USATF NAMES P DIDDY ATHLETE OF THE WEEK - WHAT A JOKE!

I understand your points, but still in many moral ways it was a great gesture by USATF.

Who's next week's USATF Athlete of the Week, SALLY STRUTHERS?

SALLY STRUTHERS:

"For just pennies a day you could put a smile on this child."

CROW:

"After paying his rent, that's all Eric Peterson has for food."

SALLY STRUTHERS:

"Right now there are millions of starving children all over the world. Won't you help?"

TOM SERVO:

"If you'd just push away from the table, you fat pig, you could feed them all"

I agree naming him athlete of the week is bullshit. He ran 4:14 not 2:14. Whats next naming stephen Hawking athlete of the week because he completed it in a motorized wheelchair. USATF is just using this to get attention. They should of chose someone who actually deserved it. MTV covering P Diddy's training totally ruined any attempt by P-Diddy to convince us that he is a real runner. Fuck this shit!!!!

Boys and girls, to put this effort into perspective try going down to your local track and running a lap at P Diddy's pace of about 2:25 per lap!

WOW, that's moving!!

USATF athlete of the week is for elite athletes only geniuses, a celebrity ran a marathon off 8 weeks of training and raised $2 million for education. Let's see, give it to the same old semi-mediocre elite performer, or give it to someone who accomplished something meaningful, not to say that Matt Downin, or any other runner that qualifies for the oly trials is shit, but 140+ men qualify for the oly trials a year, how many celebrities do you see going out on a whim and running a marathon while raising while alone raising $2 million for charity, first time I've ever seen it happen, I don't mind them taking one out of the 52 weeks a year to recognize it...stop you're bitching!

correction, USATF athlete of the week is NOT for elite athletes only geniuses. And in closing I would like to emphasize the fact that I'm too am a genius

A 4:14 marathon is hardly an athletic endeavor. Surely they could have given the award to the 5000+ or so runners in front of him. Why give out an athletic award if it does not go to an athlete? Why not just give all 52 awards to celebrities doing charitable functions of one sort or another?

The Athlete of the Week choice should have been Sylvia Mosqueda. One can argue whether or not the weekly USATF Award goes to "elites" or not, but it has always been given for a conspicuous athletic accomplishment. Which a 4:14 marathon is not.

Since P Diddy began training for New York, friends of mine who could care less about running, asked me questions about training and marathons and seemed generally interested in the sport as a whole. Forget about the money he raised for various charities, P Diddy brought more attention to our sport than any of the so-called male elites at New York who couldn't even come within 400 meters of Paula Radcliffe's pr. On second thought, let's give it to Chad Johnson: 2:25 off 160 miles a week.

Why don't we give the award to one of your couch potato friends that are thinking about running a marathon? At least they are doing something real where Chad Johnson is not.

Why are we bringing Stephen Hawking into this, how very distasteful. Some of you are forgetting a few points here. This is athlete of the WEEK, he's not being nominated for athlete of the year or decade or anything that is actually significant. Think of how big of a deal it is to be named employee of the week, who cares?!? He's done quite a bit for the sport, and raising two million dollars brings much more energy than simply signing over a check without really bringing any publicity. One other point, consider how much PDiddy weighs. We all know how much of a factor weight is for runners, consider if he was 30-40 pounds lighter, and with the same aerobic capacity, he could very well have had a shot at dipping under 3:15.

For the idiotic poster trying to put into perspective how fast PDiddy ran, do you think running one low 70 second lap puts into perspective what it feels like to run the marathon world record?

Maybe if I invent a charity and then raise a lot of money for it ... or, wait I mean Nike and McDonalds and my other mega-corporate-sponsors back me and I get enough exposure on MTV that a lot of other folks give a little money each to my website "www.briansingslikediddy.com" ... then I make up a rap song that is exactly HALF as good as the best rappers .... maybe I would get a hip-hop music award?

Isn't that how it should work?

4:14 is HALF as FAST as 2:07. Celebrity mouthpiece for a charity OR NOT he still doesn't deserve that award.

And to those who say nobody else was good enough, that has no bearing. Skip presenting it if you have to. And to those who say, it is meaningless anyway, so why not? The reason it is meaningless it because they are awarding it to rap artists who jog.

I think all athlete should be drug tested before being named Athlete of the Week cause if you look at past athletes of the week....Regina, Christie, Sandra, Kelli, and many more...they are all suspected drug cheats....

And I am not believing that P Diddy was clean. I'll bet he was on EPO. I don't think he could run a 4:14 clean.

This has been said on other threads, but I agree with it:

I would have given the Athlete Of The Week to Joe McVeigh. He did everyone proud, especially all of us Lehigh Alums! Way to go, Joe!

Personally if the USATF was going to give it to a non-runner how about giving the award to the last place finisher who had cerebral palsy....It took them 29 hours to finish the race

I have a suggestion for USATF as to how they could right this P.Diddy wrong....

Next week they should name SPIKE as their Athlete Of The Week. That way they could put the cap on a stellar 2003 in terms of their decision making.

To Brian McEwen:Give it up you racist piece of shit. Must I make you go off of this thread too? You are a joke.

In USATF's own words: "Selections [for Athlete of the Week] are based on top performances and results from the previous week."

Anyone who would like to provide feedback on this week's selection might consider contact the USATF here:

Contact:

Melvin Jackson II

Communications Coordinator

USA Track & Field

(317) 261-0478 x322

Melvin.Jackson@usatf.org