Will There Be Any College Sports This Fall?

NCAA Board of Governors Leaves Decision On Fall NCAA Championships To Each Division D2 and D3 are already out. D1 needs to make their decision by August 21.

• NCAA Division II Cancels All 2020 Fall Championships 11 of the 23 Division II conferences had already announced they would not compete during the traditional fall season. Like DIII, these championships are cancelled, not postponed until spring.
• Division III Presidents Council Cancels Fall Championships For 2020 They considered holding the fall championships in the spring, but “found it was logistically untenable and financially prohibitive.”

*MB: RIP D3

Well Worth 1 Hour Of Your Time

LRC The Stand: 52 Years Later, Tommie Smith & John Carlos’ Famous Protest Is As Relevant As Ever Tom Ratcliffe and Becky Paige, who teamed up for the terrific Bannister: Everest on the Track, have reunited for The Stand, which aims to tell the definitive story of Smith and Carlos’ protest on the Olympic 200m medal stand in 1968.
*Stream The Stand On Amazon

Running Book News:

• Pro Marathoner Becky Wade Reviews New Book By Legendary Coach Joe Vigil Wade shares six interesting takeaways including the fact that at 90 years old, Vigil is still active and involved in the sport.
  *Press Release: “Chasing Excellence” – New Biography On Legendary Coach Joe Vigil Released Vigil coached Adams State College to 19 DII national titles and coached 22 Olympians, including Denna Kastor when she won an Olympic bronze in the marathon.
• MB: New book about FM

NCAA News

• NCAA Supposed To Give Update On Fall Sports Championships Today The NCAA board of governors has the authority to cancel or postpone NCAA championships.
  *MB: wtf is the NCAA doing
• USTFCCCA Takes A Look Back At Marty Liquori’s First NCAA Mile Title In 1969 Liquori, then only a sophomore, beat out Jim Ryun who hadn’t lost an outdoor mile in four years and was the huge favorite.
• DyeStat Lists NCAA Conference-By-Conference Break Down On Where Each Stands On Fall Sports
• George Washington University Cuts Seven Athletics Programs Including Men’s Indoor Track They cited the pandemic and expected shortfall of $200 million.
  *MB: GWU to cut men’s indoor track
• MB: Former NAU XC Coach Eric Heins: Starting a NEW NCAA D3 track program ! Heins coached NAU to their first DI XC national victory and now will be the head coach for a new track program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

Highlights From Our Chat With The Olympic Silver Medalist

LRC Paul Chelimo’s Rise To the Top: “I’m Willing To Die In A Race” The Olympic 5,000m silver medalist joined the LRC podcast last week to discuss his beginnings in the sport, his rivalry with Lopez Lomong, why he once missed two drug tests, & much more. Plus Chelimo reveals his toughest workout ever and says he wants to run the 2028 Olympic marathon in LA.

Boston Bomber Death Sentence Overturned

Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Has His Death Penalty Sentence Overturned By US Court Of Appeals It was ruled that the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors to make sure they were impartial. So his conviction is still in place, but there will be a new penalty phase trial to determine his sentence where he could still receive the death penalty. *Discuss
*AP Article
*AP: Ruling Renews Fairness Debate In Boston Marathon Bomber Case

Sprint Stuff

The Olympics Needs An MVP

LRC The Olympic Track & Field MVPs, Part II: 1964-2016 The 2020 Olympic track and field action was supposed to begin this week and we’re feeling nostalgic. Football has a Super Bowl MVP. Baseball has a World Series MVP. We need to have an Olympic MVP. Today, we name an Olympic MVP for every Olympics from 1964 to 2016.
*MB: Let the debate begin. Here are our Olympic MVPs from 1896 to 2016.

LRC The Olympic Track & Field MVPs, Part I: 1896-1960

Sprint Stuff

Pre-Meet News From Oregon

Donavan Brazier Gunning For A Fast Time And Maybe Even A Record In Today’s Portland Track Popup Meet Brazier might be trying to break his own 1:42.34 American record which he set last year at Worlds. The other events should be good as well with Craig Engels, Hassan Mead and Josh Kerr in the men’s 1,500, Shannon Rowbury in the women’s 1,500 and Brenda Martinez, Chanelle Price and Nia Akins in the women’s 800. *Meet Info
*LRC Official Thread Brazier Predictions
*MB: BTC & Portland Track Holding Separate Meets this Friday (7/31)

More Oregon News:

• Ken Goe: “Long Hours, Short Nights And Ulcers: Portland Track Defies The Coronavirus To Stage Elite Meets” Portland Track president Michael Bergmann on BTC doing their own thing: “[Jerry Schumacher] knows what we’re doing. But they’ve been pretty successful doing it their way. He has his plan. I’m not going to beg him.”
• Good Read: Portland Track’s Jeff Merrill Gives A Behind The Scenes Look At The Setup And Execution Of The Big Friendly 2 Includes a lot of great photos from the races and middle-of-nowhere setting.
• Good For Them: The Scandia Run In Oregon Is Going Ahead Despite Coronavirus The race will be following social distancing guidelines and can accommodate as many as 600 runners.

We’ve Brought John Kellogg Out Of Retirement – Our Summer Training Program Is Back

LRC High Schoolers And College Runners- Train Smarter This Summer With The LetsRun.com Summer Training Program If you aren’t sure what you should be doing for summer training and want to be your best this fall, sign up for our summer training program. Get a daily training schedule, interact with our team, and be your best this fall.