This week, the Diamond League released it’s schedule of events for 2011. Once again featuring a series of “half” meets. A regular occurrence in the sport of track and field – and one that has become a pet peeve of mine. A recent Track and Field News editorial on the inaugural season of the Diamond League discusses the editor’s reasoning as to why he feels it is difficult to contest full meets in today’s sport. While there is merit to the rational that is put forth – a shortage of dollars with which to pay top level athletes in every discipline prohibits loading up every event with stars – I…

The recent retirement, then retractment, by Haile Gebrselassie got me thinking about who the greatest athlete has been in this sport. Primarily because that could be Haile himself – if nothing else, he is probably the greatest distance runner of all time. Of course, track and field has a very long and storied history, so trying to determine the Greatest Of All Time is really a rather daunting task – especially given the various changes/stages that the sport has gone through. Because while individual PR’s are important, world records and all time lists will always get faster, farther, higher. What becomes important in trying to evaluate “The Best”, whether it…

I’ve talked before about what I feel is the need for the United States to be host to a World Championships. The sport’s biggest event has been around since 1983 and not once has the United States served as host. A travesty IMHO that the world’s greatest power in the sport has yet to host a Worlds. The next World Championships will be held in Daegu, South Korea in 2011 – a country that, outside of the marathon, has almost no presence in the sport. Berlin will host the 2013 version of the meet, and Beijing was just awarded the 2015 edition this past weekend – after just hosting the…

Once upon a time, when the Olympics were all there was, athletes’ lives revolved around the Olympic cycle. And, in general, athletes had roughly two cycles to accomplish their goals or leave the sport. That’s because prior to the 1980’s and “professionalism”, when track and field was truly an amateur sport, money was a scarce commodity in track and field. Yes, the best athletes were able to make money by getting paid “under the table”, but for most room and board and some travel expenses were as good as it got. So, many athletes had to find “real” jobs to supplement their participation in the sport – with training revolving…

The big event this past weekend was the New York City Marathon. An event won by Ethiopia’s Gebre Gebremariam in 2:08.14 – unspectacular when many of the world’s top races are being won in times of 2:04 / 2:05. The big news coming out of New York, however, was not who won, or even the results of the those that finished. Rather, the real news was the possible end to what may be the greatest career ever in the world of track and field. As Ethoipia’s Haile Gebrselassie – forced out of the race midway due to tendinitis – Gebrselassie said in his post race interview that injuries are bringing…

As I continue to take a look back at the 2010 season, I’ve looked at some standard “awards” (Athlete of the Year) as well as some not so standard (Top Breakthrough Americans). This is another of those non standard awards. Though I think there should be some way of  evaluating how well our meets do every year. If for no other reason than to tweak them for the better. Because the better we present our product, the better the sport should become. So, what meets caught my eye in 2010? Well, Stockholm’s DN Galan meet gave us the match up of the year as Tyson Gay defeated Usain Bolt to…

At the beginning of his short reign as CEO of USATF, Doug Logan set 30 medals as a goal for the US squad at the 2012 London Olympics. That bit of goal setting was the impetus for the creation of my “Thirty Watch List” – to  monitor our progress towards that goal. With Logan’s departure as CEO, I’ve asked myself if I should continue with this list. And after much consideration I’ve decided that keeping track of our progress towards earning medals is indeed a worthwhile endeavor. As part of any good plan involves some sort of monitoring progress towards the stated goals. With Logan gone, however, I’m not sure…