I remember looking forward to the first World Championships back in 1983. We had boycotted the 1980 Olympics, so the last time the US had participated in a global championships had been the Games of 1976! So it had been an eternity for track fans salivating for a global event. Of course, to that point, the only guide that we had for such an event was the Olympics themselves. So that’s what we got in 1983, the Olympics minus all of the other events, as the World championships emulated the Olympics in every way. The same number of participants per nation; “A” standards and “B” standards; four year cycle between…

Men’s Sprints Usain Bolt – 100/200Tyson Gay – 100/200Maurice Greene – 100Asafa Powell – 100Shawn Crawford – 200Jeremy Wariner – 400Lashawn Merritt – 400Chris Brown – 400 Usain Bolt won double gold in Beijing, then again in Berlin. He was a presence in the deuce throughout the second half of the decade with a 9th in Helsinki and silver in Osaka before his dominance in Beijing and Berlin with two gold medal and WR performances (19.32, 19.19). He just recently joined the fray in the 100 the final two years but what he accomplished is hard to deny with 3 lowerings of the 100 record (9.72, 9.69, 9.58) and 2…

I’ve seen many “end of the decade” articles out there, but they all seem to have forgotten how many years are in a decade – blinded by the bright lights of the lightning Bolt’s past two seasons. As spectacular as he has been there was much that took place between 2000 and 2009. So I’ve taken my own look at the decade that is closing. There were many outstanding athlete’s and performances over the decade. Michael Johnson finished out his career this decade, as did Maurice Greene, Ivan Pedroso, Noah Ngeny, Frankie Fredericks, Irina Privalova, Gabriella Szabo, Maria Mutola, Colin Jackson, Allen Johnson, Jonathon Edwards, Heike Dreshsler, Wilson Kipketer, and…

With Christmas less than a week away I hope its not too late to send my Christmas Wish List to Santa. Of course my presents are already under the tree, so this list is dedicated to the sport of track and field. I’m looking forward to an exciting 2010, and with a little help from Santa it could be superlative. So without further delay here is my Wish List for Track and Field: • Good health for Tyson Gay. In spite of his steady improvement, we haven’t seen a full healthy season from Tyson since 2007 – the year he was double World Champion. Yet he enters 2010 with bests…

Tiger Woods has been the most identifiable athlete on the planet this New Millennium. He has become THE face of golf – nearly single handedly increasing its visibility. If you doubt that simply take a look at the increase in golf tournaments on TV since his rise to the top – and the difference in ratings when he does not compete. As a matter of fact the year that Tiger took off to rehab after surgery television ratings dropped in half as viewership went from approximately 4 million viewers per tournament down to approximately 2 million per tournament. That’s HUGE! With his squeaky clean image, leading the way like Rudolph’s…

With only a couple of weeks left in 2009, it’s time to take a final look back on a very interesting season. Despite being a World Championship season, many events seemed to spur only average performances. But, as happens with regularity in this sport, there were those athletes and events that found a way to rise above the “average” and create the kind of excitement found only in the sport of track and field. So to celebrate those accomplishments, I give you my first ever Finish Line Awards. Athlete of the Year – Usain Bolt The bulk of Bolt’s season was pretty average. Yes he continued to win, but when…

After thirteen months of rehab It looks like Liu Xiang could be fully recovered from his Achilles injury. If he is indeed 100% and back to normal, the 110 hurdles could give the sport another super rivalry to showcase. Prior to his injury, Xiang was as dominant a force as the event has seen. Twice a WR setter in the event and the first man under 12.90 (12.91, 12.88), he has Olympic (Athens ’04) and World (Osaka ’07) golds to his credit prior to his injury. Ironically the man that should be his chief rival, Dayron Robles, has somewhat mirrored his accomplishments of late. In ’07 Robles broke through to…

The schedule of events for the Diamond League meets is out and the first thing that popped into my head was: what’s happened to the double? Do you even remember the double? Odds are if you started watching professional track and field at the turn of the century (this century) you may not. The double, that’s when an athlete competed in two different individual events in the same meet. Like the 100/200, 800/1500, LJ/TJ, and SP/Disc. Happens all the time at the high school and collegiate level. Has become a rare commodity on the professional level. At the high school and collegiate level we see athletes double all the time.…

Looking back on this season and looking ahead to 2010 the men’s 400 has to be the new frontier – at least in sprinting. After all the 100 is pretty much on lock down with Usain Bolt (9.58), Tyson Gay (9.69) and Asafa Powell (9.72) all scheduled to compete in the new Diamond League – with every meet scheduled to have one or more of this troika competing. There may be a little more leeway in the 200, though I would anticipate that either Bolt (19.19) or Gay (19.58) should be in the majority of serious races out there. In the event there is a meet that doesn’t have at…

With the end of the year upon us it’s already time to start looking forward to the next track season. And as I look ahead to 2010 one of the most intriguing stories that could develop could be the return of Justin Gatlin to the sport. I think the story is still fresh enough in everyone’s mind that it doesn’t need to be repeated in total. A positive test result from the Kansas Relays in 2006 for testosterone ( a result that he gave up his right to contest, yet contested the ban), coupled with a previously excused incident while he was at Tennessee (for a medication prescribed by his…