1) Marion Jones. She didn't need to dope, she could've been one of the best ever clean. 2) Dan O'Brien's PV no height in the US qualifiers. 3) Lolo Jones' clipping the hurdle in the Oly finals. She had the gold.
HM) Trey Hardee's PV no-height in the 2008 Olympics.
I don't understand the Hunter hate. Some of you had too high of expectations. 3:34 and 13:17 are what I would have predicted and those are his PRs. Maybe you expected sub 13 but that is such a rare number that nearly no elite American will ever hit.
Holy smokes, she’s a disappointment with that marathon time?
no wonder why this sport will never become lucrative…too many idiots sabotaging it from within!
It's actually far more to the failure to market the pro sport any better than it is. See HRE's first reply on this thread.
He was never actually professional, but Ryun's lack of a gold medal has to be mentioned. Also, no medals for any of the Big 3 (Webb, Ritz, Hall) -- though they were every bit as talented as Rupp -- was rather a letdown. If any or all of them had better coaching from the beginning of their pro careers...
I recall the day in 1980 when during halftime of a basketball game, the sports brief announcer said that University of Oregon student Alberto Salazar had won the NYC marathon. I was a freshman in high school. For the next four years I obsessed daily over Salazar, Deek, and Seko, and had reasons for each to take one of the three medals in LA. I told myself Salazar hadn't event tapered for Rotterdam, Fukuoka, the Trials.
Lopes entered my mind briefly, as did Gomez and Nijboer, as the time got closer.
But for Salazar, Deek and Seko to get shut out was unbelievable to me.
It was for Galen? frick I don't even know now that you put it that way
Rupp broke that record twice and also won an Olympic medal in 10k. So the "disappointment" was only temporary.
You are right, but at the time, Rupp and Salazar were plenty disappointed. They'd worked hard and come up short. And they had no idea what the future held. (For example, they did not know that Solinsky's career was just about over.)
I don't understand the Hunter hate. Some of you had too high of expectations. 3:34 and 13:17 are what I would have predicted and those are his PRs. Maybe you expected sub 13 but that is such a rare number that nearly no elite American will ever hit.
I think the point is that we're not just talking about any American athlete, we are talking about someone who years ago, people would've put in the conversation to run sub13 one day
We're talking about the boy wonder who forewent College for a multi million Adidas deal. He has progressed nowhere near what people expected, partly due to his coaching set up, and partly down to his training group.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.