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October 2, 2002
We reward the winners and punish the losers in the sport.

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Suzy Favor Hamilton
In recent years, there was a troubling pattern for the top 1500m women in the United States. It went like this: Regina Jacobs would spank Suzy Favor Hamilton at the US championships, then Suzy would go to Europe and run some fast times, Regina would not go to Europe and race, Regina would skip the major championship at the end of the year (the Olympics) or run super slow, and Suzy would have a meltdown (drop out or have a panic attack). This year, things started out in a similar manner. Regina spanked Suzy at the US Championships, and then Suzy went off to Europe. 

However, then things changed. 

Suzy didn't have a good race her first time out in Europe.  She got bumped with a lap to go, and mysteriously just dropped out. American Nicole Teter who was right next to Suzy when she dropped out, kept running, and won the race. Many assumed things had changed for the worse and Suzy's major championship problems were now affecting her head in these European races. Suzy disappeared from Europe for a month, and while she was gone to the pleasant surprise of manyl, Regina showed up in Europe and raced fairly well at first, but coming up short at cracking the 4 minute barrier.

Suzy meanwhile went back to the States and then came back to Europe for the 2nd half of the season, and surprised everyone with a 2nd place 3:59.1 (seasonal best) at the famed Zurich race.  Then she went to Brussels and raced Regina head to head. Regina came out on top (4:01 for 3rd) to (4:03 for 5th for Suzy), but Suzy did not let this momentary setback get her down. She came back with 3 fabulous races to end the year (3:59.4 for 2nd in Berlin, 3:59.43 for the win in Rieti, and 4:01:08 for 2nd at the Berlin final).  Meanwhile, Regina was the one who had the meltdown, running 4:08.8 in Berlin (only one week after her 4:01 in Brussels) for 12th, and 4:10 at the World Cup final. So, thumbs up for Suzy for apparently controlling the mental demons that have plagued her career of late, and in turn running a great European campaign (although we still want to see it at a major championship (the World Cup Final is not one)). As for Regina, we praised her on our front page for going to Europe, but now we want to see her run well when it counts (at the end of the season). She can't have too many years left in her career, so next year's World Championships should be pivotal as it will be for Suzy.  Maybe things haven't changed as much as we thought. Major championships are what careers are judged on.

Dan Browne
Let's face it. Some guys are just winners and Dan Browne is one of them.  The guy has won virtually every American road championship in site over the last few years. And this year he tackled the marathon. He made his marathon debut at the Twin Cities marathon which served as the US championships and won the race picking up at nice $34,000 ($20,000 for the US championship, $10,000 for winning the open race, $4000 in USOC funds). The joke on the circuit is that Dan only wins when there is a lot of money on the line (which isn't true as he won the 1998 track 10k title). But if that's the case, Dan's career as a marathoner should be lucrative. The marathon is where the money is in distance running after all.

Todd Reeser
In 2000, this guy lit up the roads with wins at the New Haven 20k and the Cow Harbor 10k. (For a profile on Reeser from letsrun.com in 2000 go here: https://www.letsrun.com/reeser.html ). Life was good. His future was bright.  Since then Reeser has really struggled with his running with one tough performance after another. He was no where close to the runner he was in 2000.  No where. And for many runners once their career starts on the down-slope, it never comes back up. Reeser however in 2002 has slowly started to turn things around. His performances haven't been incredible, but he's slowly been improving and not trying in one fell swoop get back to where he once was. This last weekend he was rewarded with an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon at Twin Cities. He ran slower than he did in his debut in 1999 at Chicago, but at this point it was a very good performance for Todd, and he seems to have his head on straight. Welcome back Todd.  

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Track and Field News
The magazine is nicknamed the Bible of the Sport, but it looks like they've quit doing some of their own research. On page 36 of the newest Track and Field News, it says "Ivy League officials are considering withdrawing their schools from NCAA Div. 1 competition and moving to Div. III  reports the New York Times.  The only problem is this item never appeared in the NYTimes, it appeared on the LetsRun.com message boards as a hoax post. We like knowing that the so called "Bible of the sport" gets their information from our website.  If Track and Field News is "The Bible of the Sport", then does that mean that LetsRun.com is the "God of the Sport"?  

In the future, they just need to ask us what is a joke and what is true.  Their editors as they advance in age must not be able to catch the wit, sarcasm, and hoaxes of our younger posters (although we'll admit that for a brief moment, we fell for the hoax as well).

It may seem funny to you but Rojo has sent word from the East Coast that more than a few of the Ivy League coaches are blowing their lids off at the  mistake as it's bound to be used against them in recruiting.

The article goes on to say some other things that may be misleading and inaccurate about Ivy League schools. The same notes section says  "Div III prohibits any member from giving financial aid for athletics, a practice already in place at the Ivies."  This might leave the impression that athletes can not receive financial aid at an Ivy League school which is not the case.  Ivy League schools can not give athletic scholarships or give extra financial aid to someone just because they are an athlete, but athletes can get need-based financial aid just like everyone else.  All Ivy League schools have very generous need-based financial aid where financial aid is given based on need not athletic ability.  In fact one of the little known secrets of college athletics is that for many athletes, the value of the financial aid is worth more than an athletic scholarship at another school (especially for a male runner where very few full scholarships are given out), but that's another matter.

And while we're defending Ivy League schools (the founders of this site went to Yale and Princeton and now Rojo coaches at Cornell), we'll go even further. This month's track and field news has a full page story praising the women's recruiting class as Duke, which is indeed exceptional.  However, it includes quotes from Duke coaches which seem to take digs at the Ivy League.  

Duke assistant Kevin Jermyn (one of Wejo's ex-roommates when he lived in DC): "If you're really serious about athletics and academics, it's either us or Stanford." And Head coach Jan Ogilvie,  "We feel there's no other school on the East Coast that can offer the same combination of athletics and academics as we can." 

The Duke coaches may feel that way, but it's just not the case. Talk is cheap.  Outside of basketball (well technically Duke has a Division I football team if you want to call it that) the Ivy league sports are very competitive with Duke And in track? Well Duke may have a strong women's distance squad but their track team as a whole is awful - both their men and women finished 9th (out of 9) in the ACC last year.

The last time we looked, all of the Ivy League schools are on the East coast. Seems like to us that TFN has a case of Ivy League bias.

The United States Government
Yes the government may have more pressing things on mine like eradicating murderous terrorists throughout the world, but the US  government had pledged to pay $800,000 a year to the World Anti-Doping Agency to help keep sports as drug free as possible.  Well, so far the US has not paid its $800,000 bill.  There is no excuse for this. $800,000 isn't even a drop in the bucket for the US government. Considering the US government is one of the few governments in the world that doesn't provide any money to help support its Olympic athletes, it should give way more to ensuring sports are drug free.  How about a one time payment of $80,000,000. Yes, $80 million.  (Hell the cost of the Big Dig in Boston is $14 billion dollars, $1.4 billion over budget. $80 million is .5% of $14 billion, and 5% of $1.4 billion) Instead, senators and congressman act like they are concerned about the "drug problem" in US sports and they hold televised hearings to bash the baseball owners instead of spending money to support an organization that wants to actually end illegal drugs in sport. If billionaire owners can get publicly financed stadiums to pad their own pockets and in return the pockets of their millionaire players, it's time for the US Government to step up and fund the world anti-drug agency in a way that can make a difference.  We're not asking for funds for the athletes themselves like in other countries. Just fund the anti-drug movement. (To see a list of how much each government is supposed to pay the World anti-doping agency click here.

Baseball and Don Fehr
Don Fehr head of the baseball union is on the United States Olympic Committee board of directors. That is a joke. The man is in charge of the union that has thwarted attempts to erradicate performance enhancing drugs from baseball. He should immediately be removed from the US Olympic Committee.  Baseball recently announced its new drug testing policy to much fanfare to get the rattling of America's senators and congressman of its back (the same people who still haven't paid the $800,000 to the Anti-doping agency). The only problem is baseball's drug testing policy is a joke. It is not year round random testing and a lot of drugs aren't tested for. Steve Wilson of the AP wrote a good editorial on this issue. You'll find it by clicking here: