SO WHAT: Christophe Lemaitre became the first white man to break 10.00

I was shocked to ONLY see the video when I attempted to log on to Letsrun. What do Bernard Lagat, Tyson Gay, and Chaunte Howard have to do to get such coverage as the medicore Christophe Lemaitre?

stop hatin' man. you know this guy is like jeremy wariner, rocky, eminem, nick symmonds, andrew wheating and larry bird all rolled into one, so just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Why start your rant by using a known doper?

VIPAM wrote:

I was shocked to ONLY see the video when I attempted to log on to Letsrun. What do Bernard Lagat, Tyson Gay, and Chaunte Howard have to do to get such coverage as the medicore Christophe Lemaitre?

you know the answer they are not white, so they dont get their proper attention, racism is wrong and it is in a lot of things.

example

at one time foreigners like rod dixon, rob de castella, geoff smith (great white runners) etc. were tearing it up on the roads winning lots of wins, but no talk of american only prize money, then the kenyans (great black runners) started winning most of the races, and not only was their a call for american only money, but a whole road race circuit created to exclude kenyans (exclusion of people based on skin color is wrong and racist), yeah we should have american only races to pick our teams for international competition, but do we really need a 15k AND a 10 mile? AND a 20k AND a half marathon AND a 25k? an 8k, a 10k, AND a 12k USA CHAMPIONSHIP.

Who cares I don't. I think he's as dirty as the one who ran the incredible 9.58.

dude...no way....none of those guys is dirty. neither is solinsky or ritz or tegenkamp!

The reason I like VIPAM and douglas burke because most of the time their posts are interesting and thought provoking but they always tell it like it T.I.S!

You're a real sad case douglas. I'm sorry.

How is having US only prize money being discriminatory in terms of skin colour? Are there no black Americans?

Anomalies are interesting and it's a totally harmless discussion. Nothing is more irritating than the people who think they're so "not racist" that they have to scold everyone else for noticing race.

You're only fooling yourself. 9.98 is very good, even by elite standards. You can say being white should have nothing to do with it, but 9.98 is by NO MEANS mediocre. Not to mention the fact that he is only 20 years old and set a French record. He's the fastest sprinter ever at that age. You can't just say who cares. You should know it is a VERY good performance by any standards. He would've beaten Jeff Demps pretty soundly. 3 hundredths of a second is a margin, and don't forget that Jeff was in the Olympic Trials, racing against the best in the USA. He was not just mediocre either, and besides, Lemaitre is only a couple years older than he was.

anyway congratulations to the frenchman for breaking the mental barrier.

not long ago people did not think there would ever be a white heavyweight champion, now the heavyweight division is dominated by a bunch of white guys named vladimer, vital, alexander and other russian names, apparently the russian when they were allowed to fight professionally did not have the mental barrier of thinking white people cant be heavyweight boxing champs.

at one time people thought blacks could not run long distance.

they thought golf would not have a black man as the golfer.

who would have thought a team of our nba all stars would lose in basketball to new zealand and get dominated by italy, spain, germany etc at world championships?even the one held in indiana in 2002 i think.

they used to think we would never have a black president.

people are never going to achieve anything, if they dont believe they can.

so in that regard it is significant the white frenchmen broke 10 for 100 meters, but you also need the training, the lifestyle and genetics that will accumalate in sub 10.

Relax, I promise you this the last and only time this will ever happen. The other things will happen again.

I will admit that Christophe's 9.98 is a nice accomplishment but wanted to point out that it didn't deserve such exclusive coverage- when more notable first have been achieved by others and never got such solo front page coverage. Congrats to the young man!!!! I will like to say to place the video where its the first thing you see upon attempting to navigate to Letsrun and THE ONLY way to the front page and solely because he is white is definitely bit much.

tubeman wrote:

Relax, I promise you this the last and only time this will ever happen. The other things will happen again.

So your saying another American will be the FIRS MAN EVER and ONLY to win 1500m and 5000m World Gold or the FIRST American women to surpass 2.05 in the high jump? Really?

VIPAM wrote:

I will admit that Christophe's 9.98 is a nice accomplishment but wanted to point out that it didn't deserve such exclusive coverage- when more notable first have been achieved by others and never got such solo front page coverage. Congrats to the young man!!!! I will like to say to place the video where its the first thing you see upon attempting to navigate to Letsrun and THE ONLY way to the front page and solely because he is white is definitely bit much.

Why be so insecure?

If a black man managed to win the the Tour de France, you'd be singing from the rooftops.

It's only natural.

A black man winning the tour de france wouldn't garner such a response on cycling website solely because he's black. Are you seriously comparing anyone winning the tour de france to running 9.98? This year five men have run 9.98 or much faster and in 2009 (11) men ran faster than Christophe and your comparing it to IF a black man winning the most presigous and hardest cycling event- LOL!

Its simply a white man running 9.98 nothing earth-shattering. He's still light years away from 9.58 or even the world lead of 9.82.

We'll see what the white guy does against Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell or Walter Dix. Heck put him up against the B string Jamicans and he'll get OWNED like a freckle faced school girl, with wire braces, and black thick glasses with tape holding them together!

The argument about American only race money is flawed. Fist of all, those white foreigners you named are not all from the same country, where as Kenyans and Ethiopians are (well duh) all from the same corner of Africa. And, wouldn't you agree that American only race money is good for American running on the whole and helps supports the Americans who can not live off of 1,000 dollars a year like there Kenyan counterparts?

VIPAM wrote:

I will admit that Christophe's 9.98 is a nice accomplishment but wanted to point out that it didn't deserve such exclusive coverage- when more notable first have been achieved by others and never got such solo front page coverage. Congrats to the young man!!!! I will like to say to place the video where its the first thing you see upon attempting to navigate to Letsrun and THE ONLY way to the front page and solely because he is white is definitely bit much.

Don't tell me you didn't notice that sprinting was dominated by black guys for, well, forever. Of course it shouldn't be about race, but that doesn't mean people can't notice. It's a historical moment for some people, and if you see it plastered all over the place, well that just means the people making the front page and all these threads are the ones who noticed, and cared. There's nothing wrong with either noticing or caring. White people have wanted to prove for a long time that they can overcome the genetic, cultural, and socioeconomic gap that seems to have left people not of African origin with the short end of the stick, athletically. When that gap is diminished by the passing of certain meaningful barriers between the two "races", people are going to care. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a black man. If there were a white man of African origin, he would have been the same as all other Africans.

Besides, the guy is French. When is the last time the French have been good at anything?