The series, which will be released on Netflix on July 2, is of particular interest to us because some of its parts are set in the Hungarian capital due to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest: Episode 5, for example, begins with “Beautiful Budapest, Paris… The East is an amazing city.” We see the Parliament, the Castle, Hösök Square, the symbolic places of the capital, and Netflix users all over the world see the same thing, so it is also good that Budapest is included in the documentary series for the image of the country.
Image: Netflix
Budapest World Athletics Championships: A great directorial success
It turns out at the beginning of the episode, as many have guessed, that everyone comes here in their best form, everyone is under a lot of pressure, and in a non-Olympic year, the World Championships are clearly the most important sporting event. As the athletes arrive, we see the streets of Budapest, children taking pictures with the stars, and the huge media hype that accompanies a global event.
Image: Netflix
The commentator describes the stadium, the National Sports Centre, as impressive, and doesn't forget to mention that there were several events with the hall full, and 35,000 people came out at the same time, which is really big. The race was attended by more than two thousand athletes (including many runners), and the commentator was very excited: “Can you feel the ground shaking?” he asks as the celebrating fans stand on the screen.
Image: Netflix
At the start of the episode, the subject is clearly the men’s 100m flat, which – perhaps not a spoiler, a year later – was won by Noah Lyles ahead of Letsile Tebogo and Zarnel Hughes. We see the athletes tease each other, and we get an insight into the press conference, the build-up, and the drama of the moments leading up to the competition, even for those who don’t watch the sport on TV anyway.
In athletics, of course, every hundredth or thousandth of a second counts: those who get off to a bad start in a sprint have almost no chance, and those who didn’t sleep well the night before and aren’t 100 percent fit will lose. The podium is easily missed. “It takes a special talent, both physically and mentally, to succeed in a world where your fate is decided in just 10 seconds,” Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, told Netflix last year.
Sprint captures every split second of the long journey from the 2023 World Cup to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The series is produced by Paul Martin, James Jay Rees and Warren Smith.
