The 27-year-old sprinter has not set foot on a track in competition since his two triumphs in Tokyo, in the 100m and with the Italian 4x100m relay.

And to prepare for his return, he granted a few interviews, not evading the delicate questions.

"As an athlete representing my country, I will never do anything that could tarnish my reputation or that of my nation", he thus hammered last week in a long interview with the British daily Daily Telegraph, which told him asked if he had taken prohibited products in his career.

Jacobs stunned the athletics world by winning the Olympic 100m title in 9 sec 80/100 (European record), just three months after dropping below ten seconds for the first time in his life.

His title of European indoor champion in the 60m, acquired last winter in 6 sec 47/100, had already raised some eyebrows.

Experts wondered how such rapid progress was possible without the aid of doping.

Especially since his nutritionist Giacomo Spazzini found himself implicated in recent months in a case of anabolics, before finally being completely cleared by the Italian justice in January.

"Blood, Sweat and Tears"

By way of explanation, Jacobs suggests that for a very long time he gave priority in his career to the long jump, only opting for the sprint later in life.

Such a leap in performance "happens if you come from another discipline", he assures, "the fact of not having worked the 100m all your life allows you to progress more and faster".

"My victories, he adds, are the result of extremely hard work, work that no one has seen, work with blood, sweat, tears and wounds".

Still, the enthusiasm that his medals aroused in Italy was partly tarnished by doubts, immediately reinforced by his decision to end his season abruptly on the evening of the Tokyo Games.

"I needed to regenerate my body and my mind," he justified in the interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Exactly 187 days after his triumph in Japan, Jacobs arrives in Berlin after a month of intensive preparation in Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands.

He affirms that he has not set himself any chronometric objective for this return to school: "To expect the European record (6 sec 42/100 from Dwain Chambers) would be risky", he warned the Italian media, "but c is my goal for the indoor season".

Italian Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs poses for photographers upon his arrival at the Monza motor racing circuit on September 12, 2021 in Monza MIGUEL MEDINA AFP/Archives

"The first race must prepare for the following: rediscover the sensations, the fluidity of the race, the dynamics. I'm not going to run in Berlin to set a time, my goal will be to win", he adds.

© 2022 AFP