Friends And Family Preview Of Wednesday's Track and Field Action (Day 6) at The 2012 Olympics
By LetsRun.com
August 7, 2012
The Olympics are the one opportunity the track and field world has every four years to expand its fan base.
With that objective in mind, each day of the Olympics (although we missed one day due to time constraints), we're going to present to you an "LRC Friends and Family Guide" to the action. It will be a quick overview of what to expect that day in track and field. Hopefully, you can share the link or print it out and hand it to your friends and family that are either casual track and field fans or not track and field fans at all. One guy has already told us he's been emailing to more than 100 people each day.
If they know the storylines behind what they are watching, they will enjoy it a whole lot more and you won't have to drive yourself nuts by starting at square one with them.
Day 6 Wednesday:
Highlights Include: Women's 200 Final: Can Allyson Felix Finally Get Gold or Will Veronica Campbell Brown Three-Peat?
(For those that don't know, the 200 is a half a lap of the track)
The women's 200 final promises to be an amazing race.
In 2008, Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown became the first woman to win two 200 titles and she's going for title #3 here. She looked good in the women's 100 final as she got the bronze medal there. The silver medallist from the 100 in American Carmelita Jeter also likely will be in the final. She got the silver last year at Worlds in the 200. 400 champion Sanya Richards-Ross of the US also might make the final.
But the real story from a US fan's perspective (unless you a family member, friend or agent of one of the other ladies) is can the US's 
Allyson Felix (pictured right) finally win an individual Olympic gold medal? Felix is possibly the most famous American track athlete. She has her own website,
commercials with Nike (used to be with adidas), Visa, AT&T and Gatorade. Glamorous, the daughter of a preacher, she's seemingly has it all except for an individual gold medal. She's won the 200 three times at Worlds but never won in the Olympics. She ran amazingly at the Olympic Trials in the 200 when she ran a big PR of 21.69. Her previous PB was 21.81 and it was five years old. So she is in great form and ran a personal best in the 100 meters here when she placed 5th.
But there are no guarantees in sport. Last year, after having won the Worlds three times in a row, she was only third in the 200. Last year, Felix also moved up to the 400 to help her with her strength and she got the silver medal in that event in 49.59. Many thought the 400 was her best bet for Gold in 2012 (and the gold medal was won in 49.55 - a time Felix can do). But Felix surprised people and didn't even run the 400. She actually moved down in a surprise to the 100 to double up and that seemingly has helped her with her speed. So she worked on her strength last year and speed this year - all in an effort to win the event she loves the most and calls her baby - the 200. If she doesn't win the 200 here, she likely never will (we guess in 2016 at age 30 it's possible but the 400 is a better bet for her in 2016).
We'll update this part after the semifinals are run as the final eigth haven't been set yet.
Men's 110 Hurdle Semi-Final & Final - With Liu Xiang Sadly Gone, Who Will Win Gold? Will It Be An American or Will Dayron Robles Repeat?
(For those that don't know, the 110 hurdles is 1 straightaway over hurdles)
The 110 hurdles has been getting a lot of attention as there a lot of big names in it and the top guys have a rivalry as they aren't afraid to race each other often.
The big news from the first round was that Liu Xiang of China- the really big name in the event - got hurt in the first round and was unable to finish the first round for the second straight Olympics. The former world record holder at 12.88 and 2004 Olympic champion was the posterboy of the 2008 Olympics in China where Liu may be their #1 sport start overall. The Chinese were very proud of him as he won an event that they don't normally do well in. In American, people don't like to talk about genetics and what not too much, but in China they don't really beat around the bush. The Chinese know their men are on average physically smaller than men from other countries and thus success in a hurdle event is unusual.
Liu suffered an achilles injury before the Olympics and did not start the first first round of the hurdles as Chinese TV commentators cried on air. Many thought he'd never get truly back to top form but he never gave up and last year he was on his way to the world championship gold when 2008 Olympic champions Dayron Robles of Cuba inadvertently hit him with his arms at the World Championships (this happens sometimes in hurdling as they are right next to each other). It knocked Xiang back and he ended up with the silver but the classy Xiang didn't complain about it at all though.
Xiang is a class act who really embodies the Olympic spirit and he showed that in the first round in London. His Achilles apparently gave out again and he crashed into the first hurdle and went down. He clutched his Achilles, got up and then hopped off the track. But he then came back, hopped all the way down to the
finish and kissed the final hurdle in his lane as if to kiss the sport good-bye. If you click on the thumbnail to the left, you can go to the IAAF site for an article on the race.
So Xiang won't be running in the final. The 2008 Olympic champ Robles of Cuba is the world record holder. He's been hurt this year and not running that fast but he looked fine in the first round.
With some help from Robles, American Jason Richardson surprisingly won gold last year. He could win here. He's a really funny interview but he's not a big fan of our website as we tweeted a question to him as to why has he been hanging out with an agent who was part of the BALCO drug scandal and supposedly banned from the sport. But the favorite based on recent form is American Aries Merritt. He's run 12.93 in his last three races before the Olympics which is incredible. The world record is 12.87 seconds and could fall in this race.
One more thing about the men's hurdles. They are really high - 42 inches - and the men always hit them. You'll hear and see them touching them if not knocking them over. That's pretty standard. We don't want to sound sexist but the women's hurdles are too low relative too their body height as the women rarely hit the hurdles. The women's hurdles are only 33 inches high. The average male in the US is only five inches taller than a female and yet the hurdles are 9 inches apart. Track and field along with women's tennis and maybe swimming are the sports where women's stars are treated almost as equals to the men by the media. But you still can see signs as to how women were treated daintily in the past. Back in the day, officials supposedly didn't believe at one time that women should run more than 800 meters. The marathon was only added in 1984. The 10,000 in 1988.The pole vault in 2000. The steeplechase in 2008. They really should move the women's hurdles height up so it's a real test of hurdling ability.
Women's 400 Hurdles Final: Can The Mother Of Twins Lashinda Demus Win Olympic Gold?
(This race is one lap of the track over hurdles):
The reigning world champion is America's Lashinda Demus. She missed the last Olympics as after giving birth to twin boys in 2007, she couldn't get back in shape to make the team in 2008. Her twins are now 5 and her biggest supporters. You'll probably see
them cheering in the stands for her. She's nicknamed them the twindigs. The founders of this website are twins and are biased but we agree with this blog: *US hurdler Lashinda Demus has the most adorable cheerleaders (click
on the link or image thumbnail to learn more).
After twice getting second at the World championships, Demus got her first gold medal last year. Making her more interesting is the fact that she's coached by her mom.
Based on 2012 results, Demus isn't the favorite as she had a hamstring injury earlier in the year. Demus lost to Czechoslovakia's Zuzana Hejnová in Monaco on July 20th and Hejnová has the 2nd fastest time on the year of the finalists at 53.62 (Demus has run 53.98 this year and 52.47 in the past). Hejnová is a threat but the favorite based on recent form is Russia's Natalya Antyukh. The 31-year old won an Olympic bronze medal in 2004 in the flat 400. Last year, she got a bronze medal in the hurdles at Worlds. She's run in 53s in her last three races including a world leading 53.33 in the semifinals.
Many people like watching the 400 hurdles better than the 400 as it's easier to tell who is ahead. Whoever jumps first in the air at each hurdle is ahead. For the flat 400, they need to invent one of those lines like they have in swimming that goes in each lane on the turn to tell you who is ahead in the race as you can't tell until they hit the last stretch because of the stagger.
Other Events (Non Finals):
Women's 1500 Semifinals - Can The Americans Medal? The US has three women in the 1500 semifinals including last year's world Champion Jenny Simpson. Simpson has been struggling though this year and barely made it out of the first round. She's very good at coming from behind and went from last to first on the last lap of the Worlds to win last year in a stunner. The person who was supposed to win Worlds last year and was ranked #1 in the world for the whole season is America's Morgan Uceny, who dominated the Olympic
Trials.
She was in great shape last year but got tripped in the final of the Worlds and had her dreams dashed. Coming into the year, many people thought the Americans might win the 1,500 or get a couple of medals. But now it looks like it will be tough to get a single medal of any color. Uceny seemingly is the US's best bet but the rest of the world has really stepped it up this year. 5 women in the semifinals have broken 4:00 this year whereas Uceny's personal best time is 4:00.
One of the favorites might be Russia's Ekaterina Kostetskaya. We doubt the people at NBC were smart enough to do this, but she actually went to went to HS in the US in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and we though it would be cool if they'd profile her on that or maybe go to Arkansas and ask the people there if they remember her. Her mother was a very, very good runner who once ran 3:54.
If you add about 19-20 seconds to their times, you have what they would have run for a mile.
More: LRC 1st Round Recap
*LRC Women's 1500 Preview
Women's 800 Heats: Caster Semenya Races In Her First Olympics
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Caster Semenya Speaking in 2009 |
The 800 will get under way for women. NBC may show it because of Caster Semenya and Sarah Attar. The South African Semenya won the world title in 2009 and some people thought she might actually be a man. This website helped break the story to the world as no one else really knew about the questions relating to her gender and did not think to interview her. You can see the interview we did of her that ended up Good Morning America (or was it Today?) and has almost a million views now on youtube.
The young 21-year old Semenya, who grew up in poverty, has handled everything very well. The IAAF let her come back eventually (Some people think they made her take some sort of hormone treatment but nothing was ever said about what was or wasn't done. All the IAAF has really done is issue a set of parameters for which one's testosterone levels must be within) and Semenya got the silver last year. She credits Nelson Mandela with helping her in her toughest days and she says, "Everything I do, I do it for him. He made me believe in the dark days after my victory."
Pay close attention to Semenya as she very well may not make it out of the first round. She hasn't been running well at all recently.
Attar is one of two women representing Saudi Arabia in these Olympics. The interesting thing about her is we're nto sure if she's ever been to Saudi Arabia as she's an American-born sophomore at Pepperdine University who actually wears shorts when she runs in the collegiate season. But her dad is Saudi and she's very well put together. You can learn more about her below as we featured her last month:
*LRC Meet Sarah Attar - Saudi Arabia's First Female Track & Field Athlete
In terms of her running ability, she's not an elite level runner at all.
Another person worthy of close attention is US champion Alysia Montano who was 4th last year at World's and thought to be a medal threat. She's known for wearing a big flower in her hair (video on that here) and has a good story behind her as so many Olympians do. In 2008, she had to leave the Olympic Trials final from a wheelchair after getting injured.
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But Montano, who was great in her first race of the year, hasn't looked to be in medal form of late.
She likes to go out really hard so it's fun to watch her try to hold on.
The favorite may be last year's World Champion Mariya Savinova of Russia or 2008 Olympic champion Palema Jelimo of Kenya. Jelimo was a ground breaker for Kenyan women as the country has historically been pretty sexist and there women haven't been nearly as accomplished at running as the men. Jelimo won their first ever women's Gold medal in 2008. She also won $1 million for going undefeated that year. Getting that much money was likely a distraction as men were proposing to her on the street but she's back in great form at the perfect time this year.
Here's a story for you. When LetsRun.com was in Kenya last year and Jelimo was struggling and not running much in big races, we at the last minute tried to set up an interview with her. Originally it was going to work but then it had to be cancelled as she had to go milk her cows. At the time, we were thinking, "Why is someone who won a million dollars milking their own cows?"
Her agent finally moved her to the city so she could focus on running and it seemingly has paid off.
Men's Decathlon Gets Going: Who Will Be Crowned The World's Greatest Athlete?
The mens' decathlon is where the guys do ten different events over two days (five each day) and get points in each and then the winner is often referred to as the World's Greatest Athlete. Kim Kardashian's step-dad, Bruce Jenner, won the Olympic gold in this event in 1976.
The US has two gold medal threats this year. Former UT Longhorn Trey Hardee won the last two world championship titles. That's the good news for him. The bad news for him Ashton Eaton of the US broke the world record at the US Trials. Eaton went to Oregon and is just a total class act.
For example, we were talking to a decathlete who competed at the US nationals for the first time in 2011 and he said Eaton went out of his way to introduce him to all of the guys and welcome him to the club. That's one of the neat things about the decathlon. Generally the competitors kind of view it as they are all in it together and battling mainly the event and their own limits first (and each other second). So you see some nice gestures of sportsmanship.
Eaton's interviews at the Olympic Trials were just incredible as he was very thoughtful. One thing we thought was interesting was when asked about breaking the world record, Eaton admitted he at one point thought maybe he shouldn't have broken it as it was such a big goal of us, he wasn't sure what would drive him down the road.
Men's 5000 Heats: Galen Rupp & Mo Farah
American Galen Rupp and Brit Mo Farah, who train together in Portland, Oregon, went 1-2 to end the African domination in the 10,000 and will run again in the 5,000 heats. Both should be able to make the final here but medalling is going to be way harder in the 5,000 than it was in the 10,000. The 5,000 competitors are just better this year than the 10,000. Many of the 10,000 guys from Ethiopia were trounced by the 5,000 Olympians when they raced earlier in the year. American Bernard Lagat also is a medal threat.
More In-Depth Coverage:
Friday 4:25 PM ET: LRC Women's 10,000 Preview: All The Makings Of A Classic - Tirunesh Dibaba Vs. Vivian Cheruiyot
LRC Men's Steeple Preview: Will Kenya's Record Streak Continue & Can Evan Jager Medal?
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