Why doesen't NCAA have foreigner rules like Japan?

Japan doesn’t win anything on a global stage.

Kenny Moore once told me when I ran with him in Boulder, that if you want a PR on the roads, go run in Japan,

as their courses are always short, to push the Japanese narrative.

This is generally true. But the other poster is talking about the beta males of LRC.

The Japanese "system" is very strongly focused on ekiden running, and I guess it's the only country in the world in which good high school and university runners can contemplate getting a "running" job with a real company, and health insurance. As in the U.S., the university system feeds into "the pros". Run well at the Hakone Ekiden and you've got a job. The training for long ekidens provides a base for a jump to the marathon. Until recently, there was almost no support for track running, and therefore little emphasis in coaching. Japan's "goal" is definitely not to "win medals". In fact, representing the nation is something employers see as a distraction from the main goal of ekiden excellence (which is why some Japanese elites leave the corporate running world).

hey, this is very interesting, can a quality poster look into this? every country has its scams...

in pei canada, the locals never run withing 20 minutes of their island times when in boston, or other proper courses. or at least last times i looked. the courses have to be a whole mile short minimum.

No way courses in Japan are short.

The Japanese meticulously and precisely strive for predictable order in everything they do. They spend incredible amounts of time and effort making sure every detail is correct, as close to perfect as possible. Everything must conform. This is ingrained all aspects of their culture.

Think about how their trains are always on time, down to the second, or how neat and groomed their gardens are.

Once in Japan I was observing some casual running races, where the finishing times were not important. Even so, the timing person wanted to know if it was the front or back edge of the narrow finish line that delineated the official end of the race.

It might be easy to misunderstand what Kenny Moore said when trying to keep up with him while running at altitude.

thx, but did you run a course and get a personal read?

personally i doubt courses like fukuoka are short at any time. guys were not popping off unrealistic times at all over the years.

then again, i'm more interested in been there done it info ...

once upon a time japanese banks were the gold standard, and then boom, it was the biggest scam through buddy buddy loans that were never repaid, and lost on the books, till the story broke, after like 20 or more years backlog, about twenty percent of the gnp.

regarding the ncaa, and testing, it's obviously a farce, and systematic cheating will be rampant, for the same reason as the kenyans do it in mass, coaches paycheck, and athletes short cut to become a somebody, or just fit in, if everybody is doing it also, etc. etc.

I thought this was America? Land of the free? I guess that doesnt apply if you are African smh. Nobody would care if it was people from Ireland, europe, but black sure got yall in a bunch. Well get use to it because the earth is gonna be mostly people of color...downvotes mean Im right btw lol

An ignorant question to ask in the first place. Japan tolerates restrictions on competition and diversity. The US does not. See posts #6 & #10.

This is actually blowing my mind right now. I had never considered before that Japanese runners may not be even trying to win medals and solely focused on corporate ekidens.

Men Olympics since 1956:

US 4, Japan 3

Women Olympics since 1984:

US 3, Japan 4

Considering how much money is poured into sports in the US it looks like Japan is holding its own quite well.

I always felt like it's because Kenyans are much more distinguishable as international athletes

compare them to Jamaican sprinters or Irish distance runners, or half the team being named "Kiprop"

how is performance at the marathon relevant if we're talking about NCAA restrictions?

I agree. No disrespect to Kenny and his memory but at the absolute least I'd need some reason to believe this is an accurate memory and if it is what Kenny knew that made him believe that. I have to believe that if Japanese marathon courses were deliberately shortened to produce fast times we'd hear about it from more sources than a decades old comment from a single world class runner.

Japanese baseball is not much better than Triple A level, so no limits on foreigners could result in predominantly foreign rosters. In MLB, and even with all the great Dominican players, over 70% of the players are Americans.

Bill Rodgers once ran 2:08 in Japan. It turned out the course was 200m short.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10237263847553213&set=a.10203392851039469

I think you're wrong, but if you made the WNBA players do a steeple at halftime I'd be into that. Watching you try to finish a steeple race would probably also be hilarious.

Yes. And that was recognized and publicized almost immediately. If anything this makes it hard to believe that courses there are short.