I think he's wrong about Ryan Hall not having a chance but other than that it's a pretty good article.
I suppose I should comment since I am quoted in the article and I was 4th in the 1971 NYC marathon that had a few hundred runners instead of 37,000.
Marathon racing has change in the US and spread to slower runners as a rite of passage but that is not affecting US competitiveness internationally by making US runners all wimpy penguins.
What has happened since 1971 is that the rest of the world has taken up marathon racing. There's 300 million Americans and 6.5 billion other people in the world. Ryan Hall will have to compete against an Olympic field selected from the largest pool of marathon runners ever.
Just wait until the marathon gets popular in China, Indonesia, and India instead of Americas, Europe, and, the meghreb, and East Africa. (Aus&NZ) The pool will get deeper by a couple of billion.
Tom
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