Olympics-Athletics-Rejuvenated Jacobs says he'll fight to keep 100m title

By Lori Ewing

PARIS (Reuters) - While Italy's Marcell Jacobs has been largely quiet since shocking the field with his Olympic 100-metres victory in Tokyo, the 29-year-old said he is a different but better sprinter now than he has been in a while.

He has a new home in Jacksonville, Fla., and a new coach in Rana Reider, leaving his longtime coach Paolo Camossi in September after two injury-plagued seasons.

"I am a completely different athlete from Tokyo, and the important thing is the work," Jacobs said at a media event Wednesday at Puma House.

"I worked really hard the last year. I have no injuries. Last year I said the important thing for this year was no injury, stay healthy and win the Olympic Games. So we are healthy. So now the focus is winning the Olympic Games."

Jacobs came out of seemingly nowhere to capture Italy's first ever 100m gold in Tokyo in a European record 9.80 seconds, and then completed the double by leading the 4x100m relay to victory.

But he largely fell off the radar soon after that, and when conversations turned to the world's fastest man his name was rarely mentioned.

At last year's world championships in Budapest, he failed to make the final.

In June, however, Jacobs won the European title and then clocked a respectable 9.92 two weeks later for the world's 13th fastest time this season among a jam-packed 100m field.

And on Wednesday he was keen to declare he is back at the Olympic Games with a singular focus: to retain his title.

"I'm the Olympic champion. I want to win again," Jacobs said. "I know what I can do. I won the 100m at the Olympic Games. I worked really hard to get here to win again."

Jacobs' post-Tokyo struggles were chronicled in the popular Netflix docuseries "Sprint," with the cameras capturing a vulnerable side to the Italian, who was not entirely comfortable with his newfound fame.

Jacobs said the documentary was great for showing fans how unforgiving the life of an athlete can be.

"People don't know how much work is behind the race," he said. "It's important people understand, it's not easy, you push your body at the limits every day. So it's normal if maybe you have some injury or some problems."

Asked if it was difficult to watch his struggles played out again in the Netflix show, Jacobs said "No, no, no, no, it was not difficult because I know it.

"Of course I know what happened last year, a lot of problem, a lot of injury, so for that I decided at the end of the (2023) season to change everything. No, I use (the show) for energy."

(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Hugh Lawson)