Is Ryan Hall wasting is talent at the Olympics?

MachoTime wrote:

The great marathon runners are winning the major marathons that earn them big bucks.

Olympic mens marathon is not that

big of a deal anymore.

Baldini can't win a major, but he won the Olympics.

I think Ryan Hall is in a different league than Baldini.

Baldini has won 2 bronzes from the World Championships (2001 and 2003) and Olympic gold in 2004. He also has run 2:07:22 at London in 2006 and has at least 4 times under 2:08:00 so Hall is still slower. It remains to be seen if Hall is in a different league as he has only run 2 marathons and still hasn't won a major too.

I think MC Steepler was just responding to my post on the spirit of the Olympics as the dream of races. He is stating hey even "El G." seemed to hold the Olympics as the most important of competition. Think he was just supporting my overly noble and kind of warm and to fuzzy Olympics post.

yeah, i'm sure he was pumping his fist and going crazy the last mile because he couldn't wait to run london again next year.

i am training for the olympic trials in the 800 and it would be rediculously cool to drop a nice time and pick up a contract and get paid but at the end of the day nothing would mean more to me than to compete for my country. i definetely respect the athlete that that competes in the olympics and proudly wears his countries colors.

wasting his talent on the olympics? i didnt realize there was such a thing.

Love this in a time where all athletes are preceived as greedy and selfish. A guy puts his dream and country and glory in front of money and we question that

I think it all depends on what Hall values. If he values and honors the Olympics and it is his dream to win a gold medal, then why should it bother you? And let's not act like we live in a 100% utilitarian world - just because someone is capable of using a talent does not mean they have to use it to its fullest extent to make other dreamers happier. You and I are capable of doing many great things that we have not begun to even think about, but it's because we are in charge of our own lives and we get to do with our mind and body what we choose and no one bothers us about it except our parents and that's only until we tell them to shut the f up already.

And who's saying Hall isn't going to run a spring marathon? Maybe it wouldn't be that wise, maybe it would be - I don't know, but I do know that the 2008 Olympics are August 8th - 24th, and usually the Marathon is one of the last events they run, so the Olympic Marathon wouldn't be until August 24th, so if he did run a spring marathon in late April, he would still have 4 months(16-18? weeks) to recover from it and train for the Olympic Marathon, and running a spring marathon could be the next step in trying to up his competitive edge on the world's best(if he entered an elite world beating field of marathoners, i.e. london, boston, etc.) and possibly a good idea before heading into the Olympics.

...that is if he (Haile) isn't banned by then for doping...

MachoTime, go away or I will taunt you a second time.

It's plain to see what hall values. He wasn't pointing his finger like he was number one, like some news idiots said. He was pointing up. His faith is what drives him. He doesn't care about money or publicity or any of that crap.

Sure that is great and all, but if his values are true, then he cares about more important things. Like the experience of competing and representing your country. Hell, not only is he the most talented runner America has, but he's the ONLY American who could give HG a run for his money. Why would he care about anything else other than preparing for the Olympics after just setting the trials record?

the guy is like 25? Whats to stop him running Beijing next year and then targeting the major marathons for how ever many years after that. I hardly think that would be a waste of talent, race for your country at the olympics and earn good money running the major marathons during his career.

For an American at least, I'd guess that an Olympic medal is going to get him far more exposure, make him more of household name, and in the long run earn him more money than a similar result in any other major marathon.

Joe Sixpack probably sees little distinction between winning the London Marathon against the most competative field ever and winning the local Turkey Trot 5k. He does know that winning the Olympics is something special.

well, he got 60,000 grand for winning the trials, then he gets another 20k for running it in the olympics.

I'm sure asics has incentives placed into his contract, so who knows how much he got from them for winning the trials, plus, if he wins the olympic gold, thats probably a nice exra bonus from asics again.

Lets not forget that his appearance fee based off his recent performances will no doubtedly increase and if he would win a medal, he's probably going to be pulling in close to 200k just to show up to a major marathon, if not more.

Winning and running in the olympics pays off big time... ask meb, that guy hasn't won a race in years (except gate river) and he's been pulling in truck loads of cash since athens with that silver.

I counted 2 minutes for the a***hole response. That is much faster than what seems to be a 7 minute letsrun standard.

The Olympics don't matter? Sure they don't. Just ask Kannouchi.

Gete Wami came close to beating Paula Radcliff in the NYC marathon, after running and winning the Berlin marathon exactly 5 weeks earlier. Hall can run Boston (or London) and still do his best in the Olympic marathon which is a full 18 weeks after Boston (April 21 - August 24) and 17 weeks after London. Most top elites recover fairly fast from a marathon, but Wami's recovery was amazing.

Hall may not want or need the money, and could give it to charity if he wished. But the prestige of winning Boston or London would be a real psychological benefit in the Olympics. However, if Hall and/or his coach felt that running Boston/London would hurt his chance for an Olympic silver (he isn't going to beat a healthy Haile), then it's better Hall not run Boston/London. You can't ignore the psychological aspects of how Hall feels about racing Boston/London.

Wami did suggest she’d ‘taken it easy’ at Berlin - although 2.23 seems to be a very fast pace for a training run.

But as Geb’s 2,4 shows - Berlin is a fast course and they had perfect conditions.

My main beef about the Olympic marathon is that the entry conditions are so unfair.

Looking at marathon results worldwide, only allowing 3 per nation is ridiculous.

There seems to be at least 20 Kenyans around that, on a given day, could win the gold medal.

Good point. Baldini and Meb wouldn't made it to the 2004 Olympics if they were Kenyans.

2/10

Can't believe another ratings agency hasn't reviewed this horseshit post first.

bricks wrote:

yeah, i'm sure he was pumping his fist and going crazy the last mile because he couldn't wait to run london again next year.

He did all that celebrating because he was excited about his fantastic performance. He did a very similar thing in Houston (not quite as much celebration, but quite a bit) and that qualified him for nothing. I actually don't think it(his excitement) was all about making the Olympics(though that was certainly part of it), but about running REALLY freaking fast that excites him.