Until Sunday (August 1), Italian athlete Lamont Marcell Jacobs was not well known in his own country let alone the rest of the world.

But after a stunning victory in the Olympic men's 100 metres final in Tokyo he suddenly became the fastest man on Earth - taking the most coveted title in athletics and becoming the first champion in the post-Usain Bolt era - and doing it in a European record time of 9.80 seconds.

Jacobs grew up in a small, quiet northern Italian town by Lake Garda, one of the country's picturesque holiday destinations.

He was born in the United States to an Italian mother and a U.S. serviceman father, was brought up by his mother after his parents separated when he was a baby. He was a long-jumper before concentrating on sprinting following an injury.

His mother owns Hotel Florence in the little town of Manerba sul Garda, where his family and friends who couldn't go to Tokyo due to coronavirus restrictions gathered to watch the race and were ecstatically celebrating as he crossed the finish line.

Viviana Masini was bursting with pride as she spoke to Reuters at her hotel.

"It's incredible!" she exclaimed.

Masini explained that she also loved running as a child, and when Jacobs used to watch the Olympics on television as a kid he would tell her: "I will be there mum!". She told him that he would, and now he's the world's fastest man.

At the hotel, she proudly shows off his old running shoes which are on display on a shelving unit among pictures of him as a child and various awards.

Masini said that they struggled to get sponsorship because Jacobs, who is mixed race, is "an Italian guy that doesn't look Italian". But after the shock win she was sure his life would change.

"Now people must understand how strong he is, so he deserves now to get the money that he deserves, the funding he deserves, all the life changes in such a way," she said.

It has been a good year for Italy - they won the Eurovision song contest, the soccer European championship, made the Wimbledon men's final and now proudly have the world's fastest man to add to their list.

"This for me was the Italian year just from the football and from the music we lost Wimbledon but it is an Italian year," said Jacobs' 19 year-old brother Nicolo Secco.

Jacobs had fired a warning with a European record of 9.84 in the semis to become the first Italian to make the final. But even in the most open-looking showdown for decades, the man who had never gone under 10 seconds until this year still seemed a long shot to be the first European winner since Briton Linford Christie in 1992.

In the absence of Bolt, who retired in 2017 after a hat-trick of titles, it was always going to be an open race, but it became all the more so after world champion Christian Coleman was banned for an anti-doping violation and American Trayvon Bromell, the world lead and pre-race favourite, failed to make the final.

With former world champion Yohan Blake also falling at the semi-final stage, it was the first time since 2000 that no Jamaican had been on the start line -- 24 hours after the country had a completed clean sweep in the women's event.

No Italian had ever reached the Olympic 100 metres final but the country has had two champions in the 200 metres: the late Pietro Mennea, who won gold in Moscow in 1980, and Livio Berruti who won in Rome in 1960.
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