Top 5 all time waste of talents in T&F?

me

I don't feel like reading the whole thread, but here is my answer to your question:

No one you've ever heard of.

All the big names listed here aren't "wastes of talent." The wastes of talent are those who didn't even get out there.

the problem with some of the people on this list is that there is a difference between wasting talent and maxing out early in a career. someone like jeff see has continued to work his @$$ off but hasn't had any huge breakthroughs since high school. maybe for him and others they matured somewhat early and were training so much in high school that there wasn't much space to improve. we all have limits, some just reach them more quickly than others. probably the biggest wastes of talent are people no one has ever heard of, that guy on your hs team that ran because he was kind of good at it but just went to his buddies' houses and hung out during practice instead of running.

Yerp wrote:

Jeff See

How is he a waste of talent? he had some injury issues over the years, but he's run a handful of 3:40/3:58 races and was just 5th at NCAA and was right in the lean at the end.

The real waste of talent, Nelloms, is serving 40-life:

Craig Forys...set NJ on fire. Now...egh injuries

[quote]just saying wrote:

the problem with some of the people on this list is that there is a difference between wasting talent and maxing out early in a career. someone like jeff see has continued to work his @$$ off but hasn't had any huge breakthroughs since high school. maybe for him and others they matured somewhat early and were training so much in high school that there wasn't much space to improve. we all have limits, some just reach them more quickly than others. quote]

It took over two years & 10 pages of replies, but finally an intelligent answer. Most of the people listed on this thread simply matured early in terms of their performances. They didn't necessarily have more talent ahead, but was 'tapped out' by the end of high school.

The guys/gals who sabotaged their chance to acieve their full potential such as Nelloms or Mack are the people who I feel wasted their talent. These two were phenoms, but appeared to have much more that was never seen due to poor decisions.

Regarding Noah: Oly Gold, and at age 19 or 20, the second fastest mile ever run, by a step to El G. and not likely to be improved on anytime soon. Hardly a waste.

Ngeny has the fastest CLEAN mile..... if all the stuff about the Moroccans is true.

Xavier Carter?

Ralphy wrote:

Ian Dobson

Is this a joke? I guess no major successes other than he made the last OLYMPIC TEAM

other than that he seems very happily married to another running babe, lives in Oregon, Stanford degree, man has got it all

freaky deaky wrote:

ryan deak

dan mcmanamon

kevin tshirhart

hahahaha.............who gives a crap about Deak. DOA from massive mileage in high school. Serioulsy, gimme a break.

Marc Wallice wrote:

Liz Mueller -- a big friggin'-A to that. I wonder how many here even know the name. Two Foot Locker titles and something like a 2:04 800, out of Waterford, CT. Doubt she even went to college, just kind of a bad news type from what little I know.

i was trying to remember this kid's last name. i remember reading an article about here where she bragged about telling her coach which events she would and would not run...she only really liked to run the 200 as i recall. what a waste of talent.

Thanks for Helping Again wrote:

Ritz - he's on the road to ruin, you really have to wonder what he was thinking when he left Wetmore. He hasn't run much faster since leaving CU. ~1 sec in the 10K.

Thanks for Helping Again wrote:

Ritz - he's on the road to ruin, you really have to wonder what he was thinking when he left Wetmore. He hasn't run much faster since leaving CU. ~1 sec in the 10K.

Thanks for Helping Again wrote:

Ritz - he's on the road to ruin, you really have to wonder what he was thinking when he left Wetmore. He hasn't run much faster since leaving CU. ~1 sec in the 10K.

:)

As said here before Shannon Butler clearly was a waste of talent. A full-blown alcoholic at 27:59 for 10K.

I haven't read this entire thread, but I'll offer up Marion Jones.

She had great physical gifts. She wouldn't have won as much as she did if she hadn't doped, but she would have won a lot. She threw it all away on PEDs. That, my friends, is a waste of talent.

Spoke with John Mcdonnell a few years ago and I bet he hasn't changed his mind on this one-John Holmes, Pasedena Dobie H.S. I think he led the nation in the 1600m in 1986-4:03. Also ran 1:50 in the 800m. Went to Arkansas and left after a month and never heard of again. I was in a race with him(x-cross) on a hilly 2 mile course when he went with us through the mile at 5:00m and ran solo away from everybody the last mile in 4:36 on a very hilly/banked cross country course. Just toying with us.

And no, no the actor either.

Others I would say: Roy Martin, Darrell Robinson, William Reed, Obea Moore and I like the Suzy Tuffey reference as well. David Halle comes to mind as well.

I'm almost sure this has been said before but I'm not reading through ten pages so just in case it hasn't:

Probably five kids that never even tried track and field.

how about wrote:

Xavier Carter? I know about 19.63 but it seems like he should be so much more.

A qualified YES because he's not done competing yet. But considering he was a monster in youth track, one of the best runners in Florida high school history, still has the high school indoor record in the 200m, ran a 44.0 anchor on the NCAA record 4x400m as a freshman (after getting second in the most loaded final in any event in NCAA history, the 2005 200m), you'd have to consider him to be wasting his talent.

And I haven't even brought up his 2006 season yet! At outdoor NCAAs, Carter won the 4x100m, 4x400m, 100m and 400m. He ran 10.09 to beat people like Walter Dix (double bronze at Olympics), Travis Padgett (4x100m Olympian), Jamaal Charles (RB for Chiefs), Churandy Martina (200m silver at Olympics) and Leroy Dixon (2007 WC 4x100m gold). Then came back half an hour later to win the 400m in 44.53, beating Ricardo Chambers (Olympic semi-finalist), David Neville (Olympic bronze), Lewis Banda (Olympic semi-finalist) and Lionel Larry (WC 400m qualifier). A month after that meet, he ran 19.63 in the 200m, which at the time was second on the all-time list behind MJ's 19.32.

And despite all these accomplishments at such a young age, HE HAS NEVER MADE A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OR OLYMPIC TEAM!!! But he has been arrested for criminal damage to property, resisting arrest, carrying a concealed firearm (twice), marijuana possession, and failure to accept a traffic citation.

What about Claire Durkin? She broke Melody Fairchild's record at FL midwest and finished top 5 that year among a really strong field. But I think she is majoring in physics or engineering and originally was going to go to MIT, but then decided Stanford but isn't running for the team to focus on academics. A runner who had a lot of potential...