Symmonds barred from London DL?

Stare Venom wrote:

Has any of Ian's supporters ever met the "man"? He is a small prick in the Simon Cowell mold. An elitist @sshole who supports only agents who think like he does. Check who is in the meet and draw your own conclusions.

For a former athlete to try to hurt today's athletes who stand out is just as repulsive as when Mark Nenow did the same thing with athletes when he was with Nike.

What did Nenow do?

Stare Stare Night wrote:

Stare Venom wrote:

Has any of Ian's supporters ever met the "man"? He is a small prick in the Simon Cowell mold. An elitist @sshole who supports only agents who think like he does. Check who is in the meet and draw your own conclusions.

For a former athlete to try to hurt today's athletes who stand out is just as repulsive as when Mark Nenow did the same thing with athletes when he was with Nike.

What did Nenow do?

Probably denied some loser a pair of shoes.

Seriously, who is Ian Stewart? Is he that announcer guy at meets here in USA?

Because Salazar has it out for that group ever since Solinsky stole poor little Rupp's lime light at Stanford in 2010. Has since tried to get Schumacher fired, that didn't work, tried cutting off his funds, that didn't work, and now using his UK connection slimeball Ian Stewart, to ban them from any UK meet.

Not much of a lose really as the distance events never have the top competition because they try and keep it easy competition for all UK athletes, especially Mo to build confidence leading to the Games. Happens year in year out. Weakest meet on the Diamond League followed closely by Birmingham. All other Diamond Leagues are head and shoulders above the UK meets.

BBD wrote:

Because Salazar has it out for that group ever since Solinsky stole poor little Rupp's lime light at Stanford in 2010. Has since tried to get Schumacher fired, that didn't work, tried cutting off his funds, that didn't work, and now using his UK connection slimeball Ian Stewart, to ban them from any UK meet.

Not much of a lose really as the distance events never have the top competition because they try and keep it easy competition for all UK athletes, especially Mo to build confidence leading to the Games. Happens year in year out. Weakest meet on the Diamond League followed closely by Birmingham. All other Diamond Leagues are head and shoulders above the UK meets.

You don't follow the sport do you?

Salazar recruited and hired Schumacher, and Salazar sees to it that Schumacher and company are funded.

Even more so, it was Salazar's idea to start these competing programs in order to help US runners.

--You've been Corrected.

Sorry, but Symmonds is not one of the most popular athletes in the sport. Maybe on this website, but I seriously doubt many Europeans care much about him. He's a consistent top 5er in the 800m (and a complete also-ran when Rudisha lines up). Nobody is going to the meet to see Symmonds run.

What nobody here seems to realize is that, while it is admirable to work to change the system, when you thumb your nose at it there are generally consequences. Nick should put on his big-boy pants and stop whining. He should expect some pushback to what he is doing, and not let it get to him. His whining only makes him and his case look weak. He's got all 50 of his fans here spun up, but that's about it.

It would have been more effective if he had mentioned that he was uninvited (not "barred") to London DL, and that it was no big thing to him since the competition there is weak and the meet is a waste of his time. Diminish the meet instead of himself.

Instead, he looks like the crying girl who got dumped on prom night.

As far as Stewart is concerned, he may be a dick but it seems the purpose of the London DL is to showcase UK athletes. Kind of like what the US meets were like a few years ago before the Africans started showing up. He probably wants light competition and no sideshow drama. Whether you agree with what Symmonds, etc are doing, you have to admit that its not about sport, its about self-marketing. Stewart has a right to keep that away from his meet. The same thing would be true in Nascar, NFL, etc. I'm pretty sure the NFL has strict uniform regulations. I like the idea of what Symmonds is trying to do, but until it is regulation, he will be a rulebreaker just like an NFL guy if he decided to show up with a different color uniform. You may support that, but don't expect the "authority" to roll over and die without a fight.

MLB, NFL, NBA etc is a different situation because the players are direct employees of their teams and the teams are franchises of the league. The players are unionized and negotiate these deals with the league and share in the profit. Runners are independent contractors.

You are stupid on four continents. First, it was very well stated that NASCAR does not bar sponsored from their races even though they might have competing sponsors. Guess who has more sponsors? NASCAR...!!!! http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4686710&page=1Second, I thought the whole idea of Paris Hilton as a date was stupid, then again, it was great! Don't get me wrong. She is a skank but the media was talking about it, him and the sport. Nick knows how to promote.For you, you are not the best looking guy in your ghetto but your boyfriend likes you for whatever and you are happy with that. Stupid logic.

hdfjksdhkfhsdj wrote:

Sorry, but Symmonds is not one of the most popular athletes in the sport.

As far as Stewart is concerned, he may be a dick but it seems the purpose of the London DL is to showcase UK athletes. Kind of like what the US meets were like a few years ago before the Africans started showing up. He probably wants light competition and no sideshow drama. Whether you agree with what Symmonds, etc are doing, you have to admit that its not about sport, its about self-marketing. Stewart has a right to keep that away from his meet. The same thing would be true in Nascar, NFL, etc. I'm pretty sure the NFL has strict uniform regulations. .

EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD IS MISSING THE POINT

THIS IS ABOUT MONEY. For certain reasons Ian Stewart makes more money keeping Symmonds and Lolo out if his meet. Symmonds is doing an honorable thing by trying to change rules to allow track athletes to earn more. Look at all other forms of racing. Motorsports are so full of sponsors and small name guys can still pull 5-10 sponsors in sports like pro motocross and lower level Nascar series.

And guess what else-money and a sports popularity are very very very related.

1. More sponsors=more money

2. More money=more popularity

3. More popularity=the sport grows instead of dies

More kids want to be like Galen Rupp if he is making $15 million instead of $1.5 million

There is still the Pepsi 400 even though other cars are sponsored.

If this is over a logo argument shame on them. If you let college kids wear their uniform supporting their schools then you have to open this thing up. A Sponsor should fund a team like on the tour. Then their name is on the jersey as the club team name.

The Animal Within wrote:

There is still the Pepsi 400 even though other cars are sponsored.

If this is over a logo argument shame on them. If you let college kids wear their uniform supporting their schools then you have to open this thing up. A Sponsor should fund a team like on the tour. Then their name is on the jersey as the club team name.

This is my largest argument. Universities are bigger sponsors than almost any other club or sponsor. As a high school athlete I would not look at a tattoo that says @HansonDodge and thing... "hey I need a new marketing firm!".

But when I see Andrew Wheating win the USA Championships wearing a jersey that says OREGON, I would think.. "hey, i bet if I go there I will become a better runner!".

The only reason colleges sponsor track and field is because they want positive publicity and allow the athletes to be good ambassadors of the university.

This is the same way that USATF and IAAF allow Oregon Track Club and NY Track Club jerseys at meets, because they are not directly selling something. But guess what, Universities are trying to directly sell something, and it is usually around 15-50k a year.

Union Busting wrote:

It's simple.

SH & IS are trying to bust

http://trackandfieldathletesassociation.org/

bump

Let me start out with a nicety that you deserve:

STFU you moron.

Just about everything you wrote is off the mark.

Symmonds is well thought of. He's a classy, charming, and genial guy.

Go watch and listen any interview with him. He is well composed and well spoken.

95% of the athletes at any DL meet do not have any effect in selling a ticket.

It's the 3 or 4 faces that are used to advertise the meet months in advance. Months. The buying public figures that the meet promoter is, y'know, going to like FILL OUT THE WHOLE FIELD SO USAIN BOLT HAS SOMEONES TO COMPETE AGAINST.

So take your stupid, uniformed, beyond idiotic, keyboard coward Symmonds hate and shove it up your exit hole.

What a pathetic defense of Ian Blewart.

Retard, the poster I responded to wrote that Symmonds and Lolo are "two of the most popular people in the sport". Really? Because Symmonds is about equivalent to Adam Kszczot, except Kszczot is a little better than Symmonds. Who thinks Symmonds is awesome besides you and the small number of American track fans who know who he is? (I am a fan of Symmonds' running but not his stupid antics)

Or maybe he is popular with you because of his off track antics and the Paris Hilton joke.

You loverboys keep talking about Symmonds like he generated all this press after his Paris Hilton stunt. I don't recall reading about it anywhere other than letsrun. You are exaggerating his media impact.

You and all of the other Symmonds sycophants are the one who ought to crawl back into your hole. Get real man, nothing is going to change in T&F as a result of Symmonds or any mass emailing or online whinefest coming from letsrun.

Keep it up though, wasting time seems to be something you're good at.

If meet directors use anything other than cold, hard performances to determine who gets invited, they should be dumped from the Diamond League. Now that the race has been run, it's obvious that Nick would have a great shot at winning the race, and with it a big fat paycheck. If the IAAF wants a fair and balanced competition, they simply cannot allow tyrants like Ian Stewart to throw their boneheaded prejudices into the mix; how can Nick and Lolo have any chance of competing in the Diamond League if Ian Stewart bans them from two of the ten meets? This puts them at an enormous disadvantage.

Get Ian Blewart out!

Seems like Symmonds is coming unglued by this matter. Sent out a tweet with Ian Stewart's e-mail address. Begging USATF to make a statement about the issue.

Stare Venom wrote:

Has any of Ian's supporters ever met the "man"? He is a small prick in the Simon Cowell mold. An elitist @sshole who supports only agents who think like he does. Check who is in the meet and draw your own conclusions.

For a former athlete to try to hurt today's athletes who stand out is just as repulsive as when Mark Nenow did the same thing with athletes when he was with Nike.

IAN STEWART = LEGEND!

I met Ian 5 years ago at the NY GP and the guy was awesome. He and I and a couple friends spent hours drinking and and shooting the shit and he was cool as hell.

He was on his from NY afterward to CA to go climb El capitan. he didn't really want to talk about outkicking pre for the bronze but he indulged us after a couple of glasses.

what ever is going on here, i imagine it's being overblown by same 8 or 10 hysterical know-nothing letsrun pencilnecks.

In fact, the fact that he's married to Stephanie hightower (i did not know that) just raised her esteem in my eyes.

trollism wrote:

douglas burke wrote:

looks like a lot of athletes are seen as a liability for this meet, look how week the fields are in general compared to paris last week, even if most ofthe members of the kenyan and ethiopian olympic teams are skipping this to train, it still looks watered down in most of the events.

Guessing this must be an important time to disappear prior to the Olympics for the Kenyan/Ethiopian team.

And in a valiant defense of his title as "Most Boring Poster," Trollism delivers the knockout blow.

ucrunner09 wrote:

If meet directors use anything other than cold, hard performances to determine who gets invited, they should be dumped from the Diamond League. Now that the race has been run, it's obvious that Nick would have a great shot at winning the race, and with it a big fat paycheck. If the IAAF wants a fair and balanced competition, they simply cannot allow tyrants like Ian Stewart to throw their boneheaded prejudices into the mix; how can Nick and Lolo have any chance of competing in the Diamond League if Ian Stewart bans them from two of the ten meets? This puts them at an enormous disadvantage.

Get Ian Blewart out!

Right on!