Shawn Crawford reported to camp today and began workouts with John Smith is the word I’ve gotten this afternoon. Potentially filling that void in Smith’s camp left by the retirement of Maurice Greene in 2006. Crawford brings an already impressive resume to practice. Bests of 9.88 and 19.79. Olympic gold medalist in 2004, he’s also scored silver in the event in 2008, and bronze in 2001. Crawford has been one of the US’s most consistent sprinters this decade, slowed only by foot problems in 2005 that seemed to hamper him for a couple of seasons. Crawford rebounded nicely in ’08 and ’09 as he ran 19.86 and 19.89 (19.73w) putting…

As I take a look at the state of professionalism in the sport of track and field it comes to my attention that the coaches may be the ones to lead the way. In talking with various individuals regarding the current state of the sport I’ve received information on the development of a coaches association. Discussing the ability of the US to garner 30 medals in a major championship, I was surprised to learn that the coaches of our medal winners do not receive stipends from USATF – a situation that should be rectified in my opinion as prior to the change to the Logan administration stipends WERE paid to…

Thirty medals. That’s the stated goal of USATF CEO Doug Logan. Thirty medals in London, 2012. This is the goal that was set following a 23 medal performance in Beijing. A performance that was considered to be unsatisfactory. So with a follow up in Berlin that netted one fewer medal (22) than Beijing questions abound: • Was 30 just an arbitrary number?• Is 30 a realistic goal?• If so why are we so far off?• If 30 “is” realistic then where will they come from? • Do we have a “structure” in place that will help us get there? At least these are some of the questions that I have…

Recently I talked about the elite level of the sport and the effect that money has had as the sport has attempted to grow from an amateur sport into a professional one. The “growing pains” that have stressed the sport on the money front has seemingly spilled over to the coaching front. I say that after reading on Friday that Veronica Campbell Brown is leaving Lance Brauman – the coach that has guided her to nine World and Olympic medals, including three gold. The coach that she is leaving him for is Anthony Carpenter. No offense to Carpenter, but everyone I’ve talked to so far is asking : who is…

When I was young and watching the sport, I thought it would be wonderful if track athletes could actually make a living in track and field like they could in other sports. As I watched athletes struggle to find training time as they worked full time jobs to pay the bills and put food on the table, I thought, “wouldn’t it be great if running could pay the bills?”. But after roughly 20 years of professionalism in the sport, I wonder if we’ve done it “right”. After all, two decades is plenty of time to develop and tweak a “product”. But looking at track and field, we’re nothing like the…

The early exit of Chicago as a bid city for the 2016 Games means that there will not be Olympic level track and field in the United States until at least 2020 – and that’s only if the USOC decides to submit an application for a bid city. While most of the country is still either crying over spilled milk or trying to figure out who to blame for Chicago’s failure, I look at things a bit differently. Because every time a door closes it simply creates another opportunity elsewhere. That would be for USATF to put together it’s own plan and bid to host the World Championships here in…

For the first time in history South America will be host to the Olympic Games as Rio de Janerio emerged victorious in Friday’s vote in Copenhagen, Denmark. Friday’s vote was a major coup for the Brazilian city that has been world renowned for it’s beauty and party atmosphere. The word “Carnival” is quickly associated by most with the city of Rio de Janerio. A place where a good time can be had by all who enter there. But Rio has also earned a reputation for crime, drugs and violence. And the city, once the capital of Brazil, has been in decline since it lost that status in the 1960’s. Like…

Friday will be a special day for one of the four cities bidding to host the 2016 Olympic Games as Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo all await the vote that will make one of them the Game’s host city. Everyone has their favorite, the place they hope will win – typically simply a case of nationalistic pride. But as much as I would love to see another Olympics held here in the US, Chicago is not my choice this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the Windy City. And with Obama-mania having taken hold in the US I’m sure that preparations would be superb.…

As we closed out the seasons of 2006 and 2007, sprinters Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay had taken the standards of greats Carl Lewis, Donovan Bailey, Maurice Greene, Frankie Fredericks, and Michael Johnson and cranked it up a notch making 9.8 more common place, 19.7 a winning time in a Major once more, and sub 20 something to look for when the best stepped on the track. But the ceiling still appeared to be solidly in place on the ultimate performances of the sport, as 9.7 was still an anomaly and 19.6 had been 10 years in the waiting. But, as I said in Part One, the best stuff started…

Sci Fi fans will be familiar the Fox show “Fringe”. A show about a group of FBI agents that use “fringe” science to investigate unexplained phenomena occurring all over the world. Strange occurrences that boggle the mind that the Fringe Team finds a way to make sense of by the end of the show’s hour. I would love to have Agent Dunham and her crew come take a look at track and field and see if they can help me make sense of what has happened to sprinting in the past few years, as it too is suffering from a spate of unexplained phenomena lately! Consider what’s happened in less…