U.S. Born and Raised Distance Won No Medals

so where was robury born?

oh yeah, and when you said nobody was close...

how much closer could have nick symmonds been?

he was 4 tenths out of gold... i feel like thats pretty close...

re-read the initial post..

A Fresh Start wrote:

Should we just give up and stick with sprints and field events or does anybody have any bright ideas about how to move our distance program from aweful to mediocre or even good?

Yeah, we can become good if you go and win us a few medals in the next championship.

The greater shame isn't in losing, it's in being too afraid to try.

-Ron Clarke.

Rowbury might well have finished 4th without the fall.

Falls are part of racing. She avoided getting caught up in it. Good for her.

This was a big improvement across the board.

Yeah, we should just give up on distance running. We are a wealthy country; we can afford to spend $$$ on the distance programs. Kenya does not have the luxury to try to develop field event athletes.

A Fresh Start wrote:

Should we just give up and stick with sprints and field events or does anybody have any bright ideas about how to move our distance program from aweful to mediocre or even good?

Discuss:

Who is the "we" in this scenario? Losers who don't appreciate hard work? Do you think you have even the vaguest idea how much talent, hard work, and luck are required to do well at an international championship? It's so frustrating to read posts like this because they are filled with ignorance. Again, who is the "we" you refer to? Are you somehow relating yourself to the efforts of Tegenkamp, Solinsky, Rupp, Ritz, Willard, Barringer, Yoder-Begley, Wurth-Thomas? Do you feel that someone other than them is invested in this whole thing? Why would extremely talented and hard working people ever give up on a dream??? It makes absolutely no sense. What are you even saying?

This world championships has been a huge improvement for the U.S., if you have eyes to see it. We sent three men to the 1500 final. Our top 800 man gained valuable experience in the 800 final and placed 6th in the world. We saw the emergence of a huge threat in the women's 800 in Maggie Vessey - number two time in the world this entire year. We qualified three again for the 5k final. In the 10k final Rupp and Ritz placed 6th and 8th in the world, and were dominant over non-African nations. Amy Yoder-Begley is probably the third best American 10k runner (Flanagan and Goucher) and she still placed 6th. That shows great depth.

None of this is considering a slew of talent that was not quite ready for worlds this year. I hate to say it, but our best miler was missing in Alan Webb, and we still got three guys in the 1500 final. Ryan Hall didn't compete. German Fernandez and Chris Derrick are obviously going to be huge assets somewhere between 1500 and 10,000 meters, within the next four years.

Your post may have been appropriate in the 1990's. But we have already four Americans who could have been in the medal hunt in the 5k, if you consider how close Teg, Solinsky, and Jager really were throughout the season, and consider again how close Teg was to a medal in Osaka. Rupp and Ritz are closer than any Americans have been in years to competing for a medal in the 10k, an event which used to see a routine lapping of the USA singlet. K. Goucher and Flanagan have both medalled in the past three years. The women's 1500 is incredibly strong, Rowbury won a bronze, and it is debatable if she is even the best of the lot: Willard and Wurth-Thomas have both run faster times. Going 3-5-6 at worlds is very good. Depth-wise we have the best female 1500 runners in the world.

Steeplechase, I'll give you.

I think the OP may be a little harsh, but I would also have to say he / she isn't too far off. Many other countries didn't run their best runners and the African countries are only allowed their best three or four runners. So a 10th place finish in a world championship may not really be 10th best in the world. Heck, it might not even mean 10th best in a country like Ethiopia / Kenya.

I think another issue is the perceived closeness. Most of the races were tactical. I wouldn't consider being with the leaders with a lap to go and then losing by a few seconds to be all that close. I don't really think any Americans were contenders at the end of the races, save the women's 1500 and even that is questionable.

I was surprised by the China / Japan dominance in the women's marathon. They are going to be tough to beat for a long time.

What a frickin' loser you are. Please don't ever work for my company, because people like you spread negativity. Yep, in your eyes, we didn't win a Gold Medal, so we should quit. I give guys likeSalazar,Rupp, Ritz, Teg all the credit in the world for mixing it up with the best in the world. Hell, 4 years ago, the US had basically quit on the distances--just like you. Thank God we have people around who will find a way to make it happen instead of whining.

A Fresh Start wrote:

Should we just give up and stick with sprints and field events or does anybody have any bright ideas about how to move our distance program from aweful to mediocre or even good?

Discuss:

Yeah-- stick to the sprints. That'll work.

Except for 400 meter long races for the men and Felix, the Jamaicans manhandled us.

Who Said it wrote:

I give guys like Salazar, Rupp, Ritz, Teg all the credit in the world for mixing it up with the best in the world.

So mixing it up with the best in the world in slow, tactical races and getting our butts handed to us in the last laps is our new standard of excellence?

Go f*** yourself. Ritz and Rupp were 6th and 8th in the 10000m. That is a fantastic result.

Go f*** yourself. Ritz and Rupp were 6th and 8th in the 10000m. That is a fantastic result.

That is a typical liberal democrat response. The leaders ran their last 5K in 13:05. Rupp and Ritz weren't even in the same race.

johnny langenwanker wrote:

The women's 1500 is incredibly strong, Rowbury won a bronze, and it is debatable if she is even the best of the lot: Willard and Wurth-Thomas have both run faster times. Going 3-5-6 at worlds is very good. Depth-wise we have the best female 1500 runners in the world.

Rowbury proved at the US Championships and again at the World Championships that she IS the best of the lot.

What other countries didn't run their best guys?

Other than kenya and ethiopia we would have beaten every country. We are getting closer. If you don't like how we did then do something about it. No big deal. What are you contributing besides a loser attitude?

Row was born and raised, and currently lives and trains in San Francisco.

4runner wrote:

Yeah-- stick to the sprints. That'll work.

Except for 400 meter long races for the men and Felix, the Jamaicans manhandled us.

So except for the women's 200, women's 400, men's 400, womens 4X400, men's 4x400, men's 400 hurdles, the Jamaicans manhandled us?

US had 10 golds to Jamaica's 7. 22 total medals to Jamaica's 13.

and the US hase 300 million more people than jamacia...