pure disrespect wrote:
High hopes wrote:
[quote]
Let's be honest, the only BTC athlete who has a chance of a medal in Eugene this year is Frerichs, and that's been the case for the last few glasses back champs (I'm omitting convicted dopers, obviously).
Imagine medaling in Doha , setting the North American record, then medaling again in Tokyo...
... and still being forgotten about on LR. Poor guy.
but with the talent BTC can get and the resources available, you'd expect them to produce more athletes capable of winning global medals.
You know, I could agree with this point, but just replace "BTC" with "the USA." BTC doesn't have many medal threats in the distance events right now, but outside of the 800m, the whole of the USA basically has Paul Chelimo, Courtney Frerichs, and maybe Emma Coburn if she bounces back. Hocker could turn into something, Fisher is young, and his 6th place showed promise, but the cupboard is pretty bare on the track. Given the massive talent base and the best resources in the world, you would indeed expect to produce more athletes capable of winning global medals.
In the last decade, Americans athletes in the 1500 and up in world/Olympic competition have taken:
Women's 1500m:
4/24 possible medals - all Jenny Simpson
Women's 5000m:
0/24
Women's 10000m:
1/24 medals - Emily Infeld (BTC)
Women's Steeplechase:
5/24 - 3 x Emma Coburn, 2 x Courtney Frerichs (BTC)
Women's Total: 10/96 medals - BTC 3/10 US medals.
Men's 1500m:
4/24 - Centrowitz x 3, Manzano x1
Men's 5000m:
3/24 - Chelimo x2, Lagat x1
Men's 10000m:
1/24 - Rupp x1
Men's Steeplechase:
2/24 - Jager x2 (BTC)
Men's Total: 10/96 medals - BTC 2/10 US medals.
Total - 20/192 medals, BTC 5/20. So more medal winning Americans than any other club in the last decade. If I remember right, 10/24 spots on the Tokyo team men/women 1500-10000 were taken by BTC athletes.
To balance the fact that I just spent way too long unfortunately simping for BTC, I'll throw in my hot take that I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't exist or if Schumacher wasn't coaching it come the Paris Olympics.
Three things -
1.) Another way of looking at the stats provided above is that the US is winning 10-11% of distance track medals. Outside of Kenya/Ethiopia, who is doing better?
2.) I came of age in running during the 2000s where we were largely a joke on the global stage. The US won 6 total medals 2000 - 2009, half of which came from Lagat alone! (Lagat x3, Goucher, Flanagan, Rowbury) and none of those came before 2007! If you would have told 2005 Kenneth Copeland (yet to be a verified millionaire, but well on his way) that we'd be winning 10% of the medals, I'd told you to gtfo. And this isn't even taking into account the US' overall improvement in depth.
3.) You should probably include the 800 as well. That would include 3 more men's medals (Symmonds, Murphy, Braizer) and 8 (Montano x2, Martinez, Wilson x2, Rogers x2, and Mu) for a grand total o 11 more medals. For comparison's sake, we won ZERO in the 2000s!
3.1) Should probably at least mention that the marathon we was Rupp for the men and Siedel and Cragg for the women. This might be a harder comparison because of field sizes and the WC marathon not holding as much prestige as the track events and the effect the majors have, but still we've made progress here - just not as much as the other events.