I can be so dismissive because by "potential" I mean to contend for wins or at least top 5 at WMM races. Love Sell, he is one of my favorite athletes and I would hold him up to anyone as a great example for kids in the sport. However, Sell is on the Olympic team partly because the US really has only one potential medalist in the marathon right now. It would be nice if there were an alternate system set up to benefit the handful of runners with true potential who fall through the cracks when lacking SAT/ACT scores and/or GPA, but how many potential Olympic medal threats or even just Olympians per generation are really being lost? I am not being flip in asking that, I realize that I very well could be out-of-touch with the fact that there are 5-10 seniors each year who have the talent (not just speed, either) to be great and are sacrificed to the system.If only this sport were anywhere near as popular as causes to "cure" diseases. I do like the road race surcharge funding idea, perhaps USATF and/or RRCA could float something like that for races they certify and/or insure.
Ez10Miler wrote:
"Also, I do not believe that anyone who truly has great potential is missing out on scholarship availability."
I wouldn't be so dismissive. Look at Sell- his HS times were nothing special, but through his own determination he stuck it out and now he's an Oly runner. I think there are a lot of kids that might have average or slightly above ave. HS times that get totally dropped from the sport at age 18 because w/o college (money from mom & dad, SATs, or scholarship) they never have a chance to move on.
A strong club system would help ween us away from the idea that running and school need to intertwined. How does it get funded? Great question- I have no idea. UST&F, shoe companies, Gatorade, powerbar, heck stop having road races that benefit some dang disease and start having races give a 1$ per entry to the Oly Development Project or something like that.