I watched tonight's broadcast with my 91 year old mother. Half way through the O'Brien/Jenner interview she pointed to Jenner and asked, "Is that a man or a woman?"
After explaining why the leader of the Decathlon 1500 slowed to allow Eaton to cross the line first, she declared that Curtis Beach is now her favorite athlete.
kudzurunner wrote:
Wait a minute! As I was posting my comment, the comment preceding mine was about Beach............TWITTERING!
Shoot me in the head, right now.
That was OTC elite that posted that
The multisports athletes usually seem like a pretty classy group. I think there's a certain amount of camaraderie against the common foe of the points table.
toodarnloud80 wrote:
And I was surprised Bryan Clay finished the meet after the DQ in the hurdles and fouls in the discus. Although it looks like his hurdles time/score was reinstated.
Clay didnt finish. He came out from the warmup room to congratulate Eaton.
Class act.
Uh....really. We're you even there. Clay did finish in fact the meet announce gave him props for competing till the end.
You know you're a badass when qualifying for the Olympic team is the second coolest things you've done today.
He's going to be on the Wheaties Box for about the next 8 years!
wheaties yum wrote:
He's going to be on the Wheaties Box for about the next 8 years!
8 years? I think I just saw one at the supermarket with Bruce Jenner on it . . .
i don't think he slowed so much to let him win as to get out of his way and cheer him on to a world record. either way classy all the way
GOAT!!!!
The crowd in the East Stand certainly got him going on the backstretch, and from there it was a matter of digging down deep at the end of these grueling 2 days. Amazing event to see!
Apparently I'm going strongly against the grain here, but slowing down to let someone pass you doesn't seem like a great act to me. You're an elite athlete. You compete all out. That's code: give your best, always. If Eaton had won the 1500 because we was the best at that distance, it's great and makes for an awesome photo of him finishing his record. But if he crosses the line first because the other guy purposely slowed down, it's not exactly a magical moment to me.
Go ahead and shout me down. To be clear, I don't object to the guy slowing to let Eaton past, especially since Beach wasn't in the running for a spot, but I don't view it as a remarkable, praiseworthy gesture, either.
Okay, let's hear it. Bring the hate, intertubes. I can take it.
But it wasn't a 1500M race they were competing in. It was the last event of a Decathlon. In fairness, I don't think his act had anything to do with class. I think he simply wanted to become a spectator himself and give himself the best position to cheer on Eaton and see how it would unfold. It was neither bad or good.
meichenl wrote:
Apparently I'm going strongly against the grain here, but slowing down to let someone pass you doesn't seem like a great act to me. You're an elite athlete. You compete all out. That's code: give your best, always. If Eaton had won the 1500 because we was the best at that distance, it's great and makes for an awesome photo of him finishing his record. But if he crosses the line first because the other guy purposely slowed down, it's not exactly a magical moment to me.
Go ahead and shout me down. To be clear, I don't object to the guy slowing to let Eaton past, especially since Beach wasn't in the running for a spot, but I don't view it as a remarkable, praiseworthy gesture, either.
Okay, let's hear it. Bring the hate, intertubes. I can take it.
i don't know if placement has any bearing on how the decathlon is scored or if its just exclusively time. However, if it does have a bearing on the scoring, that's kind of a let down he would slow down for him. Kinda makes it a hollow WR if placement counts to scoring
beachmouse wrote:
The multisports athletes usually seem like a pretty classy group. I think there's a certain amount of camaraderie against the common foe of the points table.
--Brotherhood.
east african runner wrote:
i don't know if placement has any bearing on how the decathlon is scored or if its just exclusively time. However, if it does have a bearing on the scoring, that's kind of a let down he would slow down for him. Kinda makes it a hollow WR if placement counts to scoring
Places don't count for scoring. IAAF scoring tables here:
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Document/Competitions/TechnicalArea/ScoringTables_CE_744.pdfAlso, not sure if I read this here or somewhere else. The 1500m should so be a handicapped race with the first runner crossing the line winning the overall event. In this case, AE would of had a huge head start (over 2 minutes) over the rest of the field and when he crossed the line you would be able to see how much he'd actually won the whole event by. Better for TV, better for athletes, better for spectators, better for commentators. WAY harder for the officials. But knowing officials they'd love working that stuff out in order for making the race reflect how the overall event scores are placed.
Thinking about this further after looking at the tables, you'd need to start the electronic timing for the leader, then have each of the subsequent runners start on whole seconds after that. Some kind of automated beep programmed to go off at each competitor's start time.
The points table would also need to be changed to only whole or half seconds to be used for points - for example, at the moment a 5:00 1500m can get you between 555 and 561 points. A modified table would result in 5:00.00 = 561, 5:00.50 = 558, 6:00.0 = 555 (i.e. you can't get 560 points anymore)
Placement in a particular individual event has no bearing on scoring in the decathlon. Scoring is based on a table under which incremental increases in level of performance in a particular event are awarded higher point scores. Add them up for a total score. The only effect of Beach's decision to slow down and cheer for Eaton was to lose a second or two toward his own overall score, which was already much lower than Eaton's, therefore no relation to Eaton's world record performance.
http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/technical/scoringtables/index.html
What do you do when the fifth runner false starts?
meichenl wrote:
Apparently I'm going strongly against the grain here, but slowing down to let someone pass you doesn't seem like a great act to me. You're an elite athlete. You compete all out. That's code: give your best, always. If Eaton had won the 1500 because we was the best at that distance, it's great and makes for an awesome photo of him finishing his record. But if he crosses the line first because the other guy purposely slowed down, it's not exactly a magical moment to me.
Go ahead and shout me down. To be clear, I don't object to the guy slowing to let Eaton past, especially since Beach wasn't in the running for a spot, but I don't view it as a remarkable, praiseworthy gesture, either.
Okay, let's hear it. Bring the hate, intertubes. I can take it.
No need to shut you down. You spend half the post apologizing for yor comment.
I'm sure you get it.
Beach did a class thing. He only had scores in 9 events. Now Eaton gets the pic of him crossing the line first in the last event of his 1500 and not buried 10 behind. Meaningful from a guy in an event with more friends than enemies.
Decathlon athletes are not like any other. Its a brotherhood. (can say that as the women don't have the event - yet)
As you post, you're probably into T&F, but clearly have no understanding of Decathletes.
Beach had a once in a life time opportunity to link himself to a WR. Probably not a goal, but it happened. I thougth it was a tremendous spur of the moment gesture that will be remembered long after he is forgotten. Great sportsmanship.
Hitmonlee wrote:
What do you do when the fifth runner false starts?
DQ
as I cant see the trials I'm looking forward to seeing him compete in London