The track season is over and cross country is under way. So it’s time to take a look back at 2013 while it’s still fresh – because a lot happened this year. So much so that I’ve started several different posts over the past week and each time decided that I really wanted to address something else!
Topics I’ve considered have included Doping; College v Elite Track; The Structure of the Sport; and The predicament that Justin Gatlin Puts the Sport In, just to name a few. I decided however, to start with a discussion of US sprinting, because in many ways it covers several important topics related to the sport here in the US.
The US has long been a global leader in the sport of track and field. At one time that leadership encompassed every facet of the sport from throws to jumps to everything around the oval. Time and the improvements of other nations however, have gradually eaten at that dominance until we entered the turn of the century hanging onto the sprints and hurdles as the events that we could count on for annual bragging rights.
Then came 2002 and BALCO and for four years US sprinting/credibility took a huge hit. Follow that with 2008 and the Games of Beijing where between the start of the Trials and the end of the Games the wheels came off the US sprinting bus – and we haven’t replaced them yet!
As a matter of fact things have gotten WORSE. Female mainstays Torri Edwards & Muna Lee retired. Lauryn Williams took time off and Marshavete Hooker got pregnant. On the men’s side things were even worse as injury woes took out Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Walter Dix, and Xavier Carter – other issues finally taking Carter out of the picture altogether.
Then just as #1 sprinter Tyson Gay appeared to be over his injury woes and ready to truly go head to head with Usain Bolt, he of all people was tagged with a positive drug test. Last year’s young Olympic finalist and AR relay anchor, Ryan Bailey went down to injury. As did vets and former medalists Walter Dix, Sanya Richards Ross, and Camelita Jeter. Then to add insult to injury, Allyson Felix went down to injury mid race in Moscow.
So let’s talk about Moscow. Wallace Spearmon looked like a man ready for retirement. Mike Rodgers, who Ato Boldon said looked ready to challenge for a medal in the rounds in BERLIN ’09, failed to put it together in yet another final after an impressive semi. And after running like medalists at Nationals Isaiah Young and Kimberlyn Duncan disappeared in Russia. So while LaShawn Merritt & Tony McQuay pulled off a gold/silver finish in the 400, we only earned three more individual medals in the remaining five sprints and our 4×1’s were disasters. Not what one would expect from a global leader.
So, are there any positives, aside from drug tests, to US sprinting? Absolutely. I’ll start by saying it would appear that we’ve gone about as low as we can get; as a full team we still scored 25 medals in Moscow; and for our sprint program there is no where to go but up! But the key word in all of that is "program" – because we really don’t have one.
We have a national body (USATF) but no overarching national plan to develop talent/medalists. Of course, that lack of a plan is track and field wide at the elite level and not limited to the sprints. We still function on the 1896 amateur ideal that the best will find their way to the National Championships and ultimately their way to the global championship meet. Which is why I believe that elite track and field needs to be separated from USATF and all it does for the amateur/youth side of the sport and given its own organization and focus. But that’s another discussion of its own. The question today is what can be done to improve the status of the sprints to prevent another beating in Beijing?
Lack of a defined program aside, we still have the best talent pool on the planet as well as the world’s best feeder system. As of the 2012 school year track was the #2 participation sport in US high schools for boys (575,000) and #1 for girls (469,000). The numbers are similar in college where track is #3 for young men (45,218) and #1 for young women (45,529). That’s a huge pool of young talented athletes to draw from. So while we lament about the number of young sprinters lost to football, there’s still plenty of talent out there available to be developed.
Without even getting into the annual list of top high school sprinters, we have a lot of talented youngsters that with proper development are capable of emerging like Shelley Ann Fraser Pryce, Yohan Blake, and Warren Weir. Several women are almost there: English Gardner, Kimberlyn Duncan, Octavious Freeman and Aurieyall Scott are ready and waiting to be the next great group of American female sprinters. And their arrival is welcome given the aging of Camelita Jeter and Allyson Felix – though Felix should have another Olympic cycle in her future and perhaps more if she moves up to the quarter.
On the men’s side of things, the story is slightly different – a lot of talent, but not yet in the "replacement" ballpark. Tyson Gay will be difficult to replace as will Justin Gatlin who is aging. But with proper development replacements should be found somewhere among the following names: Mookie Salaam, Tyreek Hill, Dentarious Locke, Marvin Bracy, Harry Adams, Diondre Batson, Aaron Ernest, and Ameer Webb. All are at or near where Carl Lewis, Mo Greene, Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay were at similar points in their careers. The question is how to get them to that Gold Medal level?
Ironically, we’ve been watching Jamaica do just that using a system put into place right here in the US. That same system is being used here in the US to revive our middle and long distance medal hopes. Elite athletes joining elite coaches in specialized camps. We started it back in the 60’s with Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Lee Evans and others joining coach Bud Winters at the Santa Clara Valley Youth Village. In the 80’s it was Carl Lewis, Kirk Baptiste, Joe Deloach, Mike Marsh, and Leroy Burell joining coach Tom Tellez at the Santa Monica Track Club. The 90’s into the 00’s found Mo Greene, Jon Drummond and Ato Boldon with coach Jon Smith at HSI. And I don’t see it as accidental that Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Warren Weir and Jason Young are all in camp together at Racers Track Club with coach Mills. By the way, Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp, Dathen Ritzenhein, and Matthew Centrowitz working with coach Alberto Salazar at the Oregon Project have been key to reviving US mid and long distance running.
And while one can dispute their use of performance enhancing drugs I have no doubt that an even more important ingredient in the success of the Eastern Bloc programs of the Soviet Union & East Germany as well as that of China’s Ma Junren was their ability to gather the best to train together, because competition creates success.
A simple thing, with a HUGE history of success – yet American sprinters today seem to run from it like the plague! The last hot pair to train together was Tyson and Spearmon. Spearmon left and hasn’t been the same. Walter Dix & Ryan Bailey worked together with John Smith for two seasons and low and behold both ran PRs, Dix a sizzling 19.53 deuce. Yet Dix left to have this year’s season of woe.
We have some coaches with proven records training sprinters. John Smith male & female. Bobby Kersey primarily females. Lance Brauman, Clyde Hart, Mike Holloway – all have produced multiple medalists. There is no dearth of talented coaches. Neither are we short on talented athletes. The question is how to get them together?
Once upon a time, that wasn’t an issue because track athletes were like today’s NBA players and free agency – they looked for the best opportunities to join coaches/athletes/programs. When Carl Lewis visited Joe Deloach and Leroy Burrell and said come to town, they went. Mo Greene went to John Smith and said please coach me!
It seems today’s sprinters are happier being a big fish in a little pond and/or the comfort of being at home over the potential of becoming the next Olympic/World champion and/or record holder. Given the lack of personal incentive, I would suggest that USATF develop an accepted coaches list for those athletes wishing to compete internationally for the US. Either you reach certain acceptable levels "on your own" or you spend a predetermined amount of development time with John Smith or Bobby Kersee or another coach on the list. Coaches being provided with a "stipend" for each additional athlete they receive in camp. Similarly athletes chosen for supplemental coaching should receive some sort of temporary relocation assistance to help while they are receiving supplemental coaching.
Of course, the goal from my point of view would for the coach and athlete to bond and develop a Smith/Greene, Kersee/Felix, Hart/Johnson type of relationship and success – removing USATF and it’s funding from the process. I would even advocate for USATF serving as a referral source for athletes in their initial search for a coach, because I think if we can get athletes in the right training environment right away the odds of success are much greater.
At any rate, something needs to happen. The results turned in in Moscow are not acceptable. Nor is being dominated by a country a fraction of our size with minimal resources. Or the fact that the core of our top sprinters are 30 plus. What little success we’re having is on aging legs waiting to fail and it’s time for those in power to take a good look at where we are and come up with an answer to correct this problem.
With 2013 being an off season without a major championship, we have time to stop the leak in our sprinting boat and prevent it from sinking completely. Another full set of performances in Beijing mirroring those in Moscow and I would say that the ship has not sailed but sunk.
Tags: Sprints