Why isn't Marcell Jacobs close to matching his stunning gold medal Tokyo Olympics form?

For those of us of a certain age, Craig Mack's 1994 hit "Flava in Ya Ear" is a classic, and just hearing it — or its remix with Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes and Rampage — bring back high school memories.

But Mack was a one-hit wonder, known largely for only that song.

Almost two years since the COVID-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, is it time to look at men's 100 meter champion Marcell Jacobs the same way?

Jacobs' win in Tokyo was stunning for track and field followers, as there had been nothing in his career that led one to believe he was a gold medal candidate in the sport's quadrennial marquee event. He followed up his 100m win by helping Italy to 4x100m relay gold for the first time later in the meet.

And since then, he really hasn't done much.

Jacobs made his 2023 outdoor debut on Friday in France, at the Diamond League's Meeting de Paris, after earlier pulling out of the Florence and Rabat Diamond League meets and saying he had a back injury. The scratches blocked a showdown against American Fred Kerley, the silver medalist in Tokyo and reigning World champion.

When he finally ran in Paris, it wasn't great:

Jacobs got out of the blocks well and was with the field for the first 25 meters or so, but as the runners reached and maintained their top speed, he seemingly couldn't. The Italian finished seventh in an eight-man field, with a pedestrian time of 10.21 seconds.

American Noah Lyles won in 9.97 seconds. He edged Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala in the race, though Omanyala ran a world-leading 9.84 in May.

In an otherwise incredible meet that featured three world records, the much-anticipated return of Jacobs and a potential showdown with Lyles was a flop.

Later Friday, at the NCAA Championships in Austin, all nine young men in the final ran 10.05 or better, with winner Courtney Lindsey of Texas Tech clocking a lifetime best of 9.89. In fairness to Jacobs and other pros, college runners have been training for that meet for months; the pro circuit is still early in the calendar, with athletes focused on being at their best for their respective national championships this summer and the World Championships in Budapest beginning Aug. 19.

To be clear, if Tokyo was the greatest meet Jacobs will ever have, it was a heck of a meet. But the reason athletes like Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are revered is because they were able to dominate for years, over multiple Olympic and World Championships cycles.

That type of success brings attention, and it's fair to question and analyze what's going on with Jacobs.

Olympic legend Michael Johnson, who works as a commentator for the BBC, tweeted about Jacobs after the race in Paris: "Jacobs is and always will be the '21 Olympic Champ...Given he didn't show medal capability before Tokyo and hasn't shown anything close since, the debate is likely over as to whether he can do it again. He's obviously fast. But can he put together a healthy and consistent string of races to enter a championship as a contender? So far not seeing anything to indicate yes."

Jacobs' health has been at the forefront of his issues, but as Johnson went on to say in his tweet, injuries are part of the sport and so is figuring out how to stay healthy. Since Tokyo, Jacobs has dealt with a gastrointestinal infection, and thigh and back injuries that have caused him to miss a host of meets.

At last year's outdoor World Championships, Jacobs finished second in his opening-round race in 10.04 seconds but then pulled out before the semifinals, citing a thigh injury. He did win the 60 meters at the World Indoors earlier in 2022, edging out American Christian Coleman.

Specific to his rivalry with Kerley, since defeating him in the Olympics, Jacobs has entered into four meets where he would have competed against the rangy American, and he's bowed out of all four citing his various maladies. Kerley was never expected to run in Paris last week.

So far this year, Jacobs, who turned his attention from long jumping to the short sprints in 2019, hasn't even been able to beat his own countryman, Samuele Ceccarelli, coming in second at the Italian national indoor championships in the 60m, and second in the 60m at the European indoor championships. Friday was his first meet in the three-plus months since his loss to compatriot Ceccarelli at the Euro championships.

The outdoor World Championships are back on their normal every-other-year schedule, meaning Jacobs has the chance to prove Tokyo wasn't a flash in the pan. In May, he announced his pre-Worlds schedule, and he skipped two of the first three meets he'd planned to run. After Paris, he's slated to be at the European Team Championships beginning June 24, nearly two full months before Worlds begin. He hasn't announced anything beyond the European champs.

Will Jacobs be healthy for Worlds and prove that he wasn't a one-hit wonder? The track world waits.