1983 World XC USA Women's Team -- will the US ever have a team as good?

Yes. We to let more top Kenyan runners become USA citizens.

Can you name them for us?

Did they win the team competition that year?

Beat the Soviets by 10 points for 1st place

The current US women might do just as well if they faced a line-up like the 1983 US women faced - no African teams, and possibly no individual runners of African ancestry. If you look at those 1983 results, you can see that the only non-European countries competing were the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I think the current crop of US women athletes would likely do just as well if they faced only Euros, Kiwis, Aussies, and Canucks.

They would crush them. The only way to make it interesting would be to aggregate Europe, Oceania, Asia, etc. like in those old world cup championships.

pale-faced race wrote:

The current US women might do just as well if they faced a line-up like the 1983 US women faced - no African teams, and possibly no individual runners of African ancestry. If you look at those 1983 results, you can see that the only non-European countries competing were the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I think the current crop of US women athletes would likely do just as well if they faced only Euros, Kiwis, Aussies, and Canucks.

pale-faced race wrote:

The current US women might do just as well if they faced a line-up like the 1983 US women faced - no African teams, and possibly no individual runners of African ancestry. If you look at those 1983 results, you can see that the only non-European countries competing were the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I think the current crop of US women athletes would likely do just as well if they faced only Euros, Kiwis, Aussies, and Canucks.

They would do much better. What was Alison Wiley's 3000m PR? She won the silver medal.

Bhjhbhbjbhj wrote:

pale-faced race wrote:

The current US women might do just as well if they faced a line-up like the 1983 US women faced - no African teams, and possibly no individual runners of African ancestry. If you look at those 1983 results, you can see that the only non-European countries competing were the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I think the current crop of US women athletes would likely do just as well if they faced only Euros, Kiwis, Aussies, and Canucks.

They would do much better. What was Alison Wiley's 3000m PR? She won the silver medal.

Found it. Alison's best time in 1983 was 9:03 for 3000m and 16:01 for 5000m. Pretty sure that, in a good year, an all star HS team would beat that US team. Think Baxter, Cain...

Bhjhbhbjbhj wrote:Found it. Alison's best time in 1983 was 9:03 for 3000m and 16:01 for 5000m. Pretty sure that, in a good year, an all star HS team would beat that US team. Think Baxter, Cain...

I don't think so. The 1983 World cross team would crush your HS all star team.

Also, Alison's best 3000 time in 1983 was 8:51.

To improve your perspective on this 1983 World Cross race: 1st Place finisher Grete Waitz is one of the greatest marathoners of all time, 3rd place finisher Tatyana Pozdnyakova ran 3:56 for 1500m, 4th place Joan Benoit won Olympic marathon in 1984, 6th place Svetlana Ulmasova ran 8:27 3000m world record in 1982.

Interesting to note that race was only 4.1 K, and 2 great marathoners finished 1st and 4th.

i beg to differ wrote:

To improve your perspective on this 1983 World Cross race: 1st Place finisher Grete Waitz is one of the greatest marathoners of all time, 3rd place finisher Tatyana Pozdnyakova ran 3:56 for 1500m, 4th place Joan Benoit won Olympic marathon in 1984, 6th place Svetlana Ulmasova ran 8:27 3000m world record in 1982.

You're right, those are actually huge names except that Waitz, Benoit-Samuelson, and Peeters were more known for their marathoning rather than their mid-distance stuff.

I'm pretty sure our current crop of women would handily beat our 83 team, though. Our problem is that no one takes XC seriously anymore.

I wonder... why did this Alison Wiley not go on to do better things? Even 8:51 is not super fast for a 3,000 (Cain and Efraimson ran close to 9-flat while in HS and Wiley still managed to beat Pozdnyakova 3:56 and Ulmasova 8:27.)

If the race were still 4k and still only required 4 scorers, I imagine a team of Molly Huddle, Shannon Rowbury, Jenny Simpson, and Shalane Flanagan and a combination of Emily Infeld, Nicole Tully or Emma Coburn as alternates would be far superior to our '83 team.

Hairy bushes

Dwightty wrote:

I wonder... why did this Alison Wiley not go on to do better things? Even 8:51 is not super fast for a 3,000 (Cain and Efraimson ran close to 9-flat while in HS and Wiley still managed to beat Pozdnyakova 3:56 and Ulmasova 8:27.)

What else did she do besides an 8:51 and a silver in world xc? I can't find any results or times for her.

That seems about it. Achilles problems cut short her career:

https://nancytinarirunswrites.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/canadian-cross-country-running-in-the-80s-part-ii/

Yes, Alison Wiley was a very tough, talented athlete, but struggled with injuries, especially her Achilles. Even when she ran her PB of 8:51 in the heats at the Worlds in Helsinki/1983, she had been training in the pool for the last week or so before the race, due to her injured Achilles. She was a 2-time Canadian champion at 3000 metres, and a 3-time victor at the Canadian Cross-Country Trials. But her silver medal at the 1983 World Cross-Country Championships was her supreme International achievement. I'm not sure of her NCAA races, while at Stanford in the early/mid 1980's.