I personally found Burfoot's comment to be rather petulant. Embellishing an affected humility into his argument--Hall, the great talent, to whom he's so resolutely turned his back, revoked his confidence--is only a bland rhetorical technique; it doesn't make the position any less outrageous. Hall is considerably new to the marathon and, despite colossal success beginning his career, he underperformed at the Olympic Games. His confidence and enthusiasm are admirable, even if a bit premature from a developmental perspective, yet his short resume at the distance has given him odds that don't make the prospect of winning Boston too unrealistic. And though Burfoot would obviously have been in deep do-do facing today's crowd, he was not, with all due respects, a 2:06 guy, nor was he ever able to drop a giant negative split to hit 2:09. Also, has he forgotten the Italian who won gold by 34 seconds in the '04 Games? Something tells me that, glancing from left to right, from Kenya to Ethiopia, Baldini did not shake and wilt. Nay, he won! Being realistic is acknowledging a competitor's chances based upon past performances. It is not realistic, nor is it practical in our sport's current fortune, to continue perpetuating some desperate and crippling myth, chanting some fearful incantation about the rift valley every time a qualified non-kenyan/ethiopian toes the line.
One critiques not only to hurt a person, to conquer him or his will, but also, perhaps, to become aware of one's own strength. Such is often the most faithful indication of decay.
For the experienced, an attitude of conscientiousness toward the relatively inexperienced, the brash, is good only insofar as it prevents them from harvesting sour fruit. Yet, oftentimes, out of loneliness, the experienced tends to manipulate his effect until the fruit falls to nothing--this is to qualify his bitterness with that of another. Too often, wisdom becomes an ethos seeking to ensure mediocrity, not excellence; a sharing of weakness, not the noble comedy of weakness resigning into to strength. Our athletes seem to have changed something in their attitudes that has been missing for the past 15 years--hopefully the spectators consent to join them next.