It’s shoes. Period. End of story. Doping, tracks, training, Covid, and whatever else people want to contribute it to other than shoes have been around a long time. BU track has been around since 2001. The only thing that has drastically changed in the last couple years is shoes. Don’t kid yourselves.
Pacing lights have not been around forever....
Alan
You need to study a bit more and post less. Pacing lights were around in the 1970’s. They are not nearly as helpful as a professional pace setter, such as Sowinski. Ovett and Coe had personal pace setters. The shoes have a multiplier effect on the tuned up track. I believe most of these runners will not be running as fast outdoors- but I hope I am wrong.
try this? wrote: Misleading list. Salazar and Chapa both ran times in high school which would be comparable to times on this list but they ran 2 miles (in their day the 3200 wasn't an event in high school). Others who ended up at Oregon may have run comparable time but for 3200 and not 3000.
Those are Oregon high school times. Salazar and Chapa didn't go to HS in Oregon.
That is what makes that list so insane - 7 out of the 10 best times ever have come in the last three seasons (and in Oregon we never run the 2M anyway, so there is no other list).
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
There was the argument that the top distance runner in the world from 2012-2017 never went for fast times (Mo Farrah). Before that every top world champion was going for the world record ending with Bekele, then Farah just raced to win. And then the torch gets handed off to Cheptegei and he breaks the world record. The marathon was continuously getting beat forever. The longest gap between world records was 10 years in the 90's. Typically it's averaging about 3 years between world records. The most recent one before 'super shoes' was 2014 with 2:02:57 and it took 4 years (pretty typical) to 2:01 in 2018 and then 4 years later (again 4 years) it got dropped to a lower 2:01. So the marathon progression has been pretty typical. Bekele's world records were getting 'old' for a track world record. I expect someone to run sub 2:01 in the next four years not named Kipchoge in the marathon. And then several years after that someone will run even faster. In my lifetime someone will break 2 hours in a legal race with the only pacers being people who started the race at the same time. So no surprise most distance records have been beat in the past 4 years, 4 years is fairly typical.
Is one of the options "all of the above" or do I have to pick?
Honestly, I see it here on the youth scene.
In Oregon, with the exception of Galen Rupp, Steve Prefontaine, and one other runner (Eric Logsdon); ALL the other elite HS 3000m times have been run in 2019-2022. I don't think these kids are doping but they are doing EVERYTHING else:
starting younger,
training better and more,
wearing Dragonfly in races,
training in Vaporflys to protect the legs,
getting really good coaching from age 9-10,
racing each other in elite, time-trial style invites instead of doubling/tripling at dual meets (the way we did),
AND they all think 8:10-15 is totally possible for a HS kid.
That kind of running used to be an untouchable time for all but the legends of HS running. Now multiple kids do it in every season. It is the perfect storm.
p.s. Here are the Oregon all-time bests, just for reference:
1. Galen Rupp - 2004 - 8:03.67 2. Steve Prefontaine – 1969 - 8:07.9 3. Eric Logsdon - 2000 -8:10.66 4. Caleb Lakeman - 2022 - 8:10.91 5. Tyrone Gorze - 2022 - 8:11.60 6. James Crabtree - 2022 - 8.11.83 7. Evan Holland - 2019 - 8:13.10 8. Michael Malorano - 2022 - 8:13.58 9. Charlie North - 2022 - 8:14.24 10. Aiden Smith - 2022 - 8:14.56
All those other factors may help some, but his top 10 list has 6 of the 10 using the new shoes. That is the overwhelming factor here. This is true of this isolated sample, the NCAA, the US, and the World lists.
People have always been doping, hard to argue its more prevelant now than before given the increased testing. The advanced training has been around for awhile as well. Lots of the records have been set without the light pacing.
I'll add another one, injury recovery, and time to build strong long mileage bases - a lot of good athletes recovered from injury due to lack of racing during COVID in 2020.
But ultimately it's mainly the shoes. Even at a 1% performance benefit, which evidence says its more for a lot of people, that is huge.
SARMs and PPARs have a half-life of hours. Plus micro-dosing?
Is there really a lot of testing now? Are US HS kids tested?
Doping and testing is an arms race. I'm not saying people aren't doping. I'm asking if it is more prevalent now compared to the past. I don't think it is much more prevalent now just becauese there are new drugs out there.
It’s shoes. Period. End of story. Doping, tracks, training, Covid, and whatever else people want to contribute it to other than shoes have been around a long time. BU track has been around since 2001. The only thing that has drastically changed in the last couple years is shoes. Don’t kid yourselves.
So you think shoe technology changes but doping doesn't?
The reason I am so convinced that it is a mix of factors is that it is happening everywhere and at every level. It can't just be doping because even local kids are running insanely fast. It can't just be the shoes because some of these kids still run in other brands, etc.
Are the kids in rural Montana running faster? Are Adidas sponsored runners running faster? We can't pin it on just drugs or just shoes or just the BU track. There are lots of small factors adding up.
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