krumenacker...old school

when was the last time a middle distance runner put up times of 1:43 and 3:31 WITHIN A WEEK. i bet you have to go back to the likes of aouita and cram and before that the likes of coe and ovett, i cant beleive he is getting so little attention on this board, he should be getting all the headlines, is it because he isnt part of the 'it' crowd of distance runners that went to the likes of stanford and arkansas or the others that brown nose there way into that crowd. this guy has done something we havnt seen in distance running for a while and is a diffrent class in the US.

A range like this says one thing to me and that this means he can race and would be absolutley deadly in a championship 1500m (as long a el g dosnt have his pacemaker in there). he would also have the strength to last the rounds of a championship 800m. these shoe companies need to forget about gambling thre money away on there great white hope and put it in to a much more sure thing, as i beleive david k will be americas next middle distance star and olympic medalist (gold?) but maybe he just dosnt look right??? after all webb is soo good looking isnt he? the shoe companies philosophy on webb is "he could be fast and he's white. i know im gonna get stick for saying this and im not putting webb down at all but i beleive that they are offerimg him all this money hoping he runs to the standard that krumenacker is running right now, i know race should not be an issue but do these companies beleive that a white mid distance star would be marketable to white america, i think so and this is dreadful but nobody has mentioned it.

all that 250k will do, will just put extra pressure on webb and help him fail.

congratulations david. get what you deserve.

Blah Blah Blah...cry me a river...who is the racist in this picture?

America is laddled with entrenched racism. I won't argue against that premise, but the driving force behind Webb's contract deal and his noteriety, to state the obvious, is that he ran 3:53 for the mile in high school. A lot of track and field fans, are infatuated with high school athletics and the mile.

If we could fast forward to 2004, the next Olympics, who can say where Webb will fit in? If he can knock 8 seconds off of his high school best time, he's running for gold. If he is only a few seconds better, he's a non factor.

Krummenacker would run away from Webb in a race right now, but a 3:53 mile in high school is very big news that still gives Webb way more name recognition and marketability.

1&1/2 run-on sentences.

ben wrote:

when was the last time a middle distance runner put up times of 1:43 and 3:31 WITHIN A WEEK. i bet you have to go back to the likes of aouita and cram and before that the likes of coe and ovett, i cant beleive he is getting so little attention on this board, he should be getting all the headlines,

Ben is 100% correct, and any sports marketer/promoter can back him up. If Krummenacker is white, he is a USA Today/Sports Illustrated feature story right now. (Not to mention 5 times the story on these boards that Tim Broe was in the winter.) If Webb is black, he is not in the same price range for a shoe deal. Saying "deal with it" is a luxury only us white guys can afford.

I agree with ben, it's the same in every sport. I dont know how many of you guys are basketball fans but in basketball, football, boxing and any other sport that is predominately black the media and the shoe companies do tend to reward mediocre white players (i.e Kieth Van HOrn) with undue respect. I think it has to do with the difficulty of marketing a predominatly black league to a white audience. Sorry if i got off topic but i did a paper on the same subject in basketball for school and my results were the same as my thesis( maybe biased). Sorry i got off topic WEbb is a great runner but Krumm would be getting a lot more love if he was white. WHy is it that whenever people mention race as a factor that they're called racists or asked to " get off the subject". RAce is a factor in our society people ignoring it wont help racism go away.

THERE IS a reason that Webb is commanding large amounts of money. A shoe company wants to sign a runner not because he is fast but because he can help them sell shoes. they aren't in it to help athletes.

That being said, if Webb signs a contract with Nike and they come out with the Alan Webb spikes how much do you think they'd sell? you are fooling yourself if you dont think that every high school runner in the country (and some foolish college runners) wouldn't run out and buy them asap.

Now, it's ironic that as i write this i am watching a Marion Jones American Express commercial on TV.

Krum is the man and i stayed up till 1 am to watch his race last night.

i for one am not racist and i don't think the shoe companies are. if he ran 3:53 in HS he'd be getting much love.

Conceding that Krummenacker right now would beat Webb in a race and conceding that all else equal a white athlete will receive more notoriety and payback for achievements, I think that there still is a very real difference in what Webb did than what Krummenacker has done.

Webb broke a long standing record (3:55 for the mile) by a legendary runner, Jim Ryun, who became the world record holder. So, Webb's mark topped anything done in high school and suggests that a new "king" of the mile might emerge from America. Krummenacker, who may have already run times that Webb will never reach, did not break any record. When Joaquin Cruz was of record setting level, he drew tremendous attention. If Krummenacker does the same, he'll create the same sort of stir.

Or, let's put it another way. If Webb had run 3:53 last year in high school and then Krummenacker was in high school and ran 3:52, I suggest that he would have the same sort of notoriety and marketability as Webb currently enjoys.

My remarks were aimed to the post "agree to the 1st." not to d1 post, which expresses much the same opinion as I expressed.

I agree to some extent with ben that Krumm suffers relative to an athlete like Webb because of his race (and by the way, ben, let's give the man the respect of spelling his name right, with two "m"s). HOWEVER, as fast as he is right now, DK has not yet either set an AR or won a major championship. Webb set an AR, which granted was a *qualified* AR of being High School, but it was THE most venerated HS record on the books, more so than either of the AR's that DK can/will break. He absolutely shattered the "unbreakable" Jim Ryun legendary mark. People were talking about it at work who knew nothing about track at all. And given the market that HS runners represent, Webb's one record is worth far more to the shoe companies than 3:31/1:43, both of which were second place in European meets. That is the full reality. DK is excellent, but he hasn't yet penetrated the general shoe market consciousness quite yet.

Just when I think I have read/heard it all...

Ben (and those who agree) this MUST be a joke. Do some research. More black athletes grace the cover of Sports Illustrated than all other races COMBINED. I am not a Webb fan at all and feel that 353 is the fastest he will ever run, but give him some credit. He broke a 35 year old record which was considered the best HS record on the track. The persons record he broke was a WR holder and the greatest US middle distance runner to ever live.

In terms of Broe's media attention. He won eveything. US8k champs, XC short course, US indoor 3k. He broke the 3k US record... What has DK done? Nothing really. US #5 in the 1500, wow. LEt me hold my applause. Don't get me wrong, Im a DK fan and I think what he is doing is seperating himself from the rest of the US, which is great. But he is getting the attention he thus fat deserves. The fact that he is black has NOTHING to do with it. What do you want anyway? Should he meet the president? Should this week be National DK week? The guys running well, thats it. BK was white and ran to US records at 3k, 2 miles and 5k. Ranked as high as 5th in the world. How much media attention did he get? Did he get the SI cover? Of course not. He didn't do anything special.

How much attention did Ritz get? Almost none, why? Because despite the fact that he is probably the greastest USHS distance runner ever, he never broke any records. And hes a short skinny white kid just like webb.

The people like you who pick out things like this and try to exploit things that do not exist are the problem with society. You are the racist here and it is obvious to anyone with 1/2 brain. Stop looking for things in the media to make whites look bad when they have not done anything wrong at all. You should be banned from the board for your racist comments. And I bet if DK knew someone posted this, he too, would be outraged.

I don't know how anybody can be as ignorant as Ben, but obviously, Ben is. Calling shoe companies, and other promoters of athletics racist is absolutely ridiculous. Have you ever seen Sports Illustrated before, or any Nike commercials. How many white track athletes do you see getting commercials? Not many, but you do see Marion Jones and Michael Johnson. However, they aren't on there because they are black, they are being advertised because tey are fast, or have done something spectacular. Maybe you recognize that Krummenacker isn't going to be filming commercials while he's in Europe, and he won't grace the cover of Sports Illustrated until he picks up a baseball bat and starts playing for the Yankees. Ben, here's some advice for you. Don't try to create gratuitous controversy, because all it does is make you look like an a$$hole.

Ben, it is you that is the racist. Black athletes get more endorsement deals than anybody. Tiger Woods gets more attention than he probably would otherwise BECAUSE he is black. Well, he's half black anyway. Get a clue Ben.

Ben, let's be honest...

Your post was one of the stupidest things I've ever read...ever...and I check the board daily.

Krummenacker is running really fast right now. But is he 17-18 years old? No. He's mid-late 20's. Webb was 18. It's the potential factor..."lots of time to improve."

Each and every other major sport in the US (besides hockey) is dominated by black Americans, and the media attention follows that to scale.

Don't be another stupid American.

FIrst of all, yes there are more black athletes on sports illustrated and in nike commercials and no we're not saying that the shoe companies are racist. WHat i am saying is that it's been pretty obvious in the black community that almost every sport is looking for it's " great white hope". It's just good business because as much as we'd like to think it doesnt race does play a factor. Now while it may seem and probably is that the media is paying that attention to black athletes what i'm talking about is the fact that mediocre white athletes would get the same type of press and noteriety as a black superstar ( i.e Kieth Van Horn, Tom Gogliata). THat being said I dont think it's valid here because Webb and Krumm are in completely different catagories so i do agree with the majority of the board on that. Also in reaction to the " A.MAN"'s thoughts that tiger woods was getting his coverage because he was black, 1 tiger woods is not black, he's mixed ( with alot of things) 2 TIger is apolitical ( " not really associated with the black community" which allows him to be marketed as though he was a white athlete would be) 3 TIger is the GREATEST GOLFER EVER and is dominating a sport that is questionably at it's peak that's why he has the coverage. I know i said alot but that's how i feel.

holla :)

Holla I shall...

Van Horn? Since when does he get media attention? Did he ever get any before this year when the Nets got good? Of course not. Tom Gugliota? Christ I not even going to get started on whats wrong with that. The truth is this...

There are racist people in this world against all races and religions. These people work for the media and mags as well as live next door to us or ARE us. Is there racism in sports? Yup. But its the athletes who are racist. Not the reporters or editors.

As far as the "Great white hope" is concerned, its about as probable as the people on this board writing intelligent, well thought posts. There are plenty of great white athletes in every sport, same goes for black. So just do yourself a favor and never ever post anything on this board again, ever. Why don't you point out REAL cases of racism like the ones in the news right now and get off the good guys' back.

Hmmmmmmmm........

Seems to have improved rather quickly.

Sure right!

Puh-leeeease. Van Horn/Gugliota getting the same type of hype as a black superstar? You hardly ever see them. The black superstars may make more 'noise' dunking and yelling and such, but the players that VH/Gugs are compared to have similar stats. The attention they do get is solely for being "hard-working, team-players" who don't look to drive to the basket everytime they touch the ball...believe it or not, those are still valuable qualities in pro sports. They don't get close to the 'amount of hype' that black superstars get...(nor should they really).

Tiger was in no way marketed as if he was white. Remember the Nike commercials with just black kids in the 'hood picking up golf and saying "I am Tiger Woods?" Right.