Hi, first time poster here.
I have no athletic background or experience, so basically your average letsrun "expert".
My two cents on Warholm and the "racism" from mr. Canova.
No where can I find a hint of a Warholm is superior due to his skin color and origin from mr. Canovas posts. Of course, if you insist, and want to find racism you can interpret any text into having a racist subplot. What I read from the posts is that for a trained eye, Benjamin and Samba (who happen to have darker skin color) are more naturally talented then Warholm who happen to be "Caucasian". I do not have a trained eye, so I can't really tell, but even if they are more naturally gifted it is not a slight towards Benjamin or Samba, just a fact or in worst case an opinion.
Warholm and his coach have, if not said the same as mr. Canova directly, at least confirmed that due to his background in decathlon he is able to train hard for several hours each day (about 30 hour weeks - including breaks of course). He has also grown up in a part of Norway known for its rain and wind, and has been training outside in all kinds of weather since an early age. Knowing nothing of Sambas and Benjamins training facilities as youths this may all be irrelevant, but at least Warholm is used to "cold" and sub optimal track conditions and is consciously looking for mental advantages on race day, and especially in sub optimal conditions. As an example, he said after his indoors 400m tied European record in Glasgow that "everybody" knew and accepted that the track was slow. However, Warholm and his coach had a different approach:
"Slow track became fast track
They (Leif/coach and Warholm) started looking into the Glasgow track history. How the surface was. What has previously been run there. The track record belonged to indoor WC champ Pavel Maslák, who ran 46.02 in 2016. They asked other athletes about the track and got "slow track" as an answer.
- Leif, they say slow track, Warholm determined.
After having inspected the track and observed that it had wide curves and a special bounce, Alnes (coach) concluded:
- I have an opposite hypothesis: This is a fast track. It has a Mondo-surface, it has wide curves, and a special bounce. I think you are the worlds best to adept to the surface. The task is to get the bounce to play along with you and not fight you. You run with diesel-strides and that's good, because there's a slow bounce on the track. Use the first two laps to feel that the track is like a trampoline. If you, despite that approach, run slow, it may be that we are simply wrong."
- To Aftenposten, 3rd of May, 2019.
I have seen and read similar interviews talking about the London WC and other occasions where the weather or other conditions have not been the best. Another example of Warholms mindset and positive approach to running comes in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, in 2017:
Edwin Moses, when being asked about Warholm in 2017 said:
"400 meter hurdles is a difficult discipline. You are among other things, jumping over 10 hurdles. You can for example fall and hit one of them. You can also mess up the start, you can make errors between the hurdles. There are so many things that can go wrong, and they will go wrong, the legend determined with reference to 31 elements he believes can ruin the possibility to win 400 meter hurdles."
Warholm, confronted by Norwegian media about this replied:
"I think running is a very simple and ordinary thing, he told Dagbladets reporter John Rasmussen and added:
And I think we should keep it simple and ordinary. We shouldn't over analyse too much, but it is allowed to disagree with that.
- Moses talks a lot about experience. Do you thing analysis comes with age, replied Rassmussen:
- Perhaps. Or I will maintain that there are 31 things you can succeed at in stead of 31 things to fail at. That will be my strength."
This is the mentality mr. Canova is talking about, not a superior mind set due to race or skin colour, but an optimistic and easy going approach to training, running and competing. I know little or nothing of Benjamins or Sambas mental traits as there is little to find on the internet, so really its impossible to compare. But at least Warholm is very confident and has a very positive mind set, and is always looking for an edge and how to turn something negative to a positive.