There's also Tokyo in the spring and Toronto in the fall, to name a few non-European alternatives besides Chicago.
Yeah Tokyo's a good one, though again USATF would have to take some leadership in convincing sponsors that it's in their best interest to let guys chase the standard there instead of running Boston.
Yeah Tokyo's a good one, though again USATF would have to take some leadership in convincing sponsors that it's in their best interest to let guys chase the standard there instead of running Boston.
Why would USATF care?
Because they would like to send 3 marathoners to the Olympics?
It has nothing to do w DEI. The DEI movement started around 2015 and has to do with overemphasis on skin color and not nationalities which this program does. If Luxembourg or Finland didn’t qualify ppl for the Olympics, this is where they’d put them.
im against DEI too but you gotta correctly state what it is and what it isnt
1. This strikes me as really stupid to make the marathon the event you put someone if you have no world class athletes since it’s a grueling race that has led to deaths for unprepared runners.
I follow the Winter Olympics and the ski federation allows every country to send one skier and all those skiers end up in the slalom since that’s the race that has the least chance of injury. Side note: the slalom is secretly one of the best Olympic events bc after the power players go, they allow ppl from places like Samoa, Egypt, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Botswana, Fiji, Pakistan, etc to go down the hill and they look like 3rd graders taking one of their first skiing lessons and wipe out:
I think 5000 is a better choice since you have multiple heats and if your best guy happens to be a distance runner he can take one of the last spots.
2. does anyone really have a rooting interest in Leonard Korir? He’s already an Olympian and a world champ qualifier, so it’s not like his career will look that much different whether he qualifies for one or two Olympics. If it was Elkanah Kibet or Zach Panning who took that 3rd spot, I’d care.
3. Ive loved Yaseen Abdullah since he killed it at that DMR and made all American in XC and he’s had a few good races but he hasn’t really improved his PRs since last year and appears to have bad racing strategy. I hope he does at least a good 10K or 5K this spring if he’s going to deserve that title of Olympian. Sub 13:30 and sub 28:30 at the very least
2. does anyone really have a rooting interest in Leonard Korir?
Just bummed the US isn't sending three guys. On the global scale the US isn't a bad marathoning nation. It's not a world beater, but it's not bad. It's disappointing that the US can't field a full team of three guys in the Olympic marathon (first time since 2000). Maybe this will light a fire...
1. This strikes me as really stupid to make the marathon the event you put someone if you have no world class athletes since it’s a grueling race that has led to deaths for unprepared runners.
I think 5000 is a better choice since you have multiple heats and if your best guy happens to be a distance runner he can take one of the last spots.
This isn't an Eric the Eel situation, the universality spots range from 2:08 to 2:20 guys and Abdalla has run 28:33. They won't be competitive but they're not a danger to anyone.
If they were in the 5k they'd be much more of an obstacle to the elites, this way they just fall off the pace and finish a couple miles behind the leaders.
It’s disappointing we are such a huge nation of people but are not able to get three people in the marathon at the Olympics. I knew it back in January in the bold prediction thread mentioning it was going to happen. I feel bad for Korir since he was fourth in 2020. He deserved getting third this time and go to the Olympics.
So I get the notion of including more countries, it is the Olympics, and to open the marathon up to it makes perfect sense as there is no real effect on the race itself. The roads can handle the extra 10-15 runners, they will not get in the way of the faster runners as their times will put them toward the back. The items along the race route like water and the such really won't need that much more, if any. So why cap the marathon for that reason? In the race it makes no discernable difference, at least that I can see?
Maybe get your facts right before you start spitting absolute rubbish.
Jordan switched allegiances to represent the heritage of our grandfather and father who are now deceased so i would appreciate if you didn’t speak about my family in a negative light unless you actually understand the facts.
Spare a thought for Aussie Liam Adams. Also bumped out of the ranking, while Jordan Gusman is now in on a universality place. So he's being displaced by Australian who switched allegiance to represent Malta (likely because he would never make an AUS team).
Going forward, I wonder if the u.s. will have the trials on a quicker course with cooler weather? Panning went for it, but even Young and Mantz didn't hit the qualifier during the trials. Ideally we need a trials where the top 3 hit the standard, otherwise we need some better races in Berlin, Valencia, and fair weather in Chicago
This is really a surprise. Nowhere in the document did it say that Universality would be put in ahead of rankings. On the other hand, it was clearly stated that the ranking quota as of May 5th would be locked in, and some federations had already selected athletes based on that line (Hugo Catrileo of Chile). Nowhere was it stated that Quota spots (which ranking spots fall under) and Universality spots are the same, and the document guaranteed 80 Quota spots. In my mind it’s a travesty, since athletes scheduled their season around gaining as many ranking spots as possible during the spring only for it to not matter at all. If Leonard Korir and his coach had known this, maybe they would have skipped the Lisbon half and had a better shot at the standard in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, there is a precendent for rankings being outweighed by universality so no one really has a case to argue, it just didn’t matter in previous years since only one universality spot was allowed in the marathon and standards exceeded the quota place limit. But if they want people to view rankings as being as important as they view standards, they cannot be pulling stuff like this at the last minute.
Agreed, it should have been 80 spots for qualified athletes, and these slow unqualified universality people shouldn't take up the 80. This is ridiculous. And it didn't say this anywhere in the qualification documentation that there would/could be random slow people entered who are not on anyone's radar.
Leonard Korir is THREE HUNDRED AND FIRST in the marathon rankings, not close to eightieth.
Albertson is 287th.
And that's excluding the universality places.
So the US shouldn't get too worked up at what are essentially charity places at the expense of more much more talented Kenyans and Ethiopians.
All of the US marathoners are already effectively in universality spots, based on rules made to widen representation (3 per nation).
I happen to support the rules of 3 per nation, but there needs to be some humility in the discussion.
Maybe get your facts right before you start spitting absolute rubbish.
Jordan switched allegiances to represent the heritage of our grandfather and father who are now deceased so i would appreciate if you didn’t speak about my family in a negative light unless you actually understand the facts.
When he switched he unequivocally said he'd only take an Olympic spot if he made it on ranking or time. I wonder if that's changed.
For those Foreign Fans... lets recap how USA Track & Field, and not the US athletes, is resposnible for this debacle.
World Athletics announced its Qualifcation system a long time ago (last summer, at least?)
USA Track & Field, under the direction of $3-million dollar compensated Max, waited until AFTER all fall major marathons (December 01, 2023, to be exact) to announce how USA would select its marathon team.
Think about that. US marathon athletes had no idea how to qualify for Paris on December 01.
AND THEN... USATF fussing up that simple task, withdrew its selection procedure and revised it on December 27... a mere five weeks before the Trials.
If there had been any professioinalism and clarity on USATF's part, very talented athletes including (#2 US All-Time 2:06 Galen Rupp & Rio Medalist; #6 US All-Time 2:07 Korir, #9, 10, 11 US All-time) could have pursued a better path.
2. does anyone really have a rooting interest in Leonard Korir?
Just bummed the US isn't sending three guys. On the global scale the US isn't a bad marathoning nation. It's not a world beater, but it's not bad. It's disappointing that the US can't field a full team of three guys in the Olympic marathon (first time since 2000). Maybe this will light a fire...
On a global scale the US is a bad marathoning nation, at least on the men’s side. For a nation that has arguable the best track and field development system it is embarrassing to only have two people under the qualification standard. Many European runners for example rose to the occasion of the challenging qualification time, just look at how many French, Spanish, Italian, British, German etc. runners beat the standard.
The reason if you ask me: Too much emphasis on the trials, US marathon training just focusing on itself rather than trying to learn from others, enough cash in the system that placing between 10th and 20th in Boston or NY is enough to strive for.
For those Foreign Fans... lets recap how USA Track & Field, and not the US athletes, is resposnible for this debacle.
World Athletics announced its Qualifcation system a long time ago (last summer, at least?)
USA Track & Field, under the direction of $3-million dollar compensated Max, waited until AFTER all fall major marathons (December 01, 2023, to be exact) to announce how USA would select its marathon team.
Think about that. US marathon athletes had no idea how to qualify for Paris on December 01.
AND THEN... USATF fussing up that simple task, withdrew its selection procedure and revised it on December 27... a mere five weeks before the Trials.
If there had been any professioinalism and clarity on USATF's part, very talented athletes including (#2 US All-Time 2:06 Galen Rupp & Rio Medalist; #6 US All-Time 2:07 Korir, #9, 10, 11 US All-time) could have pursued a better path.
USATF sucks and keeps on sucking!
Everyone knew from summer 2022 that the OQT was 2:08.10 and that even with quota reallocation, a country had to unlock three spots. That was never a secret. Still, athletes chose the payday over the possibility of running the time. Whatever else USATF did, it didn't force athletes to run Boston and NY rather than London, Berlin, Valencia or Seville.
For those Foreign Fans... lets recap how USA Track & Field, and not the US athletes, is resposnible for this debacle.
World Athletics announced its Qualifcation system a long time ago (last summer, at least?)
USA Track & Field, under the direction of $3-million dollar compensated Max, waited until AFTER all fall major marathons (December 01, 2023, to be exact) to announce how USA would select its marathon team.
Think about that. US marathon athletes had no idea how to qualify for Paris on December 01.
AND THEN... USATF fussing up that simple task, withdrew its selection procedure and revised it on December 27... a mere five weeks before the Trials.
If there had been any professioinalism and clarity on USATF's part, very talented athletes including (#2 US All-Time 2:06 Galen Rupp & Rio Medalist; #6 US All-Time 2:07 Korir, #9, 10, 11 US All-time) could have pursued a better path.
USATF sucks and keeps on sucking!
Everyone knew it would be trials order. This is a made up problem. You would need to be an idiot think Rupp ran 40s too slow at Chicago because he didn’t understand what he needed to do to make the team.
If you want to blame star, it is by not picking a flat, fast course with high odds of good weather. And then paying pacers to go out in 64…
