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Gout, Quincy, and Christian
The 2025 season is getting off to a flying start. I know it’s not quite 2025 just yet, but in locations south of the equator, it’s already track and field weather. Specifically Australia where sixteen year old Gout Gout has been creating quite a stir. With an Australian record of 20.04, a windy 10.04, and a legal 10.18, he’s drawing comparisons to WR holder Usain Bolt. Including many predicting him to be the next sprints WR holder. While I’m very excited about this young man, and expect to see more good things from him, I’ve been watching the sport long enough to know that youth success rarely translates to WR…
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Sprint 2
Season two of Netflix’s SPRINT has finally dropped, and the internet is once again being very vocal! Track Twitter is extremely critical and negative. While I think I understand Netflix’s intent, I’m also critical, and I’ll tell you why. Let me start by saying that if people are watching, then Sprint has succeeded. The idea is to be a PR piece for the sport. Which means that the audience it’s looking for isn’t necessarily made up of track nerds and lifelong fans. Netflix is hoping to attract people that aren’t normally watching track and field. I believe I understand what they were trying to do. To get the audience engaged…
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The World Championships Needs Changes
Trailers are now out for the second season of “Sprint”! The huge selling point being that it’s the “Olympic Season”! The season that matters. If you don’t get it done at the Olympics, you won’t be remembered! Unfortunately, this is probably true. I remember championship races outside of the Olympics. The 1987 men’s 100m with Ben and Carl. Maurice Greene’s emergence in Athens in 1997. The close men’s 200m finish in Edmonton 2001. Justin Gatlin’s sprint double in Helsinki 2005 (yes, Gat won a double), followed by Tyson Gay’s double in Osaka two years later. However, I’m a track nerd that watches and remember dozens of races every year! For…
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My Opinion on Track Leagues
There has been a lot of talk this year about new track “leagues” that are scheduled to begin in 2025. Let me begin by saying that people that know me know that I’m a stickler for accuracy and correct “wording”, because in my education I was taught very sternly that, “words have meaning” so use them properly. From that perspective, there are no “leagues” in track and field. In professional sports terms, and the intent here is to make track more professional and lucrative for athletes, a league would be a contained system in which there would be teams and/or individuals that are contracted to play only against each other…
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Is Track and Field Dead?
Is Track and Field dead? That’s a question that has been raised often this year in many forms. Anyone that watched any portion of track during the Olympics will agree with my answer of, no. As a sport, track and field is as exciting as ever! Track has all of the elements of every other sport. Athletics is the essence of sport itself. That’s why after over one hundred years, the central focus in the world’s greatest athletic event, the Olympics, continues to be, track and field! Leading to the question, why isn’t it more popular outside of the Olympics? Personally, I think that the answer is fairly simple. The…
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Brussels, Sydney, and Athletics
The season is almost at an end. The only thing left is the Diamond League final. A two day competition between the top Diamond League contenders. Always a good competition, and a nice end to the season. So why is the controversy this year? Well, because Sydney McLaughlin Levrone has decided that she wants to run! But didn’t I say that the meet is a competition between the top Diamond League contenders? Yes. Therein lies the rub, because Sydney doesn’t compete in the Diamond League, at all. That being the case, the Diamond League said no to Sydney, as they should have. Angering some people. How dare they turn Sydney…
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The Problem With US 4×1’s
Ok, I really thought this was going to be the year. After all, we won the men’s 4×1 in ’19 and ’23, which was the closest thing to a winning streak that we’ve had since the ’90’s. This year we’d dominated at the World Relays running 37.40 without our best team. We showed up to Paris with the group that won in the Bahamas with Fred Kerley and Noah Lyles also ready to go. With Noah and Kenny Bednarek getting ready for the 200m final, our subs ran yet another 37.4 to lead the semis. Then we found yet another way to lose yet another Olympic final! With Noah out…
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My Favorite Moments From Paris
There was a lot of anticipation leading up to the Paris Olympics. That happens when an Olympics follows a Games where something notable has occurred. Like when Munich followed Mexico City. After all the record breaking that had occurred in Mexico. It was impossible to live up to that. Then there was Los Angeles following the boycotted Moscow Games. Where western countries hadn’t competed for eight years. This year Paris got to follow Tokyo which had the misfortune of being an Olympics devoid of fans due to Covid. It had been eight long years since we’d had a “normal” Olympics, and you could see and feel it in the stadium.…
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Observations From Paris
It’s over. The Paris Olympic Games has ended. Easily one of the greatest Games ever, from a track and field standpoint. Just fantastic competition. We haven’t seen anything like it since the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Which means that for a lot of fans, this is the best meet they’ve ever witnessed. My favorite events were the men’s 100m. The best field ever assembled, and just tremendous sprinting by everyone in the race. The men’s 4×4, one of the best relays of all time. Competitive from the gun to the tape. With the absolute best anchor showdown in history. The women’s 4×4. Simply a great effort by everyone on…
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Who is the World’s Fastest Human
On the eve of the start of track and field at the Paris Olympic Games, there are several individuals online taking umbrage with the media referring to Noah Lyles, the reigning World 100m champion, as the World’s Fastest Human (WFH)! Stating that Usain Bolt is still the “fastest man alive”. Claiming to be “defending the integrity of the sport” by making this claim. Apparently forgetting that words actually have meaning.. Because even using their own statement, they are incorrect. Let me begin by saying that most, but not all, making this comment are either Jamaican, and looking to defend Bolt’s “legacy”. Or non Americans that a) consider Americans to be…