I was at a meet in California today and this small Asian girl ran one of the best races of the day!

scarecrow watcher wrote:

I was at a meet in California today. Many of the early season races in California are arranged by grade level. I was very surprised and impressed to see a small Asian girl running with poise leading the way in the freshman race and which was one of the fastest times of the whole day. Later I found out she ran one of the fastest times ever on the course by a freshman, and this region of California has produced some very good female runners in the last decade (including state champions).

Is this the Asian American running revolution as we know it? Asians have always been underrepresented in cross country (an especially white sport), but we may be seeing some very good Asian runners arise in the near future (not that we haven't already, but in more frequency)!

I really don't think this conclusion can be drawn from seeing one race from one girl...

As an Asian-American myself, I can safely say that in Illinois, seeing an All-State Asian in Cross-Country or Distance Track event was horrendously rare.

Also, I don't think Cross Country can be considered "an especially white sport". Certainly, more whites participate in it than any other ethnicity, but those same whites are dominated by East Africans year after year

i was at the meet you were talking about and i gotta admit i was really surprised to see that race come out of the hill section with a small asian girl leading the way. is this the first time that an asian has won a race at this invitational (not being racist just pointing out how rare it is)?

running that fast as a freshman shows serious potential too. she ran faster than 2 other girls in the section did as freshmen, and both those girls are now state/nationally ranked runners.

scarecrow watcher wrote:

I was at a meet in California today. Many of the early season races in California are arranged by grade level. I was very surprised and impressed to see a small Asian girl running with poise leading the way in the freshman race and which was one of the fastest times of the whole day. Later I found out she ran one of the fastest times ever on the course by a freshman, and this region of California has produced some very good female runners in the last decade (including state champions).

Is this the Asian American running revolution as we know it? Asians have always been underrepresented in cross country (an especially white sport), but we may be seeing some very good Asian runners arise in the near future (not that we haven't already, but in more frequency)!

Here is what he is talking about:

Like the other poster said, her time is especially impressive when put in context with what some of the other stars of the area have run as freshmen. Of course, it doesn't mean at all that she will have the same success, but it shows a lot of promise.

As for cross country being a predominantly white sport, in the United States it definitely is (in the NCAA scene, most of the black runners are Africans) though we are seeing more Hispanic runners.

Then again with Asians you can never tell! For all you know the reason she runs fast as a freshman is because her parents force her to run (something that is more likely with Asian parents always pushing their kids too hard) and she's headed down a painful road of burn out.

an asian boy from the same school won the freshman race last year, but her time is a lot more impressive and much better relatively. it's probably one of the fastest times ever on the course by an asian runner.

I live in California- you get a fair amount of Asians participating in XC and track, just not at an elite level. From my experience (I'm Asian), my parents actually discouraged me to run XC and track because "running too much is bad for you." They wanted me to study and not participate in sports, and they didn't go to my meets.

I think it's good to see an Asian girl running fast, and I hope that her parents support her and that we'll see more Asians running at a high level.

More impressive is that she was small. Will midgets and other small people now start to dominate the sport? Time will tell.

Running is bad for asians. It gets you in shape and helps you look good and is good for you, something asians shouldn't have.

You should listen to your parents, they know whats best for you, always.

i don't mind them asians running as long as they don't talk so damn loud in the library!

While some runners who were good as freshmen don't always pan out, history is on her side here. Of all the previous winners of the freshman race in the last few years, every one of them has gone on to improve and do very well. Some of these runners include Nikki Hiltz (who by far had the most impressive performance of the day, though this freshman is probably the second most impressive) and Allison Sturges, both nationally ranked last track season.

There have also been some good half-Asian runners. Amber and Shannon Murakami (both now at UCLA, formerly the famous Saugus HS) are a good example.

Asian boys are kinda ugly though :(

Victoria Chang won FLXC about ten years ago, then vanished in college.

I was just going to post this, on the high school level at least, she is probably the most successful Asian runner. If I recall correctly she was Hawaiian and went to run at Stanford, but didn't like it there/had injury problems so transferred back to University of Hawaii (and didn't do much there unfortunately). Luckily, as we've seen recently, a lot of good HS runners are continuing to do well in college (much of this probably due to good coaching).

The girl in second has been training like a competitive high school runner since the 5th grade. She was not too far behind but it makes you wonder how good she is or has just trained more.

Very interesting. This is not a fast course so for a young woman, anything under 20 minutes is pretty good and under 20 minutes as a freshman is really good (the two that were mentioned earlier, Nikki Hiltz and Allison Sturges, were both around 20 minutes as freshmen).

However, if this was run off of training competitively for 4 years vs. not much training, that does change things. It was impressive that there were 2 freshmen under 19:30 this year, the only other time it has happened was with Rachel Hinds of St. Ignatius and Jessie Petersen of Carlmont, both who went on to improve and made an impact not only on the statewide scene but the national scene as well.

2001 CA State 3200m

1 Yong-Sung Leal 10 Arroyo /nc NC 9:00.49

2 Tim Nelson 10 Liberty Chrst/no NO 9:06.98

2011 CA State 1600

15 Karl Baranov 12 Marina/ss 4:13.88

2010 Div 3 CA State XC

9 Cody Nguyen JR Brea Olinda 1444 SS 15:35

2006 Div 2 CIF SS Finals XC

1 Morikawa, Kent 12 M Torrance 15:16 5:05

2011 Div 1 CIF SS Prelims 3200

9 Leung, Allen 12 M Arcadia 9:20.09

As you can see, Asians are a strong force in California distance running. :)

Asians ftw.

3 or 4 of Arcadia's studs (boys) in 2010 were Asian.

There were the Kim sisters, from OC (Claire and Stacy), in the early '00s, who both ran ~ 17:30 for 3 miles.

I don't think there's any genetic disadvantage to being an asian runner - the talent levels of the asian kids I've coached are pretty much the same distribution as white or hispanic kids.

Maybe it's odd to you, if you live in an area without many asians, but come to any SoCal meet, and you'll see plenty.

The stereotype is that they run for the first two years of HS, to get the sport on their college resume (to look well-rounded and not totally focused on books), then quit in favor of academics their final two years.