Team USA World Marathon Team

In my opinion, there should be a penalty imposed on those who have been offered a World Team spot, then decide to opt out of it. USATF has to start getting a handle on this mentality that it's OKAY to skip a World Championship, that it's OKAY to not represent the US in distance running in Mombasa orBerlin. It's a real big problem. Rejecting a position to run the best marathon in the world - that comes around once ever two years (not including the Olympics, but some may argue the World Champs is STRONGER) is an insult to the integrity of the sport and it reflects very poorly on the country as a whole. In Kenya, it's a great honor to make this team. In Japan, it's a great honor. In America, it's a hassle. No wonder why Americans cannot seem to get over that hump in international competition.

The penalty I propose would be simple. If an athlete rejects an offer to join a world team of any kind, they immediately forfeit the next opportunity to join the same world team the next time around. It takes them out of the equation for other American runners who feel they can potentially step up and earn a spot. Instead, Ritz, Hall, Abdi, etc. just feel that they can go next year, if they desire, so why worry over it too much this time around...

Also, while I'm at it...there needs to be a penalty assessed in X-Country Nationals where the they continue to go 10-11-12 deep...Those who earn the money in the top spots should not be permitted to accept that money, and it should go to those athletes who have committed their time, effort, and attention to actually accepting the honor of competing in a World event. Usually these runners have no money to begin with, so $2,000 would go a long way into helping support their training and preparation for the World Championships.

USATF should offer a bonus to those who make a world team. Offer some incentive toward top runners turning down NYC or Chicago, etc. to represent the USA. I don't see why a $5,000 bonus could not be offered to those few athletes who have to dedicate themselves to a world team. It wouldn't be much, but it would be SOMETHING.

Perhaps, Mr. Logan needs to get his nose out Plato's Symposium and try to figure out a way to get our top runners to the World Championships...

Yeah sure, go around punishing runners. That's a wonderful idea. Uh huh.

You can't punish them for trying to earn a living. You can provide more incentive for them to go to Worlds. WC is not the Olympics. Not enough people are paying attention.

The responsibility for this ultimately rests with the meet promoters and the IAAF. Athletes should consider how to help, but they can't be blamed for going for a payday elsewhere. This is how they make a living.

As mentioned countless times, why would anybody want to run the WC Marathon??? Unfortunately, it is NOT the Olympics, and does not carry nearly as much weight. In additon, the folks listed--Lehm and others, do indeed need to make a living. And yes, in fact they do make a good appearance fee. Lehm has run with the US best over 26.2. He is a solid member of Team USA MN, and a great guy. He offers a lot to an event--especially to events like the NYCM which also serves as the Mens Champs. (and it should be noted, Lehm has already ran on a few USATF teams before)

Good point, obviously if you are a marathoner, you typically run only 2 a year, and they need to earn a living. If the IAAF put more shekels into the pot, perhaps they would seriously consider running the WC marathon and skipping Chi/NYC.But then again if the purse is increased, it would attract a better field...The WC marathon is not at the level of the other events. Lets see which East Africans that ran Rotterdam, Boston or London show up at Berlin.

korviev wrote:

You can't punish them for trying to earn a living. You can provide more incentive for them to go to Worlds. WC is not the Olympics. Not enough people are paying attention.

The responsibility for this ultimately rests with the meet promoters and the IAAF. Athletes should consider how to help, but they can't be blamed for going for a payday elsewhere. This is how they make a living.

Kevin Hanson wrote:

The group of athletes that bring NOTHING to an event in the US, is a foreigner that runs 2:07 and can't communicate with the American media. It is almost painful to watch an interview with one of these athletes. It provides a complete disconnect from the average American. You can not market our sport with athletes that don't speak the language. They are excellent athletes and have every right to participate in any race that they want, but they hurt our sport.

Kevin Hanson

hansonsrun@aol.com

I mean, can you imagine if there was a golfer that spoke absolutely no English and came to the U.S. and won one of our major events? How could you market that event?

Oh, wait, that was this year's Masters. The one that 10 million people watched. But be sure to tell Angel Cabrera, and all of the other foreigners, how much they are hurting their sport.

/no one (except us) cares about road racing

I was wondering how long until someone flamed away....read carefully, Mr. Hanson DIDN'T say "foreigner are bad," he intimated that foreigners with a good grasp of english are marketable whereas those whose english is minimal warrant little to no coverage in the eyes of the general media.

on a side note, I'd wager that this is not the case w/ Lehm.......>>....thus it makes perfect sense to choose a marathon where one could potentially attract a 5-figure appearance (and yes, lehm is good enough for that).

lastly, go down the street, ask 100 people who tiger woods is...now ask them who Cabrera is....

Then go to a track meet, ask 100 people who Ryan Hall is, then ask the same 100 who Luke Kibet is.....

dude-

Let's just get rid of the marathon at the World Championships. It's pretty much meaningless. The guy that won the last one probably isn't even in the top ten best marathoners in his own country.

Hold a Half Marathon at the World Champs or a 20K on the road.

Does Downin run anymore?

Yanqui wrote:

Yeah sure, go around punishing runners. That's a wonderful idea. Uh huh.

USATF has to start fostering a different environment. US runners are continually shying away from major international events - including World Cross Country, World Championships, etc. And as a result they are not progressing.

I've never heard the argument that it's punishment to run for the US world team - so this is a first.

Lemk, Rohat, etc. are not passing huge pay days - they're just timid and to be quite honest afraid of World competition...It's so much easier to go to Stanford 10k or stay on the roads then it is to stick your foot out into a pool of better, more talented international runners. It's the easy route.

Hall has a chance to win a medal. Not interested. Why? Because it's easier to go to New York. More comfortable. It pays more. The 250k per year isn't enough. A medal is nothing when dollar signs are flashing in your face...but the truth is NO ONE GOT INTO THIS SPORT for the money, and 99% of the US runners don't run for the money. A world championship event could be a once and a lifetime offering - and to pass it up is PATHETIC.

Yeah, so get back to us when Cabrera wins a few more majors and Tiger isn't in contention, then we'll see how healthy the PGA still is at that point.

Right, just how many US distance runners have been "set for life" based on their earnings as athletes? (Maybe KK?) Bob Kennedy and Alan Culpepper have had to open running stores, work for Puma, etc. Top US distance runners whose bills are being paid with shoe company money have no good reason to favor winnings over legacy. They're going to have to work for a living after running, either way, might as well be with the satisfaction of having taken as many shots in world championships as possible.

And another factor that is being overlooked is many of these athletes, such as Lemk, Rohat, Abdi, etc. have written in their contract a bonus for making a world team. Now, of course, I don't know for sure if these specific athletes have this bonus incentive, but it is likely they do.

Therefore it's very possible that many of the runners who have turned down this spot also turned down a pay incentive from their sponsor...It's highly unlikely that they would lose too much money by choosing World champs over NYC or Chicago...

Most Americans just stay as close to home as possible. It's the easy way to compete. Forget Mombasa; forget Jordan; forget Ireland; Berlin is too far away...Hopefully this new crop of great runners, like German Fernandez, and others will take a chance in their careers and compete against international competition at these world events. That's the only way we'll start seeing major gains.

Kevin,

With the utmost respect for everything that you and your athletes have accomplished... Your last comments are completely full of shit. I understand what you are saying about marketablility, but to say that a 2:07 foreigner is ruining our sport is incorrect. Please elaborate and/or clarify. I do think we need to create the best incentives for the top Americans to run world class performances. But how can you say that someone who speaks poor English, but is faster than all of the Americans is "ruining our sport"?

That's a great thing about the Hansons, they do everything they can to enable and encourage their runners to accept national team spots, even for an ekiden in Japan in the middle of winter.

You probably just need to work on reading comprehension.

Perhaps.

But I think creating an All English-Speaking Championship might not be so good for the sport either.

Ugh.

some folks have ZERO idea of how the running industry works...in fact, to suggest that Lehm doesn't want to race against international competition is ridiculous. In fact, he has already done this multiple times--from Cross to the Marathon. And if I'm not mistaken, the fields at Boston, Chicago, NYC, etc (where he has raced before) are plenty deep, and can be argued are actually DEEPER than the World Champs field which limits how many African athletes he might face. But agents have a much better chance getting guaranteed money for a race like NYC than any kind of bonus he might get from making a World Team. And especially with it being a US Champs race, someone like Lehm could really do quite well with all the different levels of prize money and bonuses. And sure, Lehm (a gifted graphic artist) will indeed have to work post-road racing career. However, he still has a mortgage, a basketball court to rehab, insurance to pay on the VW, etc, etc. So why not try to maximize your earnings???

Idiot! wrote:

Yeah, so get back to us when Cabrera wins a few more majors and Tiger isn't in contention, then we'll see how healthy the PGA still is at that point.

Dear appropriately-named Idiot!,

If Tiger were to retire today, and the only successful golfers were non-English speakers, golf would still have over 100x the viewers and followers that road racing does in America. In fact, the Masters was won by non-Americans (albeit many spoke good English) for a long stretch from the 80s into the 90s, and it only got more popular each year.

Here is the point for Mr. Hanson: The native tongue of the participant is not really relevant. We have an entire soccer league full of English-speaking players, and almost no one watches. We have an entire pro women's league of English-speaking players, and no one watches. We have an NBA full of non-English speaking players, and it's a popular sport. Same goes for golf, tennis, etc.

Also, consider the history of our sport. There was a time when track was a big sport in this country, and many of the top athletes from Finland and other European countries came over to huge crowds -- and they didn't speak a lick of English.

America just does not care about road racing at the moment.