Domestic US Action – Ritz, Bekele, Keitany, and True Are All Racing This Weekend

Sir Walter Mile MB: Lauren Johnson (4:25) and Kyle Merber (3:54) Win As Drew Hunter (3:57.15) and Mikey Brannigan (3:57.58) PR It’s a Paralympic WR for the autistic Brannigan. *Meet Home

LRC 2016 Beach To Beacon Preview: Ben True, Eric Jenkins & Dathan Ritzenhein Look to Bounce Back from Olympic Trials Heartbreak, Mary Keitany Is Set to Dominate and the Return of Tariku Bekele – 6 Takeaways from the Press ConferenceWith the Olympics still a week away, the best racing action of the week is in Maine, where several U.S. and international stars will gather for the 19th TD Beach to Beacon 10K. We caught up with Ritz (he’s fit and possibly in road PR shape), Bekele (he’s healthy), True and several others on Friday including Keitany, who said all the right things but was clearly still miffed that she won’t be running the Olympic marathon.

Opening Ceremony Is Friday Night *TV Info (8 pm ET)

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  Who Will Light The Flame? Soccer legend Pele says he’s not physically able to attend Opening Ceremony – so who will light the torch?

• Rio officials lose key to Olympic Stadium, have to use bolt cutters to let press in
• Bowerman Track Club’s Betsy Saina wants a medal in Rio Good luck with Ayana, Cheruiyot and Dibaba.
• Medal predictions for Kenya in Rio 4 golds, 6 silver and 7 bronze is the prediction.

US Olympic News

• Good read A look at how much every Olympic sport gets from the USOC Track and field is #1 for the summer Olympics at $60.9 million received from 1999-2015.
• Alan Abrahamson criticizes President Obama for politicizing the Olympics and not standing up for gays in Brazil Abrahamson, who thinks Obama is one of the greatest presidents in US history, is critical that the US made a big deal of how gays were treated in Russia but has said nothing about Brazil which is the deadliest place in the world for gays.
• T&F Collegians At The 2016 Rio Olympics By The Numbers 89 US collegians from 54 US programs will be in Rio.  The countries producing the most Olympians is Georgia and Texas A&M (6). Arkansas and Texas(5) and Florida State (4) aren’t too far behind.
• A look at the Ivy Leaguers in Rio
• US Mid-D Olympians Get Love In NJ Papers: *Robby Andrews *Ajee’ Wilson
• A look at the 4 US Olympians born in Kenya who gained US citizenship quickly by joining the US Army
• Catching up with 100h favorite Brianna Rollins 2014 and 2015 weren’t great for Rollins who thinks God was humbling her.
• 4th placer in 1500 at US Trials, Amanda Eccleston, vows to be back

Kenya News

LRC Goes To KenyaA Legacy Lives On: A Look At The Search For Kenyan Talent At The Aloha Zane Branson Memorial 15K The late Zane Branson was so much more than an agent to some of East Africa’s top runners. In his latest piece, Andy Arnold travels to the western Kenya to visit the race that now bears Branson’s name and tells how Zane’s messages of family and teamwork live on.

• WADA Removes Kenya From List Of “Non-Compliant” Nations “Kenya has drafted and adopted anti-doping legislation now deemed to be in line with the Code,” WADA said in a statement
• Athletics Kenya Head Views News With A Sense Of Relief
• Female Archer Shehzan Anwar To Lead Team Kenya In Opening Ceremnyn.
• Court Gives Federico Rosa His Passport Back, Allows Him To Travel To Rio For Olympics
• Asbel Kiprop Says He Wasn’t “Mentally Stable” In Monaco Due To Arrest Of Rosa But Says His Training Has Been Going Well
• Kenyans Are Very Happy With The Athlete Village In Rio
• Hyvin Kiyeng Hopes To Win Kenya’s 1st-Ever Women’s Olympic Gold In Steeple

2016 Is The Year Of The Zatopek Books

LRCBook Review: "Endurance: The Extraordinary Life And Times Of Emil Zatopek" By Rick Broadbent Offers A Compelling Look At Zátopek, His Competitors, And The World In Which He Lived

News From Jamaica

• Usain Bolt Promises Justin Gatlin “… will feel my full wrath” In Rio – Predicts He’ll Run At Least 9.6 In 100 Bolt says he’s in much better shape than he was last year in Beijing. “I’m feeling much more confident now. I’m much more comfortable with where I’m at.”
• Usain Bolt Moves Into Olympic Village, But Maintains Low Profile And yet many Americans will think staying in the village will hurt their performance and opt for hotels instead.
• Who Would Win In A “Super Race” At 400m Between Usain Bolt And David Rudisha?
• Injured Jamaicans Janieve Russell And Elaine Thompson both Do Well In Training In Brazil Thompson is #1 in the world in the 100m and Russell is #3 in the 400H.
• Coach Stephen Francis Backs Medical Exemption For Jamaican Athletes
• 2015 110H Silver Medalist Hansle Parchment Explains Why He’s Not Competing
• Jamaican Coach Says There’s No Way World Jr. 400H Champ Jaheel Hyde Can Fail In Rio If he bombs out in the first round, he gains experience and if he medals, then it’s amazing.

US Distance Olympians Getting Ready For Rio

• Washington Post:“Matthew Centrowitz Follows His Father’s Footsteps To A Second Olympic Team” Centro Sr. spoke out about the Jama Aden drug bust and how his son should possibly be an Olympic medalist. “It was devastating to us, the realization that, almost 100 percent sure, someone cheated ahead of him.”
• Good Read:Outside Magazine Q&A With Meb Keflezighi Ahead Of Rio Meb says a key to staying injury free is doing “prehab instead of rehab”, talks about his goals and outlook for Rio and when he plans to finally hang ’em up.
• The Des Moines Register: Jenny Simpson’s Journey To Rio Began In Iowa
• Jenny Simpson Video Interview With Carrie Tollefson Asked about her rivalry with Shannon Rowbury, Simpson talks about how having to go up against Sally Kipyego in college made her a lot better.

More Olympic News

• Recommended Read:Back At The 1952 Olympics, The Soviet Union Tried To Get Star British Sprinter Emmanuel McDonald Bailey To Defect A man posing as a Russian journalist took Bailey out to dinner and went as far to sneak into his Olympic village room with vodka and caviar.
• The Oregonian:40 Track Athletes With Oregon / Washington Ties Will Compete In Rio Devon Allen starts off their list.
  
• Michael Phelps Chosen As US Flag Bearer At His 5th Olympic Games
• USA Today Headline:“Plenty Of Action At Rio Olympics, Which Is Why There Are 450,000 Condoms” That works out to 42 condoms per athlete. But they don’t just give them out. Athletes have to go to free public vending machines which are apparently very loud.
• Baseball Will Return To The Olympics But It’s Unlikely The Best Athletes Will Actually Compete If you think Olympic golf is a joke, consider the MLB would actually have to “stop their activity” during the Olympics to have the pros compete in Tokyo.
• Five New Sports Will Be Added To The Tokyo 2020 Olympics Baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will all be on the 2020 Olympic program. *NY Times Article

Non-Olympic Distance News

LRC Goes To Kenya

LRCThe Man Who Took Down Asbel Kiprop: A Week With Kenyan 1,500-Meter Stud Ronald Kwemoi

Hyperandrogenism Will Be A Huge Controversy In Rio

• Friend Of LRC Joanna Harper In USA Today: “This is a huge human rights victory, but sports, not so much.” A former banned intersex athlete Maria José Martínez-Patiño also supports the testosterone upper limits imposed by the IAAF. “I see this … as someone who can see both sides. … I believe my opinion has a heavier weight.”
• The Orange County Register:“Caster Semenya’s Olympic Dream A Topic Of Controversy” A lot of strong pro-Semenya words from “bioethics” and gender specialists, but the scientists are who we side with on this one.

Pre-Rio Jumping News

• Sandi Morris Has A Pet Cat Named “Rio” She Named 4 Years Ago“I guess it would’ve been kind of awkward if I didn’t make it to Rio and had a cat named Rio. But it worked out.”
• 19-Year-Old Pole Vaulter Lexi Weeks Didn’t Expect To Have Such A Long Season Weeks won’t get a real summer “vacation” but says, “I’d definitely rather do that and keep training than be going to the beach.”
• With Sally Pearson Injured, Long Jumper Fabrice Lapierre Is One Of Australia’s Best Gold Medal Hopes In Rio Lapierre’s career has benefited greatly since he moved to coaching genius Dan Pfaff, as he took silver in Beijing and Portland World Champs over the last year.
• First Impressions Q&A With Erik Kynard Kynard says his first sporting idol was Michael Jordan and his sister crashed his first car.

Pre-Rio African Distance News

• Genzebe Dibaba And Other Jama Aden Athletes Will Compete In Rio Without Their Coach(translated) Apparently none of Aden’s athletes tested positive after the hotel raid, but Aden is still being investigated and hasn’t got back his passport.
• Marathon Battle Awaits Kenya In RioJeminma Sumgong, Visiline Jepkesho and Helah Kiprop will try to win Kenya’s first women’s Olympic marathon gold.
• Tirunesh Dibaba Looking To Become The First Athlete To Win Three Olympic 10,000m Gold Medals Nothing new here, but some background on Dibaba’s career if you haven’t read it all before.

US Throwers Making Headlines

Olympic News: Brooks And Rule 40; The Yellow Should Have Given It Away

• Wall Street Journal:Brooks Went Undercover To Slam Rule 40 Turns out that Brooks is behind the anti-Rule 40 campaign, which has included a website, T-shirts and a flatbed billboard truck driving around Eugene during the Trials.
• Interesting:Study Calls Olympic Sponsorship Into Question As Ambush Marketers Have High Success Ahead Of Rio 2016 The study found that ambush marketers occupy 9 of the top 15 spots as far as brand affiliation with the Games. Nike is #2 on the list even though they aren’t an official Olympic sponsor.
• Protesters Promise Demonstrations On Day Of Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony As Brazilian Politics “Descend Into Chaos” They are protesting against the spending required for Brazil to host the Games.
• Police Take Over Rio 2016 Venue Security After Private Firm Sacked Just Ahead Of Opening Ceremonies The private firm was fired for “incompetence and irresponsibility” as they were only able to hire 500 of the 3,400 staff required to screen visitors outside of venues.

Sprint Stuff

• UK Bobsledder Joel Fearon Runs 9.96 To Tie For The Third-Fastest Brit Of All-Time Fearon won’t be on GB’s Olympic team and actually says his focus is bobsledding and the Winter Games. Before this year, his PR was 10.10 from 2013.
• LaShawn Merritt Is Dreaming About Triple Gold In Rio In The 400, 200 And 4 X 400 Merritt says that he needs to thank Allyson Felix for getting the schedule changed to make the 200/400 double possible and even at 34 years old, thinks he’ll definitely still be going in 2020.
• Despite The Current Trend And His Impressive Season, Michael Norman Says As Of Now, He’s Still Not Going Pro And Will Be Running For USC Norman doesn’t know whether he’ll be a 100/200 or 200/400 guy moving forward.
• One Family Will Have Three Olympic Hurdlers In RioJeff Porter, his wife Tiffany Porter and her sister Cindy Ofili all train together in Detroit.
• After Overcoming Adversity To Make Olympic Team, Nia Ali Is Dreaming Of One-Upping Her World Indoor Gold With An Olympic Version Ali went through a tough time while in college after her father killed himself in a murder-suicide.
• Devon Allen Wants 110H Gold In Rio“People always talk about medaling, you know, go and medal. But I always just think about winning.”
• US 100 Runner Morolake Akinosun Tweeted That She’d Be On This Olympic Team 5 Years Ago When She Was Just 17 Akinosun finished 4th at the Trials to earn a spot on the 4 x 100 relay pool.

The IOC Doesn’t Support Whistleblowers, But You Can

• Help Support Russian Whistleblowers Vitaly Stepanov And Yulia Stepanova Please contribute to this crowdfunding effort to help them get back on their feet. *MB Thread *Facebook Page*Twitter