I hear ya, as I too would like to get back to just track being track - all about the races, and being good, clean fun. But that's not where we're at.
As you know, it's a real mess, and has been for decades. I'm extremely jaded. As a fan I don't enjoy T&F as I once did, not knowing who to trust, what to trust, or how exactly to approach a meet for the sake of simply enjoying it.
Too many fallen heroes, too many records STILL on the books that have no business being there.
T&F needs a reckoning.
And if it has to occur on center stage - then so be it. It's basically how Ben Johnson took his fall, and many others need to follow.
Just the fact of how we as a world track community aren't more vocal in challenging the CLEAR AS DAY anomaly that is the entire Jamaican T&F complex is telling as to the blinders we're all now wearing - and how deep this mess is. All the records set and medals won in sudden fashion by a tiny island nation that had accomplished next to nothing during a nearly three decade gold medal drought - and suddenly they're the dominant force in world sprinting - men, women, college/club - juniors even! A virtual sprint factory, with sprinters tripping over each other with sprint relays depth?! In roughly 8 years, 11 Olympic golds and a handful of world records, after having just 4 sprint golds in its entire prior Olympic history?!
This is anomalous.
Of course we all know about the practically non-existent PED testing program there in Jamaica. We know about the athletes that then were tested and failed tests, including stars Veronica Campbell-Brown (escaped on technicality) , Asafa Powell and Sharone Simpson. We know about the sudden last minute withdrawal from the World Relays of 9 sprinters from Jamaica's MVP track Club. And we now at least raise an eyebrow that Bolt and Blake are missing meets and/or mired in running sub-par times - this as more stringent testing is now in place.
Something's been horribly amiss there - but we do nothing to correct it - and particularly as regards the biggest outlier there - Usain Bolt. The statistics regarding the outlier status of his feats don't lie: only Ben Johnson's numbers match in outlier status. But we simply marvel - rather than have an honest conversation about not only is something "off" here, but WHY that likely is the case. We know it when we see it.
We've seen the East Germans. We've seen it with the 1993 Chinese women distance runners. Outliers by a large margin. We know when something is wrong - and we need to set about fixing it immediately. Because each meet we allow to happen, and each questionable gold medal we award, and each record we place in the books only serves to harm the sport in lasting fashion. It all becomes a great big joke, not to be respected. Something which can only feed into athletes' psyches as it pertains to preparation and PED use.
Of course, closer to home, the list of Americans busted and banned is VERY long and plentiful. From Marion Jones to Michelle Collins; from Mary Decker-Slaney to Regina Jacobs; from Tim Montgomery to Justin Gatlin; from Jon Drummond to Tyson Gay. It's bad.
But at least here we have ample signs of vigilance in testing, and administering appropriate actions when cheating is found. It's not about creating and protecting national heroes, and creating world marketing icons. You get tested - no excuses. If you're busted - you're out.
This is exactly what track and field needs more of - on center stage - right now. To fall, and rise anew. A reckoning to get this cleaned up and on the right track. I'm looking at how track and field finally closes the books on this chapter of Jamaican dominance as a sign of its health, and it's willingness to "get right".
If it simply turns the page without a thought, for me and many like me, it could be the sounding of the death knell for the sport, in my lifetime at least.