The noise is the first thing everyone mentions. They can hear the hubbub as they wait for their race to be called, and it builds as they walk through the warren of corridors, towards the little square of light that may as well be a threshold between the here and the hereafter. And then, as they emerge on to the purple track, the explosion: an assault on the eardrums and eyeballs, the sound of a new and unfamiliar world opening before them.
Because there is a kind of parallel Olympics taking place as the track and field programme opens on Friday morning. While the likes of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Sha’Carri Richardson stroll through the arena in a state of total nonchalance, dodging swarms of photographers, for many of the athletes taking part in the preliminary round of the women’s 100m, this is about as big a crowd as any of them will have experienced.
