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Pre Trials Status Check
With the Olympic Trials less than two weeks away, I thought I would take a quick look at where we’re at. First a word on doping which once again seems to lead the discussion. Doping This sport just CAN’T seem to get away from the issue of doping! Ben Johnson (1988) opened the door to sub 9.80 in the 100, and to an open conversation on doping! It took until 2002 and BALCO before that conversation became loud – though many wanted to pretend it was an American problem – despite all evidence to the contrary. Now, in 2016, it’s clearly a global epidemic in which even the IAAF has…
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Prefontaine & NCAA Regionals – WOW
The Pre Classic is the best meet on US soil annually – if not one of the best period outside of a major championship. This year was no different as we saw two American records, among outstanding performance after outstanding performance. And while the Regionals lacked the depth and excitement of a big meet, there was much to learn on the way to Rio. For example, in each Regional one of the college scenes top female 200 sprinters failure to advance – Hannah Cunliffe (Ore) and Kyra Jefferson (Fla)! I watched the Western Regional online and Cunliffe seemed to be done in by a bad lane draw in her heat.…
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What to Watch in 2016
Olympic years are always exciting for sports fans because that global showcase will take place this summer. That means we will see the best that track and field (among other sports) has to offer – the best athletes competing head to head. Sad that I can’t say that in any other year, but unfortunately we don’t get this type of competition in any other year with any regularity. One would have hoped that the World Championships would have become THAT meet by now – having been around since 1983. But alas, though we get some scattered excellence around Worlds, it’s still "The Games" that the world aims for and "EVERYONE"…
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Beijing Review
The Beijing World Championships are over and if you’re a fan of the sport you were pleased with the competition. When Worlds first began back in 1983 it was all about a handful of nations – Britain, Germany, Soviet Union, and United States, with everyone else as filler. Now we see gold medal performances from Kenya, Ethiopia, China, Jamaica, Netherlands, South Africa, and Eritrea among others winning medals all over the globe! That’s great for the global brand of track and field. If you’re a fan of the sport here in the United States, there’s little to be happy about. Only 18 medals. Only one individual gold from the men.…
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It’s Beijing Time
How times flies when you’re having fun! One minute I’m watching Prefontaine, NCAA’s and US Nationals and suddenly it’s almost time for the World Championships. In between there have been a slew of meets streamed online. So many that I’ve literally had little time to just sit and absorb and comment. Youth Championships, Jr Championships, Pan Ams, European Championships (Jr & Sr). Literally a smorgasbord of track and field. For the first time I feel like the internet has truly paid homage to the sport! This is what I’ve dreamed of my whole life. It’s been a wonderful summer in that regard. Now the general news coming out of the…
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Events I’ll Be Watching at US Nationals
Typically Nationals is one of the two hottest meets of the year behind only the World Championships or Olympics. This is an "off season" however, that once every four years non championship season. So the full complement of elites looking to make a global team is a bit lighter than usual. My biggest disappointment in this regards is the Men’s 100 which is missing Justin Gatlin and the new kid on the block Trayvon Bromell, as neither of the year’s two fastest Americans is entered in the competition. I think that could have been the match up of the meet. That said however, I think there are several match ups…
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World Championships Review, Individuals Pt 2
Time to finish up my thoughts on the individual performances from the World Championships. As this was not one of my favorite Worlds, for reasons already discussed, there were more performances that I was disappointed in than those I was ecstatic about. So many that as I started writing this I had to edit down to a reasonable number. After all the entire meet wasn’t quite a disappointment. So, while I was disappointed in the time for the men’s 4×4 for example, it’s not listed. Nor are other events where I simply was down on the performances. I tried to keep my “disappointment” to the way the athletes performed. I’ve…
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It’s July Where Are We?
This has been a very interesting year so far. Lots of transition going on throughout the sport. Rising athletes. Injured athletes. Athletes returning from injury. More transition than usual in the year following the Games it seems. Then of course there are the usual off the track issues such as drugs, which never seem to go away. So many things that I don’t know where to begin, so rather than say a lot about one thing, today I’m going to take a stab at saying a little about a lot of things – starting with the Diamond League which gives us a Fourth of July meet in Lausanne in two…
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Doha DL, Let’s Get Ready to Rumble
OK, now that we’ve had our first sub10 of the year, it finally feels like track season. And right on time we get the first of the Diamond League meets in Doha on Friday, which means a lot more elite athletes should be competing. While I have many issues with the way the DL has been set up – chief among them the lack of promised head to heads with the upper tier elite sprinters – this series of meets does run through some of the sport’s best venues. Which combined with the elite athletes that do show up at each meet is enough to ensure that we get some…
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Where are the Jump Stars?
This time of year my mind runs continuously to thoughts of how we can better market the sport. What can track and field do so that others can see the sport that I see when I sit and watch a meet? More often than not, I keep coming back to the fact that we live in a society that is obsessed with stars! With 24 hour news; highlights on ESPN; and social networking sites like Twitter and Instagram, an outstanding performance or two and a Colin Kaepernic can become a global sensation virtually overnight! Track too has had it’s overnight sensations – a total of 700 meters in Beijing made…