Alan Abrahamson's latest column calls out Wejo and any fans who worship Steve Prefontaine and/or Keira D'Amato

I'm not sure the guy has ever left California. He didn't attend the Ivies and/or Stanford. Second rate writer and definitely not a "foremost expert" on the Olympics and an "In-demand television analyst." Such a fraud.

[quote]Iron Bars wrote:

Ridiculous garbage by Alan Abrahmson.

As usual

Abrahamson is quite possibly a dingus

this dude is a parody of the identity-politics obsessed "left" that makes me ashamed to be a leftist. bad writer too. couldn't bring myself to read the whole article. totally unoriginal, race-obsessed garbage. AA, since you no doubt will read this: get better material.

I ran at the Prefontaine meeting once many decades ago in the States. He's a regional person. The remainder of the US doesn't regard this person. We don't either regard him here either. Although I think yes he was a great runner for the 1970's. I will holiday for 2028 Los Angeles. I love the United States.

Would you rather that our sport have Pre, or have no one. Look at every other major sport. They have huge stars that kids and adults idolize. Track just is not that popular, so if we get a star, Pre, might as well take advantage of his image for the sport.

The consensus is 1) Prefontaine is a metropolitan hero fancied by the Portland and Oregon state vicinity. 2) Spending so much funds on a legacy personality and dead marketing concept is a waste of valuable funds. 3). There are hundreds of more accomplished American and world track and field stars that are living today and are actively competing that could use the marketing publicity and sponsorship money. Hope this helps.

Rojo, please look up the definition of 'entitled' v 'titled'. You are falling into the same grammatical trap as the masses, which is not indicative of an Ivy education.

Abrahamson is a racist. Only a racist would assume that so many people are racist just because of the color of their skin.

Sorry, but you guys are racist AF.

you seemingly excuse any white people's doping - Radcliffe, Houlihan, etc. But then actively pr.mote any rumor against non whites. I don't think you also got the point of the article. You guys fetishize white runners especially the female ones. Gault is just as bad.

Then you seemingly defend yourself by pointing out a small handful to places that are named after non whites. That is just stupid. Rojo's racism creeps into nearly every post he makes it he doesn't try to conceal it. Fact is you guys are white privilege to the hilt and you don't understand the experience of being in a lower socio-economic place in life. Yet somehow you feel that you can speak for all the track world with your proclamations about what resonates with us runners. I can also point out a bunch of people who got great later in life after being counted out - Meb, Kurt Warner, etc. that story is also played out.

You also are very anti-trans people. We can have a debate about their place in sports, but often times the threads that go on here attack the people especially when they are kids. I've caught you guys in outright lies if not shoddy journalism.

The guy comes off as a jerk.

He paints himself as a minority and calls Pre "white" and "middle class" when Pre was from a working class family that immigrated to the States.

He used the term "white" as if it's a bad thing.

Another "woke", pompous, arrogant jerk who thinks he is enlightened.

rojo wrote:

samcallan wrote:

I think the part about calling D'Amato's performance the coolest thing of the century is a cheap shot. Does anyone actually think Wejo thinks that? It was a cool moment and people often say such things. I bet Alan has said "That is the best meal I have ever had" when (first) I doubt he has a ranking of meals and second, he says it to complement the host or chef in the moment. It is just one of those things people say in the glow or heat of the moment.

.

Exactly . He wrote a comment on a messageboard in the euphoria of the unexpected result. It wasn't like he wrote a detailed analysis of it on the editorial page of the NY TImes.

This is just stupid. He also wrote a lengthy column and prompted his posts. This isn't the same as "the best meal I ever had" not close.

He knew what he was doing. and you Wejo defended it.

Letsrun is incredibly problematic at times. This isn't really one of those times. Do white athletes get disproportionate coverage here & in other spaces? Absolutely. It's ok to recognize that & not be so defensive about it. This website should think about those themes much more regularly. But D'Amato set a World Record & does have an incredible story. You have to cover that. But you also have to cover other athletes like that in the future. The only problem I see is that LRC doesn't do the best job covering all athletes. D'Amato's coverage, in a vacuum, is totally fine. When you think about the bigger picture, this website usually gives a ton of praise for white athletes & then we get told where non-white athletes are born to seemingly discredit performances or other those performances. Do you want to get covered by LRC as a white runner who broke a record or as non-white athlete who ran faster & might even have broken a record? The second athlete is faster but you're joking if you don't go with the former.

In general, I agree with Abrahamson, but, he did a piss poor job in this article. The idea is right, the execution is... something else.

The cult of Pre is real. I knew some people, "real" runners, who worked in Nike Running retail stores. During orientation they were nothing short of brainwashed with weird falsehoods about Pre and Nike. My friend had to explain to his "not so real" runner coworkers that Pre was not the first to break the 4:00 barrier and was met with skepticism.

I think it's easy for a corporation to celebrate a guy like Pre, he was the rough and tough American taking it the weird Europeans, back when men were men, and steroids didn't exist, absolutely not, no way he ever took any supplements other than burgers and beer. His legacy is "safe" as far as everyone is concerned. Even if Bowerman himself rose from the dead and proclaimed "Oh yeah, to the gills," it wouldn't matter. Try creating that legacy with any modern athletes—it's almost impossible because so many are operating in the grey zone, legally and ethically. One slip up, one wrong burrito, and your multi-million dollar marketing strategy goes down the toilet.

To go see that track has a problem with overly-catering to white people, go look at early Tracksmith. They built an entire brand around the allure of old money and elitism. I can only imagine the slapstick that ensued during a board meeting when someone said, "Sir, turns out this whole shtick might be kind of really f*cking racist."

FartKing69 wrote:

In general, I agree with Abrahamson, but, he did a piss poor job in this article. The idea is right, the execution is... something else.

I can't actually think of anything that Abrahamson has written that I haven't thought was absurdly wrong. Even on topics that aren't normally controversial, he manages to stake out an absurd position and then smugly attack everyone else's motives.

But you're right about the execution. The guy is a bad writer, and his style is so strange that it almost makes me think he has some kind of disability or brain injury. He just doesn't organize his thoughts the way most people do.

Slowpoke and Stan (Corgis are awesome) are both completely right. Great analysis. Pulling the race card in a sport that is truly the most international sport on the planet (run fast and you're relevant no matter where you are from) is just odd.

Go Rhody wrote:

Rojo, please look up the definition of 'entitled' v 'titled'. You are falling into the same grammatical trap as the masses, which is not indicative of an Ivy education.

Titled in this context is definitely preferred to "entitled" however both are technically acceptable.