The Clutch Award and the MVP of the Year commemorate athletes with stellar performance across the charts throughout the year. Track and field also saw some underdogs emerge as excellent contenders while reigning champions put on an equally compelling show. Veterans Rodney Green and Justin Gatlin sat down to discuss their favorites and who deserved the awards this year.
Green kicked off the conversation by immediately choosing Botswanian sprinter Letsile Tebogo as his candidate for the MVP Award. Tebogo, who recorded personal bests in almost every category he participated in this season, managed to stun the public with his pace. The Olympics was only a glimpse of his capabilities, and Green firmly believed he was a promising candidate.
While the 2023 World Championships were quite dramatic, with Noah Lyles winning the 100 m title, Tebogo closely followed him to snag the silver. That just marked one of several moments where the 21-year-old showcased his true potential.
Tebogo ended his season with multiple Diamond League wins in the 200m category, including Silesia, Lausanne, and Zurich. Maintaining a consistent timing while impressing the world with his talent, Gatlin was forced to agree that the Botswanian made the perfect candidate for the MVP Award.
Meanwhile, when the discussion landed upon Lyles and his performance this year, Gatlin felt he deserved an honorable mention for the MVP Award. However, Green seemed to nail it down perfectly when he offered the 27-year-old the Clutch Award instead.
Both veterans agreed that Lyles may not have had the best year, but he still showed up and challenged everyone’s opinions about him at the Olympic 100m sprint. Winning gold and bronze added to his credibility and proved why he was one of the stronger contenders on the track.
“Noah was not favored for the 100m, and he stepped up to the plane, and he challenged everybody in the world, and went out there, and won the 100m.”
Given the super-close competition, with every contender recording similar timings, Lyles’ dominance grew at the Olympics because of the feat.
The duo also mentioned Quincy Wilson and Matthew Hudson-Smith as candidates for their Clutch Award. These athletes showed up with promising timings for the 400m sprints, and while they could still do better, the possibility of dominance was at its peak.
Yet, in the end, Tebogo was the MVP, and Lyles came in the Clutch for both Gatlin and Green. The former just had his best season with some jaw-dropping records, while the latter beat expectations to emerge successful, offering the potential to do better.
