I suspect he had his ISO (light sensitivity) set to “auto” and his lens opening to a wide open setting (f1.4?) to get the depth of field he wanted. It's not his first sports or political event. There are no do- overs.
With those kind of settings, it means to balance the light, the shutter speed (frames per second) has to adjust (increase) to balance the light.
The photographer sacrificed what could have been a higher quality picture for the highest shutter speed his camera would give him. Why would a professional photographer sacrifice quality?