Olympic 100-metre champ Marcell Jacobs wants to win 'everything' ahead of marquee events

Marcell Jacobs already won another gold medal at the world indoors. He'll likely get a huge reception at Rome's upcoming Diamond League meet. Then a reunion with his once-estranged father at the world championships. Followed by more potential medals at the European championships.

And, to top it all off, a wedding in September.

If last year — when Jacobs sprinted from virtual unknown to Olympic 100-metre champion and then added another surprising gold at the Tokyo Games with Italy's 4x100-metre relay team — proved remarkable for the Texas-born runner, 2022 could be even more memorable.

"Winning these next two big events would mean winning everything there is to win in athletics," Jacobs told The Associated Press in an interview at his Rome training base this week. "But I've got a huge target on my back wherever I go now — everyone wants to beat me. So it's all very complicated."

What's perhaps even more complicated is Jacobs' relationship with his dad, Lamont.

Born in El Paso to an American father and an Italian mother, Jacobs moved to Italy when he was 6 months old after his parents split. He didn't see his dad again until a meeting was arranged in Orlando, Florida, when Jacobs was 13.

In his newly published autobiography, "Flash: La mia storia [My story]" Jacobs looks back fondly on that 2008 meeting.

WATCH | Jacobs 1st Italian to win Olympic 100-metre gold medal:

"Everything was great, idyllic, but unfortunately it ended there," Jacobs wrote. "I never heard from him anymore and I didn't see him again.

"When I got back to Italy, at the most he would send me messages. That's when I put up a wall between us. I asked myself why I didn't have a dad like everyone else. Even now, if you ask me what my father is like, I don't