PARIS — Christopher Morales-Williams is an Olympic rookie, a teenager running against 30-year-olds who have cars and kids and reputations, but his eyes were most definitely on the same prize as theirs.
He was having none of that repechage nonsense.
Still winded from a 44.96-second lap around the 400-metre track at Stade de France, it took the 19-year-old from Vaughan, Ont. just a little bit longer to describe his first Games appearance.
“You know, I kind of got out, felt pretty good, and then I was kind of maintaining, but I was a little worried. If I go out too fast, am I going to have it?”
Fair question. He ran two Diamond League races in July — one in Monaco, another in London — and was gassed down the stretch, finishing a distant sixth in each. It was his first exposure on the pro circuit after dominating at the NCAA level for the University of Georgia. He won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles and ran 44.05 seconds in May, a time that led the world until American Quincy Hall and then Brit Matthew Hudson-Smith pipped him.
So there he was on Sunday, talking to himself down the backstretch, deciding he wouldn’t push as hard through the second 100 metres as he did the first.
“I played it kind of safe,” he said. “And then on the third hundred, I kind of was like, okay, I actually feel really good. Like, let me pick it up a little bit. And I saw people starting to pass me … but I wasn’t like stressed about it.
“I was just in myself, I kind of dug deep. I was like, nah, I’m not getting out this round. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to run that junky round tomorrow. You know what I mean?
“So I just kind of found it in me, started digging deep. And I was like, okay, let me actually like start running. And you know what I mean? Like, you know, kind of go. And I kind of found the extra gear — ran, ran, ran — saw like where I was. Okay, I’m in second place. And then just kind of dipped through the line.”
And that is how you navigate your first Olympic race alongside sprinters you grew up watching, like Kirani James. The Grenada native won their heat, ahead of Morales-Williams, who sought him out afterwards.
“I just said, I’m a big fan. And he said likewise. I’m just some kid. But I don’t know, I guess they know who I am, right? And it’s just like 10 years ago I was watching this guy run. Now I’m racing him. Like what the heck? It’s crazy. Like you would never expect that.”
Morales-Williams has been hanging out with fellow Olympians at the athletes’ village, and he talked to his college coach about the atmosphere and experience, but until you settle into the blocks on that purple track, you just don’t know enough. Now he does. He talked himself into some confidence and backed it up by automatically qualifying for the semi-finals.
There will be some big names beside his on the start list, and some of them have kids and cars and reputations. But they didn’t run the Southeast Conference Championships this year, and Morales-Williams still thinks that was a harder race than the one he ran Sunday. That’s highly debatable, but if it works for you, by all means.
“Now I just go out there and have fun,” he said. “I have nothing to lose, right? If I lose, I just go back to school and continue on with my life, right? But these guys are like, you know, 30 years old. They got like cars and kids. I don’t even own a car. Like I don’t have to pay for gas. So it’s like, what do I even need to worry about? Like spending money on like pencils and like a notebook.”
He did go to school here though, in a way. He learned how a big meet really works, with massive crowd making all kinds of noise. And he learned to make it small in his mind.
“It’s actually awesome having a crowd, but it’s just the race. Like it’s the same distance. It’s not like it’s extra, 405 meters, something like that. So it’s like everything’s the same. And I realized that you got to kind of run almost your best each round.”
He gets another chance to do that in the semi-final on Tuesday, not in that junky round on Monday.