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

rojo wrote:

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.

uh oh, looks like comments made publicly by a public figure are being taken seriously. Make the forum private or post anonymously if you want to just say whatever you want in the moment without worrying who will read it and interpret it.

carmine9 wrote:

okcorralleye wrote:

exactly.

The guy was talented, and never seemed to learn from his racing.

Herb Elliot retired unbeaten at 22. They should be singing about him.

I am obviously a foreign born person. I saw Pre race in Munich. I never understood the hype.

He ran an incredible race in Munich. Last two laps were electric. Ran to win and left it all on the track

Rubbish.

He played into Viren's strengths and crawled down the straight to lose 3rd.

He had the tools to medal. But he had no tactical skills to deal with athletes of this caliber.

Your expectations are obviously too low. Trying hard and losing isn't as heroic as you think.

And it wasn't the last two laps. He was in front until the last 2 laps. Then he never took the lead again.

His tactics were inept. He totally blew it when he tried to go around outside in the back straight, then couldn't. From then it was a series of failed attempts to overtake. Wheels and cogs came out of his ears with 220 m to go.

Yeah he tried to win. But he thought he was the hammer and everyone else was a nail.

karen rodgers wrote:

I think most people think you and your brother are racist because of the amount of racist garbage that you have splattered all over your life's work.

Wow you sound like Karen! You’re either a dumba$$ or a troll. If you really believe the brojos are racists then what are you doing here putting $$ in their pockets?

Are you content to benefit from racism but not get your own hands dirty (like a Karen)?

Alan needs to walk across campus and take a course on branding. Not mentioning Nike once in his story is curious at best. The intersection of Pre/Bowerman/Nike is the proverbial lightning in a bottle when it comes to branding. Pre is like Paul Revere - a guy at the right place at the right time - who unknowingly becomes a mythical, foundational character in much bigger narrative that evolves over time. Why is Pre more popular than comparable athletes? Because he died. Nike spent the next 4-decades leveraging his legacy to become the most successful branding corporation in the world. Do I wish Jesse Owens was the centerpiece of Nike's core brand, yes. Do countless other athletes deserve more attention, yes. But it's not personal, it's just the way Nike's business played out, it's not a social commentary. Alan's primary hypothesis needs to be revisited and broadened; he's lazily connecting dots to paint a picture without capturing critically important context. I'm sure he's well intentioned, but his article is a misfire at best.

So a race baiting scumnag writes a race baiting post on some random site nobody gives a crap about.

The whole Pre thing is so dead, so old, and really, totally failed bigtime. The worst promo attempt ever, The USA T&F and World Athletics names have such a small following there's no major TV meetings with meaningful paydays for us. The only time we have significant money paid is from NBC Hollywood during Olympic years. It'll be grand when soon as we keep hearing the streaming monsters buy out NCAA T&F, USA T&F, World Athletics, and International Olympics and turn our sport upside down into NFL, NBA, MLB managed sports properties. We need Hollywood's immense magnitude and 100 years of experience in making $TRILLIONS out of thin air.

Wouldn't it be awesome if Abrahamson were Stoppit Smith? I would give him kudos for that.

Pre didn't live long enough to be a member of the 27 club, along with Hendrix, Joplin, James Dean, Robert Johnson, etc. He was 24 when he died. He did everything he did before the age of 25. That inspires people.

One way of thinking about this story is as a status competition among white elites--in this case, elite white running commentators. Abrahamson is trying to prove to his colleagues that he's more woke than the Brojos. Capitalizing "Black" is an important, easy, and ritual first move, in line with most contemporary journalistic style guides. Score one for AA. (Many hard-woke people felt no need to capitalize that word as recently as 24 months ago, but things change.)

On Twitter, AA wrote "The dying-young angle doesn’t explain fully why t/f fetishizes Pre but, say, bkb does not — to anywhere same extent — Len Bias."

https://twitter.com/alanabrahamson/status/1486880655866679297

I'm sure that's true. But I don't see it as a problem. I see it as an interesting question. Why does Tupac get the fetish treatment, and Hendrix, and Pre, but not Len Bias? That's a great question.

The fetish-treatment, the god-who-died-too-young thing, clearly isn't just about having outsized talent and dying young. It's about engaging something much deeper, something mythic.

For Pre, that was several different myths. In the '72 Olympics, it was the Icarus myth: cockiness, arrogance, sees its comeuppance. But that was followed by the prodigal son myth. He learned from the defeat; he humbled himself, went back to ground. He opened himself, in his pain, and gave something back to his community. And then, just as the second big act seemed to be beginning, he was snuffed out--because he was driving too fast. James Dean redux. The James Dean "only the good die young" myth. Whole lotta mythic energy goin on in the Pre world. You can love that or hate that, but it's the truth.

Me, I prefer the people of great talent who nurture and develop their talent, prove themselves over and over, rise to the top and stay at the top. Live long and prosper! Inspire us that way! I prefer Keninisa, Allyson Felix, Usain Bolt, and of course King Haile. They all deserve to have track meets named for them and movies made about their lives. Certainly Tommie Smith and John Carlos deserved the books and movies that have been written and made about what they did. There's some mythic energy there. It's possible to acknowledge that and also recognize that Pre, Nike or not, engages some serious mojo that can and should be appreciated on its own terms.

If Alan Abrahamson had been a little less determined to score points in the Wokest-Among-Us competition with the Brojos, if had actually been making an open minded inquiry, he could have written a much more interesting and long-lasting column.

Great post.

Keep in mind the valuation of WA, DL, USATF, and NCAATF is miniscule and insignificant when contrasted with Olympics Track and Field. WA, DL, USATF, NCAATF are infantile media properties.

I totally disagree. We are the only website in the world that really makes a point of promoting the African distance stars as big time stars. Most sites are so focused on Americans or Brits or what not and then all of "the Africans" are treated as group. We treat them as individuals.

But go ahead and call me racist. I mean our Galen Rupp shirt has been a best seller - oh wait that doesn't exist, the best seller is our Kipchoge themed shirt.

Bingo.

I think Alan Abrahamson's article is misguided.

The racism (or xenophobia or nationalism) in Track and Field exists, but is just the reflection of the larger society.

Pre is popular because he raced every race with guts. Every race. With guts. It didn't always work, but something resonates with people in a way that, for example, Mo controlling the race from the back in a sit and kick race doesn't, or in a way that Galen not running very many races at all, doesn't. Maybe because the tension lasts longer in a sport with long pauses in between. Did I read once that Pre was undefeated at his home track in Oregon?

But to be honest, Pre isn't well known outside of track and field, and among the younger generations, and before Letsrun, I never heard of him. Maybe it's mostly an Oregon and Nike thing.

D'Amato is a great comeback story. I hate to use "-est" to describe anything as there are many cool stories, and invariably appreciating one story will make others step forward with "What about this one? Why did you ignore/forget this other cool story?" Or worse, do you ignore it because he/she's black? How is one supposed to appreciate success of the underdog -- with a bunch of asterisks and footnotes?

This sport needs appreciation of success when it happens, and not "sports journalists" undermining success appreciation with what about-ism (or "fans" of the sport expressing baseless doping suspicions, because Lance played innocent).

rojo wrote:

I totally disagree. We are the only website in the world that really makes a point of promoting the African distance stars as big time stars. Most sites are so focused on Americans or Brits or what not and then all of "the Africans" are treated as group. We treat them as individuals.

This is true. Weren't there three Robert Cheruiyot's at one point in time in the same race (Boston?)? Letsrun sorted all of them out.

anti.marxist wrote:

So a race baiting scumnag writes a race baiting post on some random site nobody gives a crap about.

Rojo, are you gonna take that!?!?!

cnej wrote:

The best part is Alan is gonna read this all from his iPad in Hermosa.

70 today in Hermosa Beach

[quote]okcorralleye wrote:

[quote]carmine9 wrote:

[quote]okcorralleye wrote:

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And it wasn't the last two laps. He was in front until the last 2 laps. Then he never took the lead again.

You may want to watch the race again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP49yCsvb28

Somewhere in the middle of 90% of AA's articles, I re-read a sentence and think, Wait, what??