Weekly Recap

WTWAge Cheating At World Juniors, Russia Doesn’t Get Banned, The IOC Screws Over Yuliya Stepanova And Is Keni Harrison The Second Coming Of Michael Johnson? We break down the good (Keni Harrison is back in a big way) and bad (lots of cheating still going on all over the place) from an action-packed week with two great meets – one in Houston and one in London.

Fight The Injustice LRCSign The Petition To Get Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova Into The Olympics We don’t just think she should be in the Olympics – we think she should lead the parade of nations. She’s a role model that Russia and the world should follow. Yes, she made mistakes, but she’s more than made up for them.
*Sign The German Language Petition That Already Has 35,000+ Signatures Petition has not been translated to English.

Olympic Sprint News

• Good Read:Justin Gatlin Says He Was In A “Dark Place” After His Drug Suspension In 2005 Gatlin says he thought about joining the military and took stupid risks like driving drunk.
• Justin Gatlin Says He Takes “A Sense Of Strength” From His Battle With Bolt At In The Beijing World 100 Final “If you look back at bouts that Usain has had with other people, you could almost not call them bouts. He has won by a mile, almost.”
• NBC Asks Track Journalists If This Could Be The Year Someone Finally Beats Usain Bolt At The Olympics? If we’re giving a one-word answer, it would definitely be “no.”
• Aries Merritt Wishes The US Olympic Selection System Was Similar To Jamaica’s Merritt thinks Keni Harrison should be on the US team after breaking the WR, but we have a few reasons why we disagree.
• Asafa Powell Settled Into Rio After An Airport Hiccup Powell didn’t yet have his athlete accreditation and had to have Olympic volunteers at the airport confirm his identity to immigration officials who weren’t going to let him into the country.
• Devon Allen Not Stressing Over Olympic Village Conditions In Rio Allen said he once spent a week on a foam mattress in a bug net in the Dominican Republic so will “handle” whatever the situation is in Rio.
• Christophe Lemaitre Doubling In Rio To Help His Chances In The 200 Lemaitre’s coach says he’ll use the 100 to loosen up for the 200, which is his main focus.
• Short Video:Usain Bolt Has Landed In Rio

Sir Walter Miler Is August 5th In Raleigh, NC *Meet Home

• Deep Fields Set For Sir Walter Miler With Drew Hunter, Kyle Merber, Chris Derrick, Johnny Gregorek, Colby Alexander And More Women’s race has Amanda Eccleston, Morgan Uceny, Nicole Tully, Heather Kampf, Cory McGee.
• Meet The Competitors:Drew Hunter Has 8 Siblings And Wants To Run An Ultra One Day
  
• Before He Was A Runner, Johnny Gregorek Was A Baseball Pitcher And Has Been Dating His Girlfriend Since Sophomore Year Of HS
• Nicole Tully Once Competed In An Oreo Case Race And Finished The Whole Package In 14 Minutes
• Donnie Cowart Used The Childhood Game “Red Rover” To Flirt With Girls “I would picked two cute girls to run between. I’d intentionally not break through, so I got to hold their hands!”
• Morgan Uceny Spent Her Childhood Summers Helping Her Mason Dad Carry Bricks And Mortar “I was working on my tan and my muscles simultaneously.”
• A Whole Bunch More “Meet The Competitor” Features On The Sir Walter Miler Home Page

More Russian Doping Scandal Updates

• Video And Article:Vladimir Putin Gives Speech Saying Banned Russian Athletes Are Victims Of “Discrimination”
• The Guardian:“What The Olympic Doping Scandal Says About The Decline Of Putin’s Russia”
• Russian Team Given Rousing Sendoff For Rio To “Battle For Honor And Good Name” So far 250 Russians have been cleared for Rio.
• Yelena Isinbayeva Denies Claims She Was Asked To Be Russia’s Rio Flag Despite Not Being Able To Compete Volleyball player Sergey Tetyukhin will carry the Russian flag.
• Column By Former Olympic Gold Medalist Denise Lewis: “After what has gone on can we ever trust the Russians again?”“I liken what has gone on to a marriage that goes sour, when one party cheats on the other.”
• Russian Fencing, Triathlon And Volleyball Teams Cleared To Compete In Rio
• Six Medalists Among 11 Weightlifters To Test Positive In Second Wave Of London 2012 Retests At least 4 were Russians.
• Vladimir Putin Has Some More Ridiculous Statements He says without many Russian competitors, medals will now be “tasteless.” Russia holds their own track meet in Moscow today.

 LetsSprint.com

• Good Read:IAAF Chronicles How Keni Harrison Bounced Back From Not Making Rio To Break The WR In Her Very Next Meet When Harrison crossed the line, her time flashed 12.58 before being corrected to 12.20. Apparently she leaned so hard and low that she dipped beneath the finish clock beam.
• NBC Reveals Its Announcers For The Rio Games: Sanya Richards-Ross And Trey Hardee Will Help Provide Coverage*Discuss
• August 25:Omar McLeod And Orlando Ortega Announced For 110H At The Lausanne DLKerron Clement and Michael Tinsley in the 400H.

Get To Know GB’s Heptathlete Trio

• Good Read:Katarina Johnson-Thompson Made The Photo Of Her Toe Going Over The Line In Beijing Worlds Her Laptop Background Johnson-Thompson had a shot for Worlds gold that year, but fouled all three of her jumps in the LJ. Now she wants to make up for it with a win in Rio.
• At 19 Years Old, Morgan Lake Will Be The Youngest GB Track Athlete In Rio In a video interview with Ato Boldon, Lake says despite being on the cover of UK magazines, she hasn’t “quite got to the stage” of being recognized in the street yet.
• Jessica Ennis-Hill Says For Her Being A Mom Comes Before Being An Athlete At 30, Ennis-Hill says this will definitely be her last Games as she wants to have more children, but “couldn’t cope with another child” while still competing.

North American Distance News

• Recommended Read:Runner’s World Profile On “The Other Keflezighi,” Meb’s Agent And Brother Merhawi Usually behind the scenes, Merhawi found himself in the spotlight as he took on Nike over the Boris Beriancontract dispute. Read how Merhawi got his start as Meb’s agent and has expanded his roster so he’ll have 4 distance runner Olympians in Rio, one racewalker, one triathlete and one Paralympian.
• Matt Centrowitz And Ashton Eaton Do Entertaining Rapid Fire Video Interview Together Centro says his most overused word is the “F-bomb” and Eaton thinks Will Smith would be the best actor to play him in a movie.
• Colleen Quigley Was Fueled By Rivalry With Older Brother And Fellow Pro Runner Dan In high school she was “Dan’s sister,” but now the roles have reversed as he is the brother of an Olympian.
• Q&A With Canada’s World 800 Silver Medalist Melissa Bishop Bishop started out as a sprinter, still does interviews with the first reporter that ever wrote a story on her and says her first ever “fashion disaster” was a pink velour soft suit with bell bottoms.
• Five Quirky Tips For College Runners Trying To Go Pro From RunPro Camp One most runners don’t think of is don’t stop your watch at the finish line because it ruins the victory photo.

Indian Shot Putter Inderjeet Singh Fails Doping Test Singh claimed his sample was “tampered with” and he was being punished for speaking out against his federation.

More News From Rio

• CNN Has A More Positive Look At The Olympic Village: “Athletes Welcomed With A Record Number Of Condoms, Air Conditioning” Olympians won’t get TVs, but they did get air conditioning and good training facilities.
• Brazilian Prosecutor Claims Rio 2016 Terror Plot Was “No Joke” Brazil’s Justice Minister described the 12 arrested as “amateurs,” but prosecutor Rafael Miron came back with “There’s no such thing as an experienced suicide bomber.”
• Rio 2016 President Insists Serious Issues With Athletes’ Village Will Be Resolved Before Games Begin

The IOC Doesn’t Support Whistleblowers, But You Can

• Help Support Russian Whistleblowers Vitaly Stepanov And Yulia Stepanova Please contribute to this crowdfunding effort to help them get back on their feet. *MB Thread *Facebook Page*Twitter
• Steve Magness: “No One Really Wants A Whistle Blower: Russia, The IOC And Doping”
• MB:WHY NO WHISTELBLOWERS – answered in tweets by Professor Ross Tucker (ZA)
• From ESPN Last Month:“Athletes, others who raise doping concerns in sports often left whistling into the wind.”
• Yuliya Stepanova Banned From Rio Games But “In A Bizarre Twist,”Invited To Attend As The IOC’s Special GuestsThomas Bach amazingly said, “I think it will be an encouragement for all future whistleblowers.”
• US Sprinter/Bobsledder Lauryn Williams And German Discus Thrower Robert Harting Backing Stepanova Crowdfunding
• IOC Decided Against Allowing Yuliya Stepanova To Compete As A Neutral Athlete This is a huge mistake if the IOC wants to encourage future whistleblowers to come forward. Yelena Isinbayeva is quoted as saying Stepanova should be ”banned for life.”
• Was The Stepanova Decision A Way To Appease Russia?

London Anniversary Games *Full Day 2 Results*Full Day 1 Results*TV & Streaming

Day 2 Full Recap LRCOn To Rio: Mo Farah Delivers A World-Leading 5,000m And Warning Shot To Kamworor And Karoki, Molly Ludlow Almost Wins And Much More Day 2 of the London Anniversary Games was full of quality, the best of which came from Mo Farah who put on a show for the fans and destroyed American Bernard Lagat, Ben True, Ryan Hill and Eric Jenkins in the process. There was good news for Emma Coburn and she didn’t even race but more heartbreak for Molly Ludlow.
*MB:Hill, True, and Jenkins go home DEVASTATED!
*MB:Mo and Butchard smash up USA and Kenya
*MB:Official Day 2 Live Discussion Thread

Day 1 LRCAmerican Keni Harrison Rebounds In Incredible Fashion From Not Making Olympic Team, Breaks 28-Year-Old World Record In Women’s 100 HurdlesWe all love sports because they are not scripted. Keni Harrison has gone from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.
MB:12.20 WR For Keni Harrison in Hurdles

LRCMove Over, Kelly Holmes – Laura Muir Is The New British Record Holder At 1,500mMuir was sensational!!! American Amanda Eccleston showed no post-Trials 4th place fatigue as she PRed.

LRCThe Rest Of The Meet: Usain Bolt Wins And Shows He’s Healthy, Brandon McBride Comes Close, Silas Kiplagat Is Still Really Good And Is Shaunae Miller – Not Allyson Felix – The Favorite In The 400? Day 1 of the London Anniversary Games was full of quality.

• Mo Farah Hits Back At People Who Say “Farah comes here and doesn’t run fast times.”
  *MB:Farah Jokingly Calls Out Ryan Hill’s “Mo Show” Comments Asked why he dropped the fast time this close to Rio, Farah said, “That was for Ryan Hill.”
  *The Guardian:Farah Warns Rivals “I’ve never felt better.”
• IAAF:Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Sluggish as She Is Only 3rd In 100m Behind Marie-Josee Ta Lou And Michelle-Lee Ahye Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou ran 10.96 into a headwind in both the final and the heats.
• IAAF:Sandra Perkovic Stays Perfect With Her Fifth Straight Diamond League Discus Win
• Katarina Johnson-Thompson Shines With Long Jump Win As Jessica Ennis Struggles Johnson-Thompson set an outdoor HJ best on day 1 while Ennis-Hill was way back in the LJ, but ran the second fastest 100H of her career on Friday.
• Jessica Ennis-Hill Insists She’s Not The Favorite For Gold In Rio
• The Guardian:“Doping Scepticism And 2012 Nostalgia Run Tight Race At Anniversary Games”

Random But Interesting

Russia: Will The IOC Do What Has To Be Done?

• Russia Faces Olympic Judgment Day As IOC Meets Today To Decide Rio 2016 Fate A statement is expected by 10AM ET.
• Daily Mail Reporting That Entire Russian Team Will Be Banned According To “Well Placed Sources”
  *MB:ENTIRE Russian team of 387 athletes will be banned from competing at the Rio
• NY Times ArticleDick Pound: “I’m surprised by what appears to be the difficulty on the part of the I.O.C. to do what obviously has to be done.”
• USA Today:The IOC Has Several Options On What To Do With Russia Pound says they clearly have the power to do so with backing by CAS and WADA.
• Russia Is Preparing Their Own Competition For Their Track Athletes In Place Of The Olympics Will there be drug testing?

Latest Doping Headlines

• 23 Beijing Medalists Among 45 Positives Announced After Second Wave Of Beijing 2008 And London 2012 Doping Retests The 30 from Beijing came from 4 sports and 8 countries while the 15 London failures were from 2 sports and 9 countries.
  *MB:Doping – 45 new failures from London and Beijing Games
• Russia Could Miss Paralympics Too As IPC Launch Suspension Proceedings Paralympic samples were among those tampered with in Sochi 2014.
• Yelena Isinbayeva Bemoans “Ruined” Chances Of Becoming IOC Member She is one of 23 candidates running for election to the IOC Athletes’ Commission, but won’t be in Brazil for the voting.
  *Isinbayeva Says She And Her Coach Expected Her To Clear A 5.10m WR To Win Gold In Rio
• Good Read:Retired British Sprinter Jeanette Kwakye Says She Doesn’t “Feel Sorry” For The Banned Russians, She “Pities All Those Competitors Who Were Cheated Out Of Success”
• Russian Olympic Committee President Invited To Tomorrow’s IOC Meeting To Decide On Russia Olympic Ban
• Former Soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev Makes Personal Plea To IOC President Thomas Bach Not To Ban Russia
• WADA “Will Find The Money” For Richard McLaren’s Investigation To Continue Director General Oliver Nigglie also admitted that the bottles used in Rio will be very similar to the ones tampered with at Sochi 2014.

Good And Bad Olympic News

• The Bad: Brazilians Arrest 10 Members Of Islamist Militant Group That Was Planning Olympic Terrorism
• The Good: Collins And St. Kitts & Nevis Kiss And Make Up: At The Age Of 40(!), Sprinter Kim Collins Will Compete At His 5th Olympics
• Is Cornell Alum (’15) Stephen Mozia Now A Rio Medal Contender In SP After Massive 3-Foot PR?
• 40-Year-Old Scott Westcott – Finally Realizes His Olympic Dream At Age 40 He’s in the marathon for Australia.
• Jamaican Press Fondly Remember The Career Of The Jamaican-Born Sanya Richards-Ross “Of all the Jamaicans who have competed for other countries in sport, Sanya Richards-Ross is perhaps the one received most warmly by those who wear black, green and gold in their hearts.”

Mary Decker And Zola Budd Are In The News

• A Review Of The New Book – “Olympic Collision: The Story Of Mary Decker And Zola Budd” You can pre-order the book, which the review highly recommends, here.
• Another Review Recommends “The Fall” – A Documentary Film About Budd/Slaney “An intriguing look at the ugly, inglorious side to the Olympics.”

Would You Break Your Marathon PR If We Offered You $200,000? What About $10,000 To Come Within 30 Seconds Per Mile Of It?

LRCOne Of The Largest Cash Prizes In Road Racing History Goes Unclaimed - 48-Year-Old Pennsylvania Viral Marathon Dad, Mike Rossi, Misses Out On $200,000 Challenge To Replicate His Marathon Personal Best