Is it just us, or are their less super elite African runners coming for the US road scene? Why?

Why should they come here? Road racing isn’t what it once was and that is a shame. Prize purses are greatly reduced and the events themselves are now more hobby jogger happenings and charity awareness festivals than competition. I would love to see a return to the heyday of the 1970s and 80s road scene, but it is nearly all marathons and half marathons aimed at locals these days.

This is not the topic many of your site’s visitors want to discuss. Let us discuss the topic many of us care about.

But this website told me the Super Shoes were taking the world by storm & turning mere mortals into world beaters, and average Joe pros into legends?!?

Discus.

I've been to over a dozen countries but the country I've been to the most, Canada. Pre-September 11th, it was a friendly wave, both sides of the border. Not anymore. Traveling isn't fun anymore. Traveling from country to country is one big hassle now.

I’ve said this before, African distance running has gone downhill the last few years. They don’t dominate any distance event anymore. My theory was the genes have been diluted or the best athletes are doing other sports.

Look at what time got you10th place for the last 40 years?

it's not just the super elites who have stopped coming to the US...NYRR road races used to be won by Ethiopians every week. Not world-class runners, but 29 minute 10kers that sort of thing, giving NYC a shot. But now they are largely gone. Now Americans win NYRR races and the Ethiopians are gone.

I don't know why.

Not as much sponsor money going around these days to bring elites from Africa to the US.

Marketing budgets are going to influencers and inclusion/diversity causes rather than featuring elite athletes and promoting fast races.

Hate to break it to you bros, but the US of A is not the centre of the universe. Nobody cares. Sorry not sorry.

no, they just actually started testing

but we are, in a quite real sense. and this has nothing to do with the thread

No you are not. You are meaningless.

Exactly. I had never heard of the Falmouth race until it was mentioned here.

I imagine this has to do with a lot of additive factors.

Visas are a tough. This predates COVID--Trump administration made it worse by cutting defunding the state department--but it got worse during COVID and there is still a massive backlog. Getting a visa to come here is more bureaucratic and uncertain than it used to be.

Airfare is more expensive and there are a lot of canceled flights due to pent up demand post-COVID and some of the worker strikes in Europe. This makes it much more expensive. Traveling internationally, I need to be ok with eating some cost if my flight gets canceled and I need to rebook more so than in the past. For people with fewer resources this is more of a burden.

The US dollar is extremely favorable compared to just about every other currency in the world than it has in a long time in terms of exchange rate. The dollar and the euro just hit parity for the first time in 20 years. A lot of other countries' economies are more affected by impacts from the Russia Ukraine war to global energy and food markets than we are (not to mention COVID aftershocks). That means traveling here is more expensive for other countries.

Ethiopia has been in a civil war since 2020. While global stars like Gidey are able to travel internationally, I imagine that might have effects for less established athletes' mobility.

So...it's harder to get a visa, harder to travel here, and more expensive to travel here than it's been in a long time. Most countries have some degree of economic precariousness from geopolitical events. So logically it seems like it would be more expensive and harder for people to make a trip over here to collect a payday.

Also just to mention because Rojo mentioned the visa stuff predating COVID backlogs, if you recall Trump did a lot of policy shenanigans in early 2017 with P1 visas and other non-immigrant visas many of which were relevant to sports. Much of which ultimately didn't become policy but the whole discussion had a chilling effect and a lot of people were reticent to start the application process in the face of uncertainty.

I don’t know why, but it is great! I’d rather see an American pickup the small amount of prize money on offer than some random Ethiopian.

ehh, we kind of are dude. Literally the whole planet is based on our dollar.

It's the letsrun effect. Road races started giving prize money for "first non-African-born runner" and now every middle class Jake and Jessica can be a winner!

In a few years they will start banning Australians so that non-alcoholic white people will also have a chance.

It IS news that the universe doesn’t revolve around us to the America First toddlers.