Who the heck is George Zimmerman witness Jane Surdyka? Witness who says she would have been Olympic marathoner?

Who Knows wrote:

Looks like other media have got hold of the story through LR without crediting it:

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/28/no-evidence-zimmerman-eyewitness-qualified-for-olympics-despite-claim-under-oath/http://patriotupdate.com/2013/06/no-evidence-zimmerman-eyewitness-qualified-for-olympics-despite-claim-under-oath/

Holy crap! I never imagined this could get so ugly. They interviewed several people including the state attorney. I'm sure if the prosecution has been contacted then the defense has been contacted. I wonder if they will call her back to the stand just to ask a couple questions about her background to damage her credibility. The prosecutor really opened a can of worms by asking completely irrelevant questions about her background.

Precisely, "Is She Lying." Precisely. Completely irrelevant, but also clearly pre-planned by the prosecution. What an asinine way to discredit their own witness.

Is she lying? wrote:

The prosecutor really opened a can of worms by asking completely irrelevant questions about her background.

jsjd wrote:

Why are you guys so upset about this? She was one of the top 3 marathoners going into 1980. Then the Olympics got boycotted. Her story is accurate and close enough for the court.

What is the basis for your belief that she was "one of the top 3 marathoners going into 1980"?

As far as I am aware, Surdyka's best performance was her 2:47:57 at the 1980 Avon International Marathon in London. According to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, that made her no better than the 39th fastest U.S. female marathoner of 1980, even after excluding faster performances at the NYC marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, and a number of other races that ARRS has concluded to have been either short or excessively aided.

Moreover, I see no evidence that Surdyka was ranked any higher in 1979.

Witness on the stand named Jane Surdyka in Zimmerman trial right now. Lawyer asked if she qualified for the Olympics at one point. She said yes, she would have been on the Olympic marathon team in the 1980's. Lawyer asked if she didn't qualify because of the boycott. She said yes. WHAT? There was no women's marathon in 1980. She said she went to the Univ of Florida. Anyone ever hear of her or is she committing purgery regarding her background?

Quick google search came up with a few hits:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-07-21/sports/0310380275_1_triathlon-surdyka-running-shoes

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1987-08-23/news/0140190164_1_john-boyle-masters-apopka

http://www.trackshack.com/page.php?id=46

Who Knows wrote:

"Did you also qualify for the Olympics at some point in your life?"

"During the eighties you know when I was running and IF they had a marathon in the Olympic Games I would have been the top three runners."

"And were those the Olympics that were boycotted?"

"Yes Sir."

So she was one of the top three US female marathon runners leading up to the 1980 Olympics which were boycotted and if they hadn't been boycotted, and there had been a womens marathon, she would have qualified?

Not withstanding someone referring to herself as Jayne Surdyka "former Olympic athlete":

http://www.topix.com/forum/med/massage-therapy/TV0KCIULOINBN8UV1

Common sense ruling====not an Olympic Athlete unless you are on the Olympic team- period.

Stolen Honors etc- this does need to be clarified- I'm not following this media circus so I have no idea how much impact this will have on the trial but she is not an Olympian and expectations and goals are not to be treated like absolutes- because she was running well is not good enough of a fact to conclude she would be on this nonexistent 1980 Womans Marathon team.

My bolding and caps added.

Would one of our learned lawyers comment on my thinking that she was overprepped by the lawyer on this question series? In trying to shorten a complex answer to a jury size sound bite

Not an ' If there were a Womens Olympic Marathon when I was running at my best I believe I could have been one of the favorites to make the three member USA Marathon team. Yes that would be the 1980 Olympiad when there was no womens marathon and the USA and some other countries boycotted the OGs.

is it confirmed that there were no plans for a 1980 women's marathon? i have no idea, but maybe it's possible there were ideas of it but those went out the window with talks of boycott?

there obviously wasnt a race in 1980 but if it was never even considered, she looks even worse

cenotaph wrote:

is it confirmed that there were no plans for a 1980 women's marathon? i have no idea, but maybe it's possible there were ideas of it but those went out the window with talks of boycott?

In 1979, there was some lobbying for adding a women's marathon (and other distance events, like 3000m, 5000m, and 10,000m) to the Olympic Games, but no serious plans to include a women's marathon in the 1980 Games. The IOC rules ordinarily required a four-year lead time for adding events to the Games, and the IOC board of directors didn't even recommend, for vote by the IOC membership, the addition of a women's marathon until 1981. Getting the women's marathon into the 1984 Games was something of a rush job by IOC standards.

jsjd wrote:

That doesn't seem so far-fetched. Why are you guys so upset about this? She was one of the top 3 marathoners going into 1980. Then the Olympics got boycotted. Her story is accurate and close enough for the court.

I was an Olympian for the 17 meter dash in '80. Damn those Russkys.

Hang on a second. The quote, as presented by Who Knows:

"During the eighties you know when I was running and if they had a marathon in the Olympic Games I would have been the top three runners."

The quote, as seen on

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/28/no-evidence-zimmerman-eyewitness-qualified-for-olympics-despite-claim-under-oath/

“During the eighties is, you know, when I was running and they had a marathon in the Olympic Games. I would have been the top three runners.”

Notice the inclusion/exclusion of the word "if". Which one is correct??

I paid a ticket to go to the Atlanta Games in '96 and rooted on Bob Kennedy in the 5K...guess I'm an Olympian too, right??

Remember: We are all winners.

Based on that, we are all Olympians, even if, you know, we don't actually make the team.

might be wejo wrote:

Hang on a second. The quote, as presented by Who Knows:

"During the eighties you know when I was running and if they had a marathon in the Olympic Games I would have been the top three runners."

The quote, as seen on

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/28/no-evidence-zimmerman-eyewitness-qualified-for-olympics-despite-claim-under-oath/

“During the eighties is, you know, when I was running and they had a marathon in the Olympic Games. I would have been the top three runners.”

Notice the inclusion/exclusion of the word "if". Which one is correct??

Listening to her testimony on the Youtube link someone posted, it's not clear to me whether she says "if" or "and" (or maybe "uh"). "If" makes sense, however, because she says "would" in the next sentence which is clearly conditional.

Whether it's "if" or "and", when you put that answer together with her agreement to the prosecutor's question that it was the Olympics that was boycotted, she is plainly exaggerating her credentials by saying she would have been in the top 3 on the US team if the Olympics had not been boycotted. There were no slots on the US team for women marathoners in 1980, boycott or not, because there was no marathon, and even if there had been a marathon, she wouldn't have been in the top 3 based on times anyone has been able to located.

poiuytrewq wrote:

Listening to her testimony on the Youtube link someone posted, it's not clear to me whether she says "if" or "and" (or maybe "uh"). "If" makes sense, however, because she says "would" in the next sentence which is clearly conditional.

"uh, if"?. The "if" spoken quickly and sounding muffled.

Opinions.

Who Knows wrote:

"if they had a marathon in the Olympic Games I would have been the top three runners."

That is total nonsense, delusions of grandeur.

However, I do believe her testimony was essentially correct.

She had a few mistatements, such as "heard voices" then saying it was one voice; "one on top of each other", said three times, in context meaning one on top of the other. Her testimony was similar to Rachel Jeantel in that sense.

I believe both of them.

Zimmerman has a very cold expression and cold eyes.

Objection - relevance?

Seriously, I don't get why they would ask her about this. But her lie could be another nail in Zimmerman's coffin.

This is like Elizabeth Warren (Senator-MA) claiming to be a Native-American for her entire academic career. Ultimately, it turned out to be a flat-out lie though she derived years of preference/advantage/credibility (and now she's a Senator!).

Massachusetts champagne-socialist eat this kind of behaviour up.

[quote]Is she lying? wrote:

Witness on the stand named Jane Surdyka in Zimmerman trial right now. Lawyer asked if she qualified for the Olympics at one point. She said yes, she would have been on the Olympic marathon team in the 1980's. Lawyer asked if she didn't qualify because of the boycott. She said yes. WHAT? There was no women's marathon in 1980. She said she went to the Univ of Florida. Anyone ever hear of her or is she committing purgery regarding her background?

She apparently is a liar as far as her Olympic Games experience.

I dunno about you, but I do not trust someone who out and out lies about his/her running experience. Shave a few seconds here and there -- or maybe even a few minutes in a marathon -- sure.

But to claim you had a chance to be on the Olympic team in the woman's marathon in 1980 were it not for the boycott when there was no woman's marathon until 1984? Or to claim a sub 3 hour marathon when your best is over 4 hours. Those are real red flags

What were Surdyka's best times in that era?

Here from Track and Field News are the top 10 US Marathoners from 1979-80. Those women were FAST. In 1980 Patti Catalano ran 2:29 at NYC and 2:35 at Honolulu. Samuelson ran 2:31 in Aukland that year. Conz ran low 2:30s in that era (Avon Women's international marathon).

1 ................ Patti Catalano

2 ................... Nancy Conz

3 ............ Joan Samuelson

4 ............... Marty Cooksey

5 .................... Beth Guerin

6 ...................... Karen Fitz

7 ................. Laurie Binder

8 ............. Kathleen Samet

9 ............... Ellison Goodall

10 ................ Kiki Sweigart

1979

1 ............ Joan Samuelson

2 ................ Patti Catalano

3 ..................... Kim Merritt

4 .................... Beth Guerin

5 ................... Gail Kingma

6 ................. Sue Petersen

7 ...................... Sue Krenn

8 ............ Cindy Dalrymple

9 ................ Karen Doppes

10 ...................Sue Kinsey