Matthew Boling: future world-class sprinter?

First define "flash in the pan". Is that he never makes a World or Olympic team? Never wins a NCAA title?

If you made me place a big money bet, I would bet against him doing any of those things simply because they are really, really hard things to do.

There were also plenty of white speed guys in recent years at the wide receiver and some who bulked up to tight end. The color of your skin plays no role in your getting down the track. Where there are large competitive groups getting encouragement and self-belief to focus on 100 and 200, you get great performances.

Kalenjin, not Masai. IIRC.

Not to get into the genetics discussion, but those countries in western Africa do not seem to have the sports infrastructure to support athletes. Sprinters, unlike distance runners, kinda need a track and the technical coaching of a sprinter is far more complicated.

Kenya and Ethiopia always had those guys who could run fast in the middle distance and distance events, but they were not nurtured along until one day someone came along and realized the potential. Once you get a "hero" or two, it serves as a catalyst.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

There were also plenty of white speed guys in recent years at the wide receiver and some who bulked up to tight end. The color of your skin plays no role in your getting down the track. Where there are large competitive groups getting encouragement and self-belief to focus on 100 and 200, you get great performances.

Who are those ....plenty of white speed guys? Don't confuse quicks with speed.

Give me 10 white footballers who ran a sub10.30/9.5.

You can debate this until the cows come home. Who the hell knows? There are so many variables that come in to play from who his girlfriend is to what he eats for desert. I know in high school on my team we had a white dude that ran 52.3 in the 400 Hurdles. He had the fastest time in the nation, went to the Golden West track meet. Didn't run his best time but came in 3rd. His best time would have won the race. I never heard a peep about him since. I have no idea where he went to college and if he ever put on another pair of spikes again. His junior year of high school he was a big drinker and liked to party. So he didn't do anything special but you could see the potential. He cleaned himself up for senior year and was the fastest kid in the country. He was also a 6-6, 6-7 high jumper, ran the 110 High Hurdles in the low 14s and the 200 around 22 seconds. So he was a gifted all around athlete. His IH time is still the county record and was the state record for like 20 years. No clue what happened to him. I looked up to him like a hero. In our spring track dual meets against mostly black teams with a ton of good sprinters you would see him smoke everybody in all the events he was legally able to do because we needed the points. We had very good distance and weight throwers. We needed some points in the sprint events so we could win our conference. Class A South at the Jersey Shore. Some people make it, most don't. That's really all you can say about any young superstar.

Who you talking about there? Fastest time in the nation? Who?

Obviously when talking HS kids it's all about potential, that .....what could be. All we know as fr as facts go is that there has never been any HS kid run run a windy 9.98, split a 44.,7, cook a 20.31 and long jump 26-3 all in the same season. so he will get our attention.

Hell, the kid might be a total flop at Georgia, who has heard of Carter Suggs ran a HS record 9.3 numerous times, who has heard of James Jackson as a HS kid he led the nation with a 9.4, who has heard of HS kid Lanoris Marshall who whipped up on the great Don Quarrie and Steve Williams in an indoor 60?

Hell, the kid might

I was reading up on this kid wondering why he doesn't play football. Well I never found that but find his fav sport is football and his fav athlete his RB Adrian Peterson. This seems kinda weird to me.

The kid is 6-2 154, while that is slim there have been smaller WR receivers.

He had to be approached about playing football and since it's his fav sport, hmmmmm?

Look at times and photos for Sydney Milani from HS. Look at times and photos from college. We will see if Boling is on the same path.

Matthew already is world class. He has outstanding range.

There have been plenty of fast white guys through history, in fact up until about 1984 white sprinters were pretty competitive internationally. Just off the top of my head some of the fastest:

Armin Hary (1960 Olympic Gold Medalist 100m, first man to run 10.0 seconds flat, hand timed)

Valeriy Borzov (1972 Olympic 100m and 200m Gold Medalist)

Pietro Mannea (former WR holder 200m: 19.72, 1980 Olympic Gold Medalist)

Allan Wells (1980 Olympic 100m Gold Medalist, beat the top Americans that year as well despite the Olympic boycott)

Marian Woronin (Polish record holder, 10.00 FAT 100m)

I think you could easily add some of the following guys to the list:

Johnathan Edwards (WR Triple Jump)

Robert Emmiyan (4th all time in the Long Jump, Carl Lewis only ever jumped 1 cm further than Emmiyan)

Greg Rutherford (2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Long Jump)

Matthew Boling isn't even the first high school white lightening in the US! Read up about Casey Combest sometime, this kid ran a 6.57 second 60m dash in high school:

https://www.si.com/vault/1999/05/17/260792/white-lightning-sprinter-casey-combest-doesnt-care-that-hes-an-anomaly-he-knows-hes-fast

If you have some time to kill, Google Casey Combest and read about his life after that article, it's pretty sad, definitely a lost talent.

No not really, a 10.13 won]t win anything vs the elite. The lower tier of "world class" can all break 10.10.

Everyone in that Worlds Final will be a sub10.00.

Slow down a bit, there is no doubt the kid will be somebody in the sport if he wants it.

Whatley wrote:

I was reading up on this kid wondering why he doesn't play football. Well I never found that but find his fav sport is football and his fav athlete his RB Adrian Peterson. This seems kinda weird to me.

The kid is 6-2 154, while that is slim there have been smaller WR receivers.

He had to be approached about playing football and since it's his fav sport, hmmmmm?

He probably doesn't want the brain damage:). He might also not be quick enough (0-20 matters a lot more than 0-100) or have really bad hands:) There are a lot of blistering fast guys who don't turn into good NFL recievers. Think about all the sub 4.4 guys that get drafted and only last a year.

Fast enough at 19 to have qualified for any Olympic Games semis to date = world class

Who competes seriously from an early age to make it to the Show?

Go to any football field in the south on a youth football night or to any AAU track meet in the south with thousands of kids competing and you'll see that African Americans are the vast majority of serious youth athletes in football and track, and the same applies to basketball. Until you grapple with this athletic culture, your claims about essential advantages are worthless.

Already is world class wrote:

Fast enough at 19 to have qualified for any Olympic Games semis to date = world class

He wouldn't even be fast enough to make the Olympic team, so forget qualifying for an Olympic semi.

Not quite world class just yet wrote:

Already is world class wrote:

Fast enough at 19 to have qualified for any Olympic Games semis to date = world class

He wouldn't even be fast enough to make the Olympic team, so forget qualifying for an Olympic semi.

U.S. will time qualify in men 4 x 100m relay for 2020 Summer Olympics. U.S. will take the top six men from USATF Championship, 2020. Top three men in 200m. U.S. will time qualify in men 4 x 400m relay for 2020 Olympics. U.S. will take the top six men. Boling can train for 200m to keep his options open.

No mention of Armin Hary here. Fastest man out of the blocks of his time. Not history. Ian Campbell, T J er from Australia was the fastest man out of the blocks you could ever see. Just had no time to sprint.

If the weather hadn't been so bad in 1956, you'd still be talking about Bobby Morrow.

Whatley wrote:

zxcvzxcv wrote:

There were also plenty of white speed guys in recent years at the wide receiver and some who bulked up to tight end. The color of your skin plays no role in your getting down the track. Where there are large competitive groups getting encouragement and self-belief to focus on 100 and 200, you get great performances.

Who are those ....plenty of white speed guys? Don't confuse quicks with speed.

Give me 10 white footballers who ran a sub10.30/9.5.

WTF is this? Who cares about some NFL/NBA negroes with some weird specific positions in lame ass games? There's barely any athleticism there.

Tight end, corner that, WTF?? BTW, whites really don't give a damn about sprinting. It's for low class people and everybody seems to know that except you.

If any true powerful white guy decides he wants to sprint he becomes one of the better sprinters quickly. There is no example anywhere in the NFL or sprints as huge, powerful, and fast a man as Emile Erasmus. That is a pure monster athlete who gets up to 240 pounds. He's 6'5". Herschel Walker is a tiny midget compared to him. Walker can only do 10.2 while Erasmus does 10 flat.

No comparison. Blacks go home devastated.

I hope he does not progress to world-class status, because he seems like a nice kid and right now and he's a good story, but if he progresses to that level that will mean he is a cheater.