{"id":620,"date":"2011-12-07T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T01:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2012-01-23T17:04:09","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T01:04:09","slug":"swagger-who-has-it-in-track-and-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"Swagger \u2013 Who has it in Track and Field?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I was watching SportsCenter yesterday and caught Deion Sanders talking about the evolution of defensive backs in the NFL. Of course it being \u201cNeon Deion\u201d, he talked about the \u201cswagger\u201d that he brought to the position, and how others have tried to emulate it. That made me think about track and field, wondering about the amount of \u201cswagger\u201d we have in our sport.<\/p>\n

I know what swagger is, and I think most people know what swagger is, but I decided to look it up to see what the official definition is before I started looking for it, and I found the following:<\/p>\n

Swag-ger: verb, 1) to walk or strut with defiant or insolent air. 2) to brag or boast noisily. Noun, 1) swaggering manner, conduct, or walk; ostentatious display of arrogance and conceit. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I checked several sources and the various definitions I found were all basically the same, which made me laugh. Because in general when I think of swagger, negativity does NOT come to mind. When I think of swagger I think of confidence. I think of athletes that have complete faith in their ability. Athletes that KNOW they are going to win; come out on top; dominate their opponents.<\/p>\n

If you say swagger, I say: Bob Hayes, Jim Hines, Steve Williams, Renaldo Nehemiah, Edwin Moses, Carl Lewis, Sergei Bubka, Javier Sotomayor, Linford Chiristie, Donovan Bailey, Hicham ElGuerrouj, Mo Greene, and a young Haile Gebrsellassie. Athletes that stepped to the track with a walk, a look, an air that said \u201cI got this\u201d even before the gun went off.<\/p>\n

Now I know, both from the dictionary definitions, and from talking to people over the years, that many abhor the idea that athletes are often \u201ccocky\u201d, \u201cconceited\u201d, or \u201cself-absorbed\u201d. That for every person that loved Deion Sander\u2019s moniker of \u201cPrime Time\u201d, there were those that couldn\u2019t stand him. That for every fan of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 \u201cShowtime\u201d, there were those that preferred the \u201cblue collar\u201d Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

It would seem that times they are a changing however. I remember when the U.S. relay squad took off their singlets, and posed for the crowd after winning the 4×1 in Sydney \u2013 and were chastised for being too arrogant. Eight years later in Beijing Usain Bolt did a jig and posed for the crowd and started a new craze! Of course, just because one dances or preens for the camera, doesn\u2019t mean the athlete has \u201cswag\u201d. It\u2019s not simply the movements, but the athlete behind the movements!<\/p>\n

So looking at the year just ended and looking forward to the Olympic year that now is only several months away, I decided to take a look for today\u2019s athletes with swagger, because ultimately many of them will be picking up medals in London. Who are today\u2019s Lewis, Bubka, Christie and Greene. Who are the athletes that show up saying \u201cI got this\u201d even on a bad day?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that all that found themselves on my list have also found their way to gold. But it may surprise some that I have several women on my list! With that in mind, here is my list of track and field athletes with the most \u201cSwag\u201d!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#10. Brittney Reese \u2013 Knows she has hops.<\/p>\n

#9. Angelo Taylor \u2013 \u201cBeen there, done that!\u201d<\/p>\n

#8. Jeremy Wariner \u2013 Shades, so he can see what the others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

#7. Phillips Idowu \u2013 When your hair is this color you have to be good!<\/p>\n

#6. Veronica Campbell Brown \u2013 Jamaica\u2019s best of all time and she knows it.<\/p>\n

#5. Dwight Phillips \u2013 \u201cThere\u2019s a medal involved? I got this!\u201d<\/p>\n

#4. Carmelita Jeter \u2013 Knows she has a gear the others don\u2019t and it shows.<\/p>\n

#3. Yelena Isinbayeva \u2013 \u201cMedals, records, yes I have them all\u201d!<\/p>\n

#2. Blanka Vlasic \u2013 She was dancing before Bolt, and with good reason!<\/p>\n

#1. Usain Bolt \u2013 Let me fix my hair before I go out here and dance when I\u2019m done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was watching SportsCenter yesterday and caught Deion Sanders talking about the evolution of defensive backs in the NFL. Of course it being \u201cNeon Deion\u201d, he talked about the \u201cswagger\u201d that he brought to the position, and how others have tried to emulate it. That made me think about track and field, wondering about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,21,184,12,23,19,15,22,25,20],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bolt","tag-idowu","tag-isinbayeva","tag-jeter","tag-phillips","tag-reese","tag-taylor","tag-vcb","tag-vlasic","tag-wariner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-a0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}