An imprisoned father and 13 children under the same roof: the childhood of Fred Kerley, the new king of speed

• Chronicle McGregor's gestures and a single "USA, USA": the apathetic celebration of the triplet in the 100 meters of the United States

"Without her I probably wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be an elite athlete and who knows what would become of me. Aunt

, the woman who raised me, the woman who made me who I am. I was two years old when I moved in with her I was a baby then, I didn't know what was going on around me. My dad went to jail and my mom took a wrong path in life so Aunt Virginia was the only one who could take care of me and my four siblings. Meme, as we call her, raised her children, her brother's children and her sister's children, that is, us. In total, 13 children living under the same roof."

, the new 100m world champion,

writes about his childhood in Taylor, a Texas town near Austin, about his harsh personality, about his life.

Watching him celebrate his title yesterday at the Eugene World Cup, it is impossible not to empathize: blows to the chest, gestures of self-affirmation copied from the fighter

, a vindication of himself.

After everything you've been through, it makes sense.

His story is supposed in the statistics books: he is the first 400-meter runner, bronze in that distance in the last World Cup in Doha, who becomes a pure sprinter and triumphs.

But really, that's the least of it.

Because what defines Kerley, what makes him who he is, is not the specialty in which he was trained on the slopes, but how he lived those first years of his life.

As he himself admitted in that writing in 'Spikes', today he could be dead or in jail.

Football and tattoos

"In my teens I saw a lot of people get off track, even family members, even very close friends. A lot of gifted teens who didn't thrive. I still see them on Instagram to this day and remember how talented they were. They were great, but suddenly when they finished school high school, they took the same path as their older brothers. I thought differently. Since I was very little I convinced myself that I couldn't do that, that I couldn't end up like them. I wanted to have studies, travel the world, get ahead. track and field allowed me to do that and my aunt helped me through the process," Kerley said of her origins.

When he was a child he got used to training, to training a lot, whatever sport it was.

At his high school, Taylor High School, he was a standout in football and basketball, but a broken collarbone in his senior year diverted his college career into track and sprinting in particular. .

Even today, his favorite sport is football, to which several of his many cousins ​​are dedicated: one of them, Jeremy Kerley, played eight seasons in the NFL, most of it with the New York Jets.

With him he still goes to the local parish where he spent all his childhood on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons.

With him he became a fervent believer.

A psalm and Bolt's record

"Praise, my soul, the Lord! Lord my God, you are great; you have clothed yourself with glory and majesty", can be read under his ribs on the right side of his torso, Psalm 104, his first tattoo.

As he admitted a few years ago, he did it when he was only 12 years old in a street stall without any type of health insurance.

Then came the rest, up to 11. Towards one of them, 'Blessed', 'blessed', he directed the eyes of the public yesterday after winning the final of the 100 meters.

He made it far short of the mark he had promised, but it didn't matter either.

He had ensured that he could threaten

's world record (9.58 seconds) and was one world away (9.86);

next time he will try again.

At 27 years old and with the 2024 Paris Olympics as his goal, he can still be among the best in history in the hectometer and do it as always, dedicating it to his aunt Virginia, whose nickname he also has tattooed.

"The tattoo that means the most to me is on the inside of my left arm: Meme. Without it, I don't know what my life would be like. I don't know where I'd be, if I'd be with my parents or if I'd be in trouble. It's because that, wherever I am in the world, I always call my Aunt Virginia, every day. She changed my life, she made my life. She will always be my strength."

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