If you loved the Paris Olympics or enjoyed the debut of the Netflix docuseries SPRINT, there’s good news. The second installment will be here soon. SPRINT Part 2 debuts on Nov. 13.
The four-episode series will follow track and field athletes such as Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson, Julien Alfred, Letsile Tebogo, Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha “TeeTee” Terry, and others at the trials and the Games. SPRINT is from the same team behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and is a Box to Box Films production.
To learn more about what viewers should expect, we recently caught up with co-executive producer Suemay Oram. We talked to her about the challenges of putting together Part 2’s 45-minute episodes after the Olympics and also about the future of SPRINT now that the 2024 Games are over.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: Why should someone watch SPRINT Part 2?
Suemay Oram: “Because this is the first time we’ve had this incredible access to the Olympics. I feel like this is an amazing behind-the-scenes moment where we get to see a variety of athletes from a variety of different countries at their highest level. Also, it’s important for them to understand the behind-the-scenes story of what happened during the 100 meters and everything that led up to that moment.
“It’s also interesting to understand how all the work the athletes put in to get to the Olympics, from their trials, the U.S. trials, the Jamaica trials, and to finally end up in Paris. Because I feel that what many people see are just the athletes at that starting line, and understanding the journey it took them to get to that starting line is the most incredible story.”
How is Part 2 different from Part 1?
“Part 2 is completely different in terms of that it’s the journey to Paris. It’s the Olympics, so the biggest spectacle of all time, the biggest race of their life. We also feature a lot more different athletes. It’s all different because the stories are different. The people are different. What they’re doing at that point in time is different. We’re in Jamaica. Their narrative arc, and their journeys as characters change. The stakes are much higher in Part 2. It’s the Olympics.”
What were some of the challenges?
“We had to work with the (International Olympic Committee) very closely for about six to seven months before the Olympics to understand the parameters. Communication is a bit more difficult during the Olympics. You can’t have (direct communication) among yourselves. So we had to make sure our team knew what they were doing at every moment, what kinds of stories we were following, and what we hoped to achieve since we couldn’t communicate with each other once everyone split up. That was one of the biggest challenges, but it was also to understand how little time we’re able to have with athletes. Therefore, we had to maximize every hour and moment we got with them.”
How many people did you have at the Olympics?
“There are lots of meets during the whole calendar for the athletes. So we had to decide which meets we were going to and which athletes we might follow. We knew this season was four episodes. The last season was six. We knew two episodes would be in Paris, so we were careful with what we wanted to film. We knew we wanted to film the U.S. trials and then also the Jamaican trials.
“Episode 1 is U.S. trials. Episode 2 is mainly about the Jamaican trials. In terms of people, we have a massive team on the ground and in the edit. We turned this season around pretty quickly so that it could hit Nov. 13. In Paris itself, we had accreditation for 14 people within the stadium, which isn’t a huge amount if you’re thinking that you’re following multiple athletes at the same time. That’s not just the camera crew. That’s the whole team.”
Is there one athlete’s story you found most compelling?
“I was interested in Kishane’s story. Kishane is featured heavily in Episode 2. Kishane Thompson from Jamaica, and was at that point the fastest man in the world. He got 9.77 during his Jamaican trials. He was interesting because he’s not very well known yet. He’s quite a shy, but extremely powerful athlete who is going to go super far. So it was great to get the first interview with him.
“The other story that I liked telling was Julien Alfred. She comes from a small island. I think there’s about 180,000 people there. They’ve never won an Olympic medal. So, to have her at the Olympics, and knowing she could be the first person to win a medal was incredibly high stakes and exciting for us. We had been filming with her prior to the Olympics because she’d been doing well in all the indoor championships.
We knew that she was a big contender. It’s incredible as filmmakers to be present at a true moment when someone makes their dream come true. You’ll see it in the film. It’s like one of the most touching moments in the film when she realizes that she’s an Olympic champion and that she’s got the first medal ever for her country.”
What reactions did you get from Noah Lyles’ photo finish victory at the 100-meter dash?
“It was incredible because they crossed the finish line. No one knew what happened. The whole stadium went quiet. Everyone was looking at the board. You look at the board and see everyone’s names and it says ‘photo, photo, photo, photo’ on the board. Noah tells us that he thought Kishane had won. He told Kishane ‘I think it’s yours, man.’ And then we hear it’s Noah Lyles.
You can see the camera panning from Kishane, because everyone thought it was Kishane, to Noah. I think Noah’s in total disbelief, but then he just runs around the stadium, which is something everyone saw. But when he comes out, he’s overjoyed and just runs through that tunnel screaming. The moment he hugs his coach Lance (Brauman). It’s beautiful because they’ve worked so hard together to achieve this. I think we’re the only ones that managed to capture that.”
The AMAZING race that made Noah Lyles an Olympic gold medalist! 🔥 #ParisOlympicspic.twitter.com/diY0Ny1dxf
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 4, 2024
Were there moments you wish you caught on film for SPRINT?
“Because we had a certain amount of people on the ground and in the stadium, we couldn’t capture everyone’s reaction. We had to make decisions. Do we go with the coach? Do we go with the family? And we were also guessing who’s going to win. Who should we be with? If we had had more cameras, we could have captured more reactions, which is where a lot of the emotion that no one sees is. As filmmakers, we’d always like to have more cameras.”
What’s next for the SPRINT series?
“We would love for there to be a Season 3, but we don’t know yet. Netflix will be the one to decide maybe after this comes out, depending on how many people watch it or how it does and what the new stories are. But the World Championships next year are in Tokyo. I think it would be incredible to go there. There are many more stories to tell, and new athletes keep appearing.”
What’s next for you?
“I’m at Box to Box Films for a while. I’m working on a couple of different projects with them. We’ll see what gets commissioned in the next few months.”
What recent documentaries have impressed you?
“The latest docs I found brilliant: 20 Days in Mariupol, Still, the doc about Michael J. Fox brilliantly edited by my favorite editor (Michael Harte). The Cranes Call looks at the process behind war crime investigation. American Nightmare was brilliant, and I’ve just watched Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. Incredible film.”
