What about the sport? Christian Taylor Flies to USAs from Holland, Fouls on First Jump and Passes on Next Two

Dudes a Triple Jumper...He aint making any money once he is done! May as well make bank now, and with his WR potential no time like the present.

This is textbook letsrun editor logic. 'I didn't see it, but something might have happened that really offends me so I will make a thread about it and put it on the front page.'

"I missed his jumps. Did anyone see his jumps?...Did he even make an effort on the first one?...Not what our sport needs someone making a mockery of the US Champs. (I'll reverse my judgement if he's really injured)??

Don't you wish you had a website and a press credential? Then you could gather facts on these sorts of occurrences and report on them and make an informed an opinion that people would respect.

Oh well, at least your site has a ton of pop up ads on it!

wejo wrote:

Did he even make an effort on the first one?

Not what our sport needs someone making a mockery of the US Champs. (I'll reverse my judgement if he's really injured)

Judge first, then learn the story? Really?

He's being smart and following the rules. His goal is to win worlds and I support him in doing whatever he needs to have the best shot at that (within the rules)

It is on USATF to make winning USAs a worthwhile goal given the risk of injury.

If you want some sort of standard of competition for USAs (I don't) you'd make your case by pointing at the distance runners when they run sit and kicks and don't even approach their SBs.

A TJer taking it easy at USAs is not why our sport isn't popular. It just isn't aestheticly appealing.

Wejo, are you serious? Taylor already has a spot at the WC. USATF is doing NOTHING for him, and NOTHING for his event. USATF staff are living large in Sacto while the athletes are getting screwed worse than the AAU/TAC days.

You should be supporting him.

By running through the jump he also made sure that he didn't make the final, which he could have done with a jump 1.5m below his best. That's pretty courteous to his fellow competitors IMO.

USATF is cheap. They need to put up some dough to at least match Diamond League money. If they did, Christian would have put USA Champs on his schedule on January 1.

Thank goodness he saved energy by not doing those theee 50meter runups. Can't imagine how he would ever recover by August and London...

In seriousness, I guess I actually don't blame him based on the rules and how he is paid. Although he is his own brand. Why someone in todays beyond pitiful T&F comp world wouldn't look to improve their marketability is something I am not certain I understand.

1) USATF is predominately responsible. Their lack of understanding, foresight, or planning to drive our sport towards a financially sound athlete is criminal.

2) Are our athletes so fragile today that they can not even participate in our countries national championships as they might succumb to an injury? Real life isn't without risk, ask Solinski...

bladerunner wrote:

It's not like these guys make millions. If the USATF can't put up enough prize money to make athletes compete, then what does it say about the financial health of the sport?

Exactly. Christian Taylor isn't responsible for growing the sport in the United States- USATF is. If they think it's important for the top athletes to participate in an event, they should pay them to participate. It's called capitalism. As it is, US nationals was just an obstacle to getting to Worlds for Taylor, so he did the minimum to clear the obstacle.

It's stupid USATF makes the athletes ho already have a bye to worlds show up and participate.

There is a difference between making a mockery and making a point. The fact that wejo started a thread shows that Taylor's protest was successful in getting some debate started about the "must compete at Nationals" rule.

Of course, his protest could backfire if the amendment to the rule is an honest effort rule instead of more prize money. But its hard to dispute his point that the prize money for the United States National Championship should be equal to or greater than a typical Diamond League meet.

To all athletes like Prefontaine, Stones, Lewis, Suhr, Symmonds and Taylor, who dare to bite the hand that feeds them in order to help their brothers and sisters in the sport - Thank you.

Gotta bee wrote:

wejo wrote:

I missed his jumps. Did anyone see his jumps?

Taylor had a bye to Worlds.

Did he even make an effort on the first one?

Not what our sport needs someone making a mockery of the US Champs. (I'll reverse my judgement if he's really injured)

If he has a bye to worlds he shouldn't have even had to come, if he just had to show up why put serious effort in and risk any chance of an injury?

Yeah I'm with GB and not wejo or the pseudo moralistic hounds. This is the part I don't get. I saw Taylor vs Clay from a seat at Hayward right above the TJ pit. Great competition. He gives it all when it counts and he has the medals to prove it. Unlike all of you.

The idiocy here is in making him attend the USChamps when he has a bye and doesn't need the meaningless 48 hrs of travel from EU to CA and back. Plus, the not-small risk of injury which in an all-out triple effort is quite high. He even explained all this. He's complying, and preparing for his big meet. He knows what he is doing and you don't.

Cripple Jump wrote:

Gotta disagree with you on this Wejo. He flew from Holland. That's wear and tear. He jumped. That's wear and tear. Triple Jump is not easy on the body. It is a taxing sport that doesn't need to be over competed because all the training to fix issues and perfect nuance is taxing enough. If there is no need to compete to go to World's there is no need to put the wear and tear on the body. The real event is World's not US Champs.

Besides, if Taylor is the only thing to see in the TJ, then there isn't much to miss.

Well what's the point of making him show up at all? Why make him fly to meet at all? Why not use that $2000 and give it to a fan in a raffle or give it in prize money. Anything but some stupid airline.

That's the USATF rules. You must start to prove your witness unless you are medically exempted.

Usually a big fan of Gault's writing, but this piece is embarrassing. Taylor has suffered enough wear and tear he had to change his take-off leg a few years back. The impact forces the body sustains in the triple-jump are second to NONE in T&F. He's trying to best represent our country at World's and one can only give him respect for that.

It's not as if Wejo was there waiting to watch him jump. Nor were the 70 or so fans in attendance all there to watch him jump. Nor are the 3 people paying $70 to NBC wanting to watch him jump. The only thing our sport needs when it comes to not making a mockery of itself is to get rid of Nike as the title sponsor for the next 3000 years for pennies.

PwacTwac wrote:

Thank goodness he saved energy by not doing those theee 50meter runups. Can't imagine how he would ever recover by August and London...

In seriousness, I guess I actually don't blame him based on the rules and how he is paid. Although he is his own brand. Why someone in todays beyond pitiful T&F comp world wouldn't look to improve their marketability is something I am not certain I understand.

1) USATF is predominately responsible. Their lack of understanding, foresight, or planning to drive our sport towards a financially sound athlete is criminal.

2) Are our athletes so fragile today that they can not even participate in our countries national championships as they might succumb to an injury? Real life isn't without risk, ask Solinski...

Jumping is always a risk.

The world-leading long jumper, with serious talk of a WR in the next couple of seasons, rolled his ankle badly on a landing in Stockholm DL.

Risk with no potential reward is...stupid.

Also, he gave the next top eight a chance to jump in a final, take more attempts etc.

he should have been required to declare intent to collect an 'also'competed' mark so I'd know not to select him in my contest picks.

You are being silly. Why jump when he doesn't have to? To satisfy you and a silly rule?

What happens if he jumped and got injured and ruined any chance of London? Would you be happy then?

It's Taylor's body, Taylor's countless hours of work, Taylor's successful career and Taylor's upcoming World Championships event. Taylor already EARNED the right participate in the worlds, and based on his attempts to avoid the participation rule, he obviously didn't want to compete in this meet. Adding another U.S. title isn't all that important to him, and while you might feel different about it, that is his right. Taylor didn't compete in the triple jump during the 2013 or 2015 US Championships either. The only difference is that he didn't want to compete in the long jump this year to satisfy the rule. We should be much more concerned with how Taylor does in the World Championships and not attack the guy for managing his career the way he sees fit.

Your point is otherwise solid, but Taylor doesn't make the rules. If he had to show up, then he has to show up. If he has to run down the runway, then he has to. But there is no point doing more than you have to if you have a pass. Obviously the US Champ title doesn't mean much. Maybe USATF can figure that out before we bash the athlete for being smart