Track and field — going nowhere fast in the United States

I think its because theres a faulty johnson aperature on the digital microcosm idlebrox apex caused by solar radiation in the ionosphere and that caused an inverted distilled ghost image to be burned into the digitized transmission during uploading.

The sport needs a team element. The shoe companies could sponsor a sprint/distance meet with individual events and relays--similar to what Penn does but on a different scale. The sprint meet could be USA vs. Jamaica/islands and West Africa. The distance meet could be USA vs. Europe and East Africa. Something that brings a national flavor to the event.

Competitors have to wear their national jerseys, not Puma, Nike, Adidas. See, I like to cheer for a team, not a shoe company.

Have the meet tour the US, with stops (just suggestions) in Eugene, Sacramento, Houston, Atlanta, Indy, Philly/NYC. The "show" could have interchangeable teams if it were taken abroad to appeal to local interest.

Just my 2 cents.

yeah, salazar is pretty much a moron.

Going nowhere yet it has never been better.

US Track and Field isn't going nowhere. US sprinters are still supreme, save a few Jamaicans. Distance running has improved significantly. The problem is that the E. Africans keep outdoing themselves, leaving US distance runners struggling to set ARs in order to finish 5-6 in a Diamond League distance event.

This gets brought up on letsrun every couple of months, and the answer is, no, they tried that, it was called the AAU.

Athletes and coaches know better when to race than some organization that wants to please fans. Especially when that organization wants to play Let's Make Galen Rupp Cough Up Blood Because It's In His Contract And People Paid To Watch Him.

Not to mention that organization would presumably be USATF. Maybe you're new here, but historically, they don't make very wise choices.

"Never been better?"

Please explain..

USA track is fine, other areas of the world have gotten better. For example if you had a dual meet, all Olympic events men and women against any other country or continent ie Europe, US would win.

bo diddley wrote:

Athletes and coaches know better when to race than some organization that wants to please fans. Especially when that organization wants to play Let's Make Galen Rupp Cough Up Blood Because It's In His Contract And People Paid To Watch Him.

Who's the pro athlete? Oh yea, Rupp. Who ultimately pays the pro athlete? Fans.

Why should Rupp be expected to live up to a contract that spells out expectations? Not like anybody else in "real life" has to deal with such inconveniences. Right?

Never seen any other pro athlete show up sick, or injured, or suffering allergies, and gut it out. Right?

If Rupp actually did cough up a little blood it might actually demonstrate some level of toughness and commitment.

At this point Rupp is little more than a sideshow.

Congratulations to some blogger I never heard of making the front page of a niche sport forum by bashing the sport he is writing about. We all know you won't make headlines by saying NICE things about any subject. Sad that all the sheep fall for that kind of sensationalism.

Maybe he should be writing about how DWade is now twice the player Lebron is because he scored more points than him the last 3 games.

mr cool Satch man of wisdom wrote:

USA track is fine, other areas of the world have gotten better. For example if you had a dual meet, all Olympic events men and women against any other country or continent ie Europe, US would win.

Agreed.

It's the distance/Rupp thing that has become a terminal embarrassment. Sad to see Solinsky get sucked into the Salazar sideshow. If Sol had med issues why even show up?

It's not like Rupp could have run sub 27, let alone some unbeatable time.

I thought it was a great article, many of the points have been discussed before.

What would it take to put a track down in a big football stadium? If they can put in a regulation pool, would a track be harder? Probably not wise to start in Cowboy stadium, but perhaps one a bit smaller.

The pro leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) coordinate their schedules between them, that is why you never see conflicts. As a matter of fact, the NFL and MLB have offices across the street from each other on Park Ave., in Manhattan. It shouldn't be too difficult for the NCAA, USATF and IAAF to do some scheduling convergence.

It has been said many times, get the USATF office out of a second rate city! It belongs in NYC, marketing capital of the U.S.! (Sorry L.A., you're definitely better in other things).

Although the USOC is a dysfunctional organization too, they seem to have started to get their house in order. How much pressure can they impose on USATF, other than withholding money?

I couldn't agree more about the need for teams in track and field. This idea is already out there, with Nike now having different uniforms for the different Oregon training groups, but it's not even close to enough. I'm talking full fledged track teams, field events through the 10k, and scored meets. A season that lasts for a few months, and cities that the teams represent.

The sport is dead because it makes no attempt to connect with spectators. No athletes represent their hometown, meets aren't run quickly and broadcast accessibly, athletes have nothing in mind aside from running fast in a few key races, fans never come into the thinking of this sport and it's athletes. It's a shame just how selfish it's become.

When Rupp DNSd and then Solinsky dropped out, I just couldn't believe it. I'd been jacked about that 10k all day, some friends came over and we put it on the big screen and cracked some beers. Then suddenly our "team" is not in the race. It's as if on Sunday afternoon in the fall a Bears fan sat down to watch his team play only to be told the coaches decided they can't risk their big game next month so they're sitting this one out and the other team is going to scrimmage itself. It's pathetic. Now I realize I'm demanding a lot of these guys by saying they should suck it up and race anyway, but if we can't demand a lot from the professional athletes of track and field then that's exactly why in the eyes of America this sport sucks. Actually, scratch that, in the eyes of America, this isn't even a sport.

If every race were a part of achieving something in this sport, and the accomplishments of the athletes were more than just them climbing the world leaderboard and gearing up for one race overseas, people might watch. If time after time the best around showed up to run, jump, and throw as well as they had to to beat the other guy, to score one for the team, and to excite the fans with a gutsy performance, maybe someone would tune in.

About 950,000 school kids of school age in the US participate in track and field.

There are 17 million kids of school age in Kenya and 40 million in Ethiopia.

I suspect a lot more than 1 million run.

We're always going to be behind.

EZ10Miler wrote:

"Never been better?"

Please explain..

For the men, in the past couple years American Records have been set in the 100, 5000, 10000 and marathon*(*fastest time but a record).

4 runners ran 3:32 or better last year in the 1500.

4 runners have gone under 13:00 in the 5000 in the last couple years.

Good young talent in the 800.

US is still dominant in the 400 and 400 hurdles and has the top 110 hurdler.

And Tyson Gay is pretty good in the sprints.

As recently as the 2007 World Championships the US won Gold in the 100, 200, 400, 1500, 5000, 400 IH and 4X400.

Last year the #2 performer in the world at 10,000m was American.

I think you're missing the point.

Much like the tree falling in the forest, if an American runs a 3:42 mile, and no one is around to see it, does it make a world record?

The stands are empty, that's all that matters.

Have runners compete naked. Men and women. Then everything will change.

Nice facts there, Toro. It's good to see someone post here who has the facts, and not just immature emotion to spew. I agree that Track and Field in the US has never been better, and we have Nike to thank for a lot of it. For those who think "teams" are the answer...Nike has a couple teams, but where are all the others who need to step up to the plate. Let's face it, Nike is generous to this sport because of the closeness to their origin. To the rest of them track and field is little more than a nuisance as they go after the dollars from football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, etc. And regarding Rupp...athletes have spoiled their careers by doing stupid things like running just to pacify others. Rupp has accomplished some amazing things and he is still a young guy with lots of records in front of him so long as he continues to take care of himself and not be pushed into things by selfish fools like those who post the negative crap here.

mr cool Satch man of wisdom wrote:

USA track is fine, other areas of the world have gotten better. For example if you had a dual meet, all Olympic events men and women against any other country or continent ie Europe, US would win.

Would win against any country, but it wouldn't be close against the whole of Europe.

Europe would dominate the women's and probably quite comfortably edge the men's too.

Not saying this is bad, as the US are quite clearly the strongest overall nation on the planet, but I wouldn't take it that far.