Nobody is picking Michael Norman to medal

If it was in April at a needless meet, then yes, bet the farm.

He eithers gets gold or sixth

I have him as silver behind MHS.

That's not a bad pick either. But we don't know how fast Norman would have gone in that London diamond league. Maybe faster than 43.74.

Who?

I knew him in HS and was acquaintances with his close friends. He's always been a super talent with an awesome personality, but is actually pretty fragile in terms of injuries. In HS, apparently he would have a lot of hiccups during the season and his coaches were careful in pacing him for long term development. If he can pull it together for the final, then I believe that he can win it pretty easily.

Yep. I'm one of those nobodies. There is something quite inconsistent about his performances.

He is being overlooked.

Crazy

Gardiner and James are more likely to be overlooked but perform best in the finals. They both have a spectacular record of delivering on the biggest occasions.

I have Gardiner for the win, but James just outside of the medals.

I like his talent but he feels very inconsistent(somebody mentioned injury prone). He's been running 43s since 2018 with only one individual medal to show for it and he only ran 44.29(had a 43.6 and 43.56 earlier in the season) to get it on the superfast Eugene track.

Fastest PR from 20 years ago means nothing. What has he done lately?

2019: 43.45 SB, backs it up with 43.79 at USAs, doesn't come close to making the world final

2021: wins USAs in 44.07, comes fifth in Tokyo in 44.31 (44.07 would've got silver)

2022: runs 43.60 at Pre, backs it up with 43.56 in Eugene, then somehow only runs 44.29 in the Worlds final but manages to take the win (in what was the slowest winning time in recent history)

2023: complete write-off year

Picking him for gold is frankly delusional. He's been in far better shape than he is right now and not medalled. Based on his talent he should've won every championship since 2019 (2021 if factoring in long collegiate season in 2019). I really don't know what the issue is either since he is actually incredibly disciplined in his diet and training. Maybe it's a mental thing.

That aside, he's had to get multiple PRP this year and said at USAs that he hadn't really sprinted (in training) the entire year. Make of that what you will. If he's gotten better now, then maybe he's ready to unleash his annual 43.5 at the right time for once

"Yellow fever"

Your 2nd question isn't really relevant (but to answer: never - although Louis Hinchliffe is mixed Asian and white and did so this year, I seem to recall a fully Japanese 200m medalist from 2003 as well. And of course we have Su Bingtian). You're using confirmation bias, there are plenty of people with 2 black parents without the genetics required to be Michael Norman, and plenty of people with 2 Japanese parents with better sprinting genetics than several demographics of fully black people. Simply having a parent of a certain race guarantees nothing.

I’m picking your mom to medal

I got him in bronze. I hate to say it, since we shared a moment at Beppe & Gianna’s, but he is a head case and he has legit competition this year, so he will be scrapping to get to finals, may not get a good lane and will be the underdog.