A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
Their top decayhlete was out and injured. Deca is similar to an all around sport like soccer and basketball. Perhaps they're just good at the strength/speed/coordination sports but not running.
They are like Canada in many ways in being a "top-down" driven system. However, there are pockets of Canada athletics that do subscibe to the more project-level mentality seen in the U.S. Hammer-throwing in Canada is a good example. Bondarchuk was responsible for changing that mindset. Charlie Francis when he was alive had the same project-type system.
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
All their talent goes to football. Mediocre football players make more money than most track stars, so the incentives are also clear.
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
You might want to look at medal count.
I just looked, they have 0 medals in Athletics. Why should we look?
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
All their talent goes to football. Mediocre football players make more money than most track stars, so the incentives are also clear.
That's not the reason. You could say that about any other sport than football but France is successful in many other sports like judo, swimming, fencing, cycling etc
I'm not sure about why but there seem to be a pattern : Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Australia. All equally bad.
Even if you are a talented runner, you hesitate twice before chosing between football and running. That's the case of Gressier who was driven to athletics after trying to play football.
The lack of sponsorship is obvious in most fields : for instance, in 2009, the pole vaulter Romain Mesnil ran naked across Paris as he couldn't find finances just before finishing second at worlds.
Canoe-kayak or fencing pay even less than athletics.They are winning medals, there.
The problem with athletics is that it is the Olympic sport that the US takes the most seriously making difficult for other countries to win medals.That is that simple.
Countries tend to win medals in sport where they find the least competition...
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
Looking at the medals only gives just a part of the picture. I would say that France does have strong runners in the distances and reasonable depth in the nation but they are just not quite good enough to get medals at the world/olympic level at the moment largely because of the huge depth from East Africa in those events. They had a guy go under 27 mins in the 10000m and they have strong guys in the steeplechase and marathon but maybe again not quite good enough to win medals. If you look at the European championships the medal count is usually substantial in comparison. Losing their top decathlete with injury was a big blow to their T and F team as this year's olympics.
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
Watch out for Sasha Zhoya. He was in the same heat as Grant Holloway. He has the World Youth Best of 12.87s and the World Junior Record of 12.72s in the 110mH. With the crowd on his side, I could see a big upset. He ran the same times as Grant did, over the senior hurdles, at the same age and Grant ran 12.98s at the same age he is now. If Grant seizes up, like he often does, he could be a problem.
I love in France but moved here from another country which is strong in athletics.
French athletes seem allergic to running hard, fast intervals on the track. Instead, they run slow paced intervals with extremely short recoveries (like 15 seconds). Basically, they are always running slow. I have to train on my own, because there's nobody else running standard track workouts. I get lots of concerned looks from coaches when they see me out of breath and tired at the end of sessions. They also spend hours on technique, drills, chatting and explanations, and then hardly do a session afterwards.
A lot of French people also don't build muscle easily.
800m runner Pierre Ambroise Bosse was 2017 WC and a fixture on the DL circuit through his retirement in 2022. His 2014 1:42.53 pb is solid and probably would equal a 1:41xhigh in 2024. ...Basically same credentials and times as Donovan Brazier but Bosse had a longer career and more wins.
A country with a relatively big population with amazing athletes in soccer and basketball, and yet they look on pace to deliver zero medals in the Athletics competition in Paris.
All their talent goes to football. Mediocre football players make more money than most track stars, so the incentives are also clear.
I don't buy into this argument.
This isn't the NBA or the NFL. Elite footballers excel, first and foremost, due to some bizarre sport specific 'x factor' - maybe fine motor skills in their feet, amongst other things - rather than elite athleticism.
To illustrate this: Cristiano Ronaldo - seen as one of the greatest physical specimens in the sport - in his prime (aged 26), was put through some physical tests on a documentary called 'Tested to the Limit'.
to the documentary timestamped to when his vertical jump is tested at 31" with 2 step run up. Later on in the documentary he has 0.3 seconds put on him over 25m by a 10.6 sprinter.
This is a stupid thread. Every country but the US has no more than 3 medals in athletics. Great Britain and Ethiopia could be considered just ok at athletics by op's measurement. I think a better conclusion is that there is parity on the world stage in athletics right now. Its 1 US 2. anyone else's game.
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