Correction: A previous version of this episode misidentified Josh Kerr, the British middle-distance runner, as Sam Kerr, the Australian soccer player. The audio has been updated to remove the error.

At the last Summer Olympics, not a single American man won gold in track. This year, track superstars, including Noah Lyles, are trying to set the record straight on Paris’s purple track. The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace speaks with reporter Adam Kilgore about the start of track and field and which men and women to watch.

Check out this Post story about how the Swedish-American pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis keeps setting new world records in his sport.

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Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Joe Tone.