Why is it that when American kids run 14:20 we freak out but when Kenyan Kids run 13 minutes we don't care?

because we live in america and we have birth certificates welcome

We are in America, so we care about America. If we were racing

Martians, then we'd just care about the fastest Earthlings regardless of nationality. Pretty simple concept.

When 19 year old Kenyans come to America and play in the NBA, we will start to care about them.

First of all, out of those "tons of Kenyan kids his age", how many will be able to beat him 6 years from now? Probably about 1/50. The factor that decides when a runner reaches his potential is his training age, ie how many years he has been training at a high level. Most of these Kenyans you are referring to have a training age 4-6 years older then the runners here in the U.S. Not to mention the fact that they have been developing their aerobic system for 99% of their year, while U.S. kids are racing at the age of 14 and doing 1/4 of their track season mileage in intervals. With the way American teens are training, we cannot compete with them in any distance event. But after college, that's a bit different.

Lukas ran 14:18 when he was, I believe, 15. How can you compare that to someone who is 18? Thats a world of difference, African or not.

I wouldn't putport that he is as good as Kipshoge- he certainly isn't. But don't sell him short- he ran a 14:18 in his first track 5k ever, alone, as a freshman in high school. Thats not exactly bad.

their age is an estimate that could be anywhere from 18 to 22

Cross Country wrote:

Meanwhile, we are touting about how amazing it is Verzbicas ran a 5km race in 14:18 indoors...

Freaking amazing considering he beat the 21/22 something East African who came here to become a pro and get an agent, before deciding to pursue a highscool diploma (and college scholarship) by becoming a kid again.

My take on it wrote:

We are in America, so we care about America.

And Australia, New Zealand, Britian, Canada, and whoever else has white English-speaking athletes.

Are you stupid?

Do you get excited when Canada wins curling in the winter olympics? Hell NO. Because you are American and support USA athletes.

Amen. The first thing that finally turned me away from paying attention to American people was that, everybody has heard about the 4 minute mile barrier etc but I had no clue that a guy ran under 8 minutes for 2 MILES! He's the only guy to ever do it (Daniel Komen from Kenya). Then I saw some sick races between him and Geb and started appreciating the East Africans a whole lot more. I agree, what they do is exciting and while I "may" watch the US championships it's the world level that is so much better.

If you go to runnersworld and if you used to go to dyestat it's all american stuff, but thankfully if you go to here or mzungo.org they focus on the good stuff. There are a few fans of american high school and prefontaine and all that but here is the place to talk about world class distance runners.

We do the best with what we have, like any other country. If anyone wants to live in despot poverty, and walk/run 10-20 miles daily from the time you're a youth, just to have fame for 3-4 years of your life, then go for it. All I know is that when I'm 40 and have a house and kids and a nice job, I'm not gonna give a shit about what kenyans are running.

The realist wrote:

My take on it wrote:

We are in America, so we care about America.

And Australia, New Zealand, Britian, Canada, and whoever else has white English-speaking athletes.

More so than when the same team wins year after year, but not as much as when the home team succeeds.

Ralphy wrote:

Are you stupid?

Do you get excited when Canada wins curling in the winter olympics? Hell NO. Because you are American and support USA athletes.

This is a good question and I don't think the answer is that simple. A lot of us claim to be fans of the sport not fans of American running. And in a sport like running, does nationality really matter? Do you identify more closely with Ryan Hall because he's American?

Maybe you don't get excited when you watch Canada wins a medal in curling but don't you get excited to watch Roy Halladay pitch?

Why are you so ignorant that their age is meaningless? I don't know a single kenyan that says the age of runners is even close to correct. I knew one that was from the same village as one of the top marathoners in the world, and he said even he is 4-6 years older than what he is represented by. The age of all east africans is a joke, THAT'S why we don't bother following their "youngsters".

nerp wrote:

Lukas ran 14:18 when he was, I believe, 15. How can you compare that to someone who is 18? Thats a world of difference, African or not.

I wouldn't putport that he is as good as Kipshoge- he certainly isn't. But don't sell him short- he ran a 14:18 in his first track 5k ever, alone, as a freshman in high school. Thats not exactly bad.

He was 16. And there have been 16yo Kenyans that broke 13 (well one at least). However, as someone has stated above, most people arent concerned because as far as we know that 16yo kenyan could be 16, could be 19, could be 21 for all anyone knows.

The point is already made that we are Americans. Another point is that we DID care about what Kipchoge did. I don't know what world you are living in. Yet another point is that Kenya and Ethiopia seem to treat their national meets like its an Al Qaeda cell meeting. We are getting to the point where we have lived a full generation with the world wide web. Can't anybody in that country at least set up a camera and stream their competition live so the world can watch it? What does that cost, $200? Maybe then Americans can be more familiar with up and coming East African runners.

Some professors get tenure at Harvard in their twenties. Doesn't mean you should take interest when a local boy is top of his class.

welcome2america wrote:

because we live in america and we have birth certificates welcome

So Amercian juniors are actually better than Kenyan? If they had accurate birth cert's American (and UK) runners would still be unable to compete with Kenyan juniors

First of all, you just cant compare Americans with East Africans. Do you understand that when there ages are in the SINGLE DIGITS SINGLE DIGITS some of them are doing 100 miles per week to school? Do you understand that thousands of kids are doing this and that Running is their national sport? They play almost no sports that don't involve running. All their games are running. They are genetically freaked people who have huge air capacities because they live at altitiude and when Kenyans run, THEY RUN. You have thousands, literally thousands, of kenyans that could break a sub-2:20 BECAUSE THEY SEE IT OUT LIKE IT IS THERE WHERE OUT OF POVERTY.

They run in training until they collaspe, even at young ages of 12 and 13 they run 3:20 marathons at altitiude in the hills. And thats not even the best, just some of the Kenyan Kids.

Do you seriously see American Kids running like that? Most play sports like soccer where, yeah, they can maybe run 8 minute miles for 3-4 miles if there in great shape for Soccer, but most dont run competitively until High School. The Kenyan and Ethopian kids already have a good 5-6 years on them anyway and even for people in Cross Country most of them dont even train as much as the Kenyan Kids. Numbers and time is what its all about. When you have that much running in Kenya, that much natural talent, your likely to get some insanely great Kenyan runners.

Lukas Verzbicas is an insanely talented runner. When we get a runner who runs 14:18 indoors when he's 15 you know that is talent. He only runs 60 mpw and swims and bikes alot of the time. Once(or hopefully) he switches from triing to professional running and actually starts pushing(we know he doesnt) then he will be there with the Africans. He might not be the best, and I highly highly doubt he'll be the next Gebrsalassie or Bekele, but no one wants to see another african win more titles.