Citius Mag putting out just an absolutely atrocious take:
”The 4-minute mile is a white man’s achievement. Our sub-four heroes, from Roger Bannister to Jim Ryun to Hobbs Kessler, tend to be white and are always male. As in all aspects of American culture, our historical marginalization of women and people of color, combined with our implicit biases about which athletes we choose to lionize, means that the achievements of white men receive a disproportionate amount of praise and attention. The best middle-distance runners in the world are African, but they don’t run the mile: they primarily run the 1500m. And as a result, Hicham El Guerrouj is not nearly the household name that he might otherwise be.”
It should be noted that this paragraph is just one out of twenty, and most every poster here seems to ignore what the rest of the article is about. I suppose the author would be dissappointed to learn that including this "white man" paragraph completely eclipsed whatever else he wanted to say.
The thread headline is misleading, as the paragraph is not directed at the athletes who run a sub-4 minute mile, but at the fans, who choose to idolize only selected athletes, based on criteria other than performance result. The reasons for such selectiveness can be many, including racism, and xenophobia. Many would defend it as national pride, if only selecting their compatriots to idolize. The mile is most important in countries, like the USA and the UK, with a history of the imperial distance. I'm not sure I would reduce that to a white/color male/female distinction (both countries are multi-racial and multi-gender) rather than a historical one.
But worldwide, the 1500m is run more, and better reflects performance. If we want nice round barriers for women, 2 minutes for 800m and 4 minutes for 1500m are good candidates. Maybe also 2h20 for the marathon.
Citius Mag putting out just an absolutely atrocious take:
”The 4-minute mile is a white man’s achievement. Our sub-four heroes, from Roger Bannister to Jim Ryun to Hobbs Kessler, tend to be white and are always male. As in all aspects of American culture, our historical marginalization of women and people of color, combined with our implicit biases about which athletes we choose to lionize, means that the achievements of white men receive a disproportionate amount of praise and attention. The best middle-distance runners in the world are African, but they don’t run the mile: they primarily run the 1500m. And as a result, Hicham El Guerrouj is not nearly the household name that he might otherwise be.”
I wonder which of the LetsRun doping apologist always playing the race card regulars wrote this?
El G is not a household name because by the time he and his North African buddies and Lagat etc were leaving EPO trails behind their butts it was obvious to everybody that the sport had become as real as the WWE. They almost killed the sport. If doped Russians had dominated in the EPO era instead of Africans, the sport would similarly have lost its popularity, and nobody would have screamed racist.
Not that it's racist at all tlfor Americans to be more interested in American runners than African runners, FFS.
Just hurry up and invade the Ukraine Mr Putin, and then we can send these treasonous Marxist snowflakes to the Eastern front as cannon fodder.
Citius Mag putting out just an absolutely atrocious take:
”The 4-minute mile is a white man’s achievement. Our sub-four heroes, from Roger Bannister to Jim Ryun to Hobbs Kessler, tend to be white and are always male. As in all aspects of American culture, our historical marginalization of women and people of color, combined with our implicit biases about which athletes we choose to lionize, means that the achievements of white men receive a disproportionate amount of praise and attention. The best middle-distance runners in the world are African, but they don’t run the mile: they primarily run the 1500m. And as a result, Hicham El Guerrouj is not nearly the household name that he might otherwise be.”
I wonder which of the LetsRun doping apologist always playing the race card regulars wrote this?
El G is not a household name because by the time he and his North African buddies and Lagat etc were leaving EPO trails behind their butts it was obvious to everybody that the sport had become as real as the WWE. They almost killed the sport. If doped Russians had dominated in the EPO era instead of Africans, the sport would similarly have lost its popularity, and nobody would have screamed racist.
Not that it's racist at all tlfor Americans to be more interested in American runners than African runners, FFS.
Just hurry up and invade the Ukraine Mr Putin, and then we can send these treasonous Marxist snowflakes to the Eastern front as cannon fodder.
You sure are a phony T&F know it all. You have never sprinted sub-60 400m, according to previous posts. You have never run a sub-5:30 1500m or a sub-6 mile according to your posts. You have never coached. You have never written papers on running, but you know. Of course you know.
People will stoke racial and class resentment for profit and to advance their careers. It's called The Grievance Industry. What gives them power is when you and others are offended. Put these people and their clickbait articles, that serve no purpose other than to anger people, on ignore. When these people and topics are ignored, their power deflates like a punctured balloon. It's your anger and outraged that gives them power.