USA fall off

Too many beers

Perhaps well timed peaks? I think we saw it in the 800 today, too -- consecutive weeks of hard running made the field behind Arop fade to 1:43s as opposed to 1:42s

People keep saying the runners from Ethiopia had covid during the olympics (not the marathon runners though, since they were not living in the village).

I think well timed peaks too.

Those coming back from injury (e.g Jakob) may be a bit fresher as they missed a lot of training of the winter. Others will be exhausted.

I do think it’s why many athletes (quite rightly) have called time on their season - e.g Laura Muir. Surprised not to see Jess Hull as she is a prolific racer. Could be tired too.

Juiced peaks

They had to peak twice, vs someone like Jakob who is peaking for Olympics and his typical DL domination. But he definitely holds his peak better than most.

americans dont care about diamond league. they peaked for the olympics and partied too hard after. i imagine appearance fees exist for runners after winning medals too so they show up to make money.

For most of these guys, winning a medal and the media circus that comes with it is entirely new to them. They’ve probably peaked for the Olympics, missed more training than they expected after medaling, and are coming off massive highs. Jacob and guys like him are used to dealing with all that while maintaining focus.

The US team is hard to make. Other than Nuguse, there really weren't any locks. US athletes have to maintain a peak from the trials to the olympics, maybe longer if they can barely eek out the qualifying time too. Oh and the US domestic meets where one can run fast are like in April - June.

Yeah, it has to be said - the US track medallists haven't exactly set the world on fire post Olympics

100m
Gold - Noah Lyles - ended his season
Bronze - Fred Kerly - 1st at Silesia, but with only 1 other OG finalist in the field

Silver - Sha'carrie Richardson - MIA
Bronze - Mellisa Jefferson - MIA

200m
Silver - Kenny Bednarek - 3rd at Silesia
Bronze - Noah Lyles - see above

Gold - Gabby Thomas - MIA
Bronze - Brittany Brown - MIA

400m
Gold - Quincy Hall - scratched from Lausanne

1500m
Gold - Cole Hocker - a distant 2nd in Lausanne
Bronze - Yared Nuguse - MIA

3000 SC
Silver - Kenneth Rooks - a distant 16th in Silesia???????

5000m
Bronze - Grant Fisher - a distant 15th (last) in the 3000m in Silesia

10000m
Bronze - Grant Fisher - see above

100mH
Gold - Masia Russel - 4th in Silesia

110mH
Gold - Grant Holloway - 2nd in Lausanne, 1st in Silesia
Silver - Daniel Roberts - 4th in Lausanne, 3rd in Silesia

400mH
Gold - Rai Benjamin - MIA

Gold - Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone - MIA
Silver - Anna Cockrell - 2nd in Silesia

Looking at the start lists for Rome DL - the following are due to appear

Quincy Hall (will he scratch again?)
Masai Russel
Brittany Brown
Grant Fisher
Anna Cockrell
Fred Kerly

Given all the PB's & WL's they were producing at their trials & the Olympics - where has that form disappeared to?
They've either been (missing in action) or turning out & not performing as well as they did.

Yeah - it could be argued that they were training to "peak" during that period - but when you see the likes of Jakob Ingebrittsen, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Femke Bol, Julien Alfred & Soufiane El Bakkali continuing to race & "win" - then it does kinda beg the question, why has their "peak" been so short lived?

For a US athlete, to even make the Olympics you have to be good at the Trials. It's a stronger constraint than for many other countries with less depth or a different selection process. So Americans should be more likely to get in shape earlier and have the Olympics near the end of their peak.

Jakob basically raced himself in to shape this year following injury. He obviously did well in the 5k but I’d argue he’s probably peaking right now as he didn’t train all winter. He’ll be strong for the rest of the season as he’ll be fresher than those who have trained for many more months.

Nope. Too many foreign athletes are being trained at American universities. I don't hate the concept, but it fully explains why Poland can dominate in beach volleyball (and 3 on 3 basketball) over the United States

When track fans look back on this season 20+ years from now, they aren't going to care how the Americans medalists from Paris did in Lausanne or Silesia, or if they ran those meets at all. They will focus on the boatload of Olympic medals that the Americans won in Paris.

This loss of form is unnatural. Other countries' athletes also had distractions and perhaps a reduced training schedule following the Olympics. To the rest of the world it's painfully obvious that most of the USA team was on the juice. They must have a very sophisticated state sponsored doping program going on. It's not just Kersee's team.

They will also look at the sports we lost in that we invented...water polo, beach volleyball, breaking, 3 on 3 basketball and volleyball indoors. We also lost our first ever 4x100 medley relay in swimming since it was invented.

We excelled in track but we failed in ways we rarely fail.

they stopped paying us after the olympics. dont forget who made you guys!

Yeah - I hear this about the US trials - but you forget, most of the Europeans competed at the European Championships around the time the US trials were.
And they're still out there, competing & winning.
I mean - Rooks goes from silver medallist to 16th place?????
SML doesn't even race - and then comes out & runs a WR????

Masai Russel only made it to today's final because they were using all 9 lanes and she went through as the 9th place candidate.

But where are all the others who are MIA?

There's some irony with MJ's Grand Slam Track who shouts we want to see head-to-heads from the best in the world 4 times a year - and the current US gold medallists aren't even showing up for the DL circuit.
The irony of SML being the poster girl for this new venture when she's only turned up for the Olympics is a bit laughable - likewise Josh Kerr (the only other athlete we know who has signed up) Hadn't even run a 1500m prior to the Olympics.

Yeah - and the last time a single country went home with a boatload of medals, like Russia & East Germany, well, we all know how history turned out for that.