American Marathoners in Beijing

Yep, really hurt Meb and Deena.

You can actually simulate heat and humidity fairly well in a number of ways: run on treadmill, overdress, etc.

Brian Sell will medal.

remember my name: adskljd

I said it.

I hope you are right. But Beijing is going to be completely different. Preperation certainly can't be the same. Canova made some excellent points on this issue last year. He was very critical of the Ethiopians thinking that they could throw a couple of additional layers of clothing on and consider themselves ready for Osaka type humidity. He was right. They performed horribly. Beijing will have much more in common with Osaka than it will with Athens.

I highly recommend that Hall, Ritz and Sell come to train in Bangkok for a month.

Jason

Nobody cares about your awful feeling. We don't care about Osaka and the Ethiopians. All things are good.

I only care to the point that I hope our american coaches learn from the Ethiopian mistakes. Their marathoners are faster than us and performed horribly in Osaka with conditions similar to Beijing.

adskljd wrote:

Brian Sell will medal.

remember my name: adskljd

I said it.

He just might. After all, there's a good change that the top international marathoners won't go. We already know that Geb won't because he's worried about his "asthma" (see: wants one more big fall payday.) What do Lel, Wanjiru and Cheruyiot have to gain from competing? Major endorsement deals? Please. Who's going to buy a box of Wheaties with Martin Lel's face on it?

A guy like Ryan Hall, however, who's still young, won't win a major anytime soon and can get a huge peripheral payoff from the American marketing machine, has incentive to compete. The other guys will have to miss their fall marathon, and a good $300,000-plus to do Beijing.

Maybe there's a chance that Wanjiru will do it. Since he's only 21 or 22 and Lel is the world's top marathoner right now, he may decide to do something to raise his profile (see: asking price) and still has many big paydays ahead of him. If not, the gold will probably go to some second-tier guy like Hall, Tolosa, Goumri or Gharib, who will continue to get his butt handed to him in the majors by the Kenyans who opted out.

I'd like to see the world's top marathoners compete for the sport's highest honour, but the reality of it is that these guys need to take advantage of every payday they can, because their earning potential after the age of 35, living where they do, is very limited.

Nobody cares about your pathetic analysis because it has nothing to do with strength of will. We don't care about your thoughts on paydays, but we will pay dearly for those who inspire us, and as a country unlike most, we always did.

Train low, sleep high.

this may well be the last Summer Games before the next BIG war

Agree that humidity will be a killer, so why arnt our top contenders training overseas in hot humid conditions to prepare them for a chance of a medal? Why pretend it is not an issue and face it now before its too late, and we hate to say 'Told you so....'. Coaches listen and act by getting our team out there to face these horrid conditions!

Hmm, it seems likely that everything anyone could mention here would have been handled (and then some) by Dr. Martin & Co. at the marathon summit in Colorado Springs earlier this month.

DaveW wrote:

Nobody cares about your pathetic analysis because it has nothing to do with strength of will. We don't care about your thoughts on paydays, but we will pay dearly for those who inspire us, and as a country unlike most, we always did.

So you speak for everybody? Relax; I'm just saying that these guys from impoverished countries need to make rational business decisions about their careers. The marathon is very rare in that the guys who do it professionally tend to rely on only 2 paydays per year, for top performance. When they retire, their skills aren't transferable to what little job market there is in their native country, so they need to save up to secure their financial future. Guys like Lel and Cheruyiot, who are already at the top and who only have about 5 years of top marathon running left in them, may opt out of the Olympics to maximize their earning potential. Ryan Hall, on the other hand, who isn't on the same level as those guys, may be able to raise his earning potential through endorsement deals, etc.

Everyone probably wants to compete in the Olympics, but for some, they have to consider the long-term pros and cons. I hope the Kenyans show up and give it their all, but the cost may be too high for them. We'll see.

Bull Shit. If the top Kenyans are there and run poorly it will be because they prepared poorly not because they are saving themselves for a payday.

I wasn't insinuating that they wouldn't. Tergat crapped out in '04 because he had a bad race, not because he was saving up for a payday. I was just saying that I hope to see the world's best marathoners at their best.