For most of the automatic timing era, the United States owned the men’s 4×100 world record. We set it in Mexico City in 1968, and apart from an 11-month stretch in 1990–91 when France held it, we had a stranglehold on it until 2008. That’s when Jamaica took it at the Beijing Games, then lowered it again in Daegu and London. The record has been away from home for 18 years. It’s time to bring it back. It’s Execution, Not Speed The issue has never been a lack of foot speed. The problem has been a lack of execution, much of it the result of “politics.” I don’t mean presidential…

When Machinery Replaces Judgment in Track and Field I believe that track and field is becoming too dependent on “machinery” when it comes to officiating the sport. Pressure-sensitive blocks. Lasers detecting fouls in the horizontal jumps. Sensors that claim to know a sprinter’s intent before a human eye can even register movement. Somewhere along the line we decided that if the naked eye doesn’t see it, the machine still might – and the machine wins. That, to me, is not officiating. That is looking for reasons to be punitive. If the naked eye doesn’t see you move, it’s not a false start in my book. If you didn’t leave a…