indeed, there was little the 24-year-old Swede could do to cap what was already a brilliant 2004 campaign. Beginning with a successful defence of his World Indoor title – while equalling the indoor World record in the process - Olsson added the Olympic crown to his growing list of achievements, won all but one of his competitions, including a perfect six-for-six in the TDK Golden League to earn half of the million dollar jackpot.
“I’m very pleased to go this far in the Jackpot race,” Olsson said. “The Olympics is one thing - a very big thing. But in the Golden League, you have to be prepared six times to go against the eight best jumpers in the world.”
He accomplished just that with wins in Bergen, Rome, Paris, Zurich, Brussels and now Berlin. At the Olympic Stadium here, Olsson got things off to what appeared to be a rocky start with a first round 16.60, but it had little to do with nerves or the pressure of the jackpot. “I was really surprised with the bounce in the runway,” the Swede explained. “On the step [phase] I bounced sideways, and aborted the jump. But I knew how the runway would react so I came back with a much better jump.”
He regrouped with a 17.45 leap in the second round, his best on the day, and 22 centimetres better than runner-up Walter Davis’s best effort. Despite the wide winning margin, Olsson said there was nothing easy about the competition.
“I didn’t think it was going to be easy,” Olsson remarked. “Walter Davis gave a taste of what he was capable of, so it definitely wasn’t easy.” Davis’s leap came in the last jump of the last round; when Olsson saw the result, and with victory assured, he passed on his final attempt, choosing instead to take his victory lap and accept the congratulations of his competitors.
Despite his season long dominance in his event, Olsson reiterated prior to the competition that nothing is a certainty in athletics.
“It’s not meant to be easy to win the jackpot,” he said. “Maybe that’s why there [were] only two of us. I’m very mentally tired, but physically I’m Okay. After Athens, I prepared myself as best as I could. Motivation in training wasn’t so high, but I felt pretty good during those training sessions. I’m a very greedy person but, half a million dollars, I’ll be content with that.”
Reflecting back on his season, Olsson said he felt much more fresh during last Friday’s competition in Brussels. “Today felt like it was hard to beat that 17.45. I lost some motivation, I lost that spark from last week.”
In hindsight, Olsson said that his lone loss of the year, in Stockholm where he was defeated by Marian Oprea, had come at the right time.
“I think in the beginning I was very disappointed that my victory streak was broken, but now when I look back at it I felt that it was probably very good for me,” Olsson said. “I got stuck in that I was winning and winning, and I couldn’t really appreciate it. I think when I lost at Stockholm, it worked as a catalyst for me and my motivation. I could go back and train like I was number two again. Instead of training as number one. If you train like number one there’s only one way to go, and that’s down.”
Olsson watched the women’s 400 metres intently, and after seeing Tonique Williams-Darling cross the line with a world-leading 49.07, he said he had nothing but the utmost respect for the Bahamian Olympic champion, who claimed the other half of the jackpot.
“I was really impressed by her. Running that time at this point of the season shows that she is a great athlete, a big star.”
After his win, the question on many minds was a simple one: What does he plan to do with his prize?
“I haven’t thought that much about it,” Olsson admitted. “But I’m sure I’ll save most of it for the future, for my post-athletics future.”
More immediately though, he said he’ll go in search of Berlin’s finest Japanese restaurant, for a feast of sushi and champagne.
Presumably, he’ll pick up the tab.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
