This is the real answer to put the USA back on map in the running world. Also look around we are not alone in our search for answers.
Here's a question I would love for anyone to answer, if Cerutty & Lydiard had such strong a influence why is it that I can't recall any runners coming from either one of their home countries in the recent past? Rob de Castella & Steve Monaghetti are the only runners of any note that come to my mind from the country of Australia. What happened to all of the greats that came out of that country for so many years? How about New Zealand, Dixon , Walker, Quax of most recent times & that was quite a while back? What happened? Oh ya, what happened to the Finnish domination on the worlds distance running tracks, you know..Viren & others from that once dominate northen country? What happened to the English milers & distance runners of just 15-20 years ago, names like Hill, Coe, Ovett, Cram, Foster, Bedford, Morecroft? What happened to the country of Norway with it's women? It's not so easy is it to just blow this question off is it? So when we try to blame someone or something for the demise of the U.S.A. runner we must also look at the rest of the world and try to look at the much bigger picture. What are the solutions to the down fall of the past world champion countries? These are the questions that we should be asking ourselves!
Hmmm... I don't get it? Kenya turns out GREAT runners like BUD makes beer. One after another. I guess there is a better program? Which one would that be? Maybe we feel that because the Kenyan's have a high drop out rate that their program is too hard core, they push too hard? The Kenyan runners master their international competition with a thoroughness that makes the New York Yankees look like they are playing in parity! Maybe you don't agree with the unceremonious weeding out & elimination of "bad" runners but it seems to work. That's the key, & the answer to all of the problems.
In the book Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way, Toby Tanser writes about how he witnessed a race of more than 25 competitors & less than 10 finishers. Here in the USA that would qualify as a disgrace. In Kenya he goes on to explain that your not a loser if you don't finish the race, the runner walks off without shame!! Intense competition, breeds very strong bodies & maybe more importantly the strongest of minds. The strongest survive to break records & win medals all around the world, as they should. Don't you agree?
Again maybe we should go back to the idea that there are no guarantees of success in this world? We need to start instilling in our young people that it is right & cool thing to go out & bust ass, try as hard as you can, no matter the outcome. I think that you must agree with my solution to this assumption that self esteem is not solely tied to one's win/loss record? Not everyone is a winner. Not everytime will one win. There will come a day when the winner will fall to another, so on & so on. Oh, I can hear you now saying that the Kenyan runners do not last long on the international circuit. These young men train very hard, win or lose & want to retire to their home country & farm or what ever may suit them.
What we have to do is get over this fantasy that runners should train in hopes that some day they will become champions when they become "older"! What a great way to stunt any type of competitive fire that may be there in the first place. Now , I am not saying that we should make heros & champions out of little kids but I do believe we need to start only awarding the very best at every race & stop with this non-sense of awarding every runner in the field a prize. Not everyone is going to be the winner. Last time I looked the winner was a singular person that crosses first.
Train hard in high-school & college if you want, pay your dues, take your licks, collect your wins & your loses, move up or face reality that everyone will not become the gold medalist!! That's OK, there will always be more losers than winners, that's the reason that Olympic gold medalist are celebrated like they are, they are what we are not...truly WINNERS!
How much high tech shit do we need in front of our young people & they still lose to the least high tech nations? Most of these Kenyan runners that hit the top are in their 20's, if I were to take a stab at their median age I would have to say that age would be 25, or 26 years old. Mean while we (USA) want to make hero's out of antique athletes such as Rodgers, Shorter, Scott, & any other runners past the age of 35. Why should we try to keep digging up the past heros to put in front of the American people? The High School programs have for the most part failed our young runners. Why are we afraid to have our young men & women train at the edge that is required to produce the type of competitive athlete that once received the accolades of the nation. I guess that Jim Ryun should have waited to run fast? 3:51.1 that speaks for itself.
Do we really want a team of guys that are more worried about their new babies, their new wives, all of their aches & pains, oh ya their 7-6 high tech, high stress careers,.... than bettering their fellow team-mates, or their previous best times, or better yet setting WR's & hammering the freakin' Kenyans' at what is their playground.
Olympic U.S. swimming has a training philosophy that if your good you keep going a few more months or a few more years to the next Games. That's it period. The reason that we don't have any champions at the world class level in running is that the young athletes are not at the same level that they once were in the past coming out of high school & college. We are not prepared for a few years to put off the career & family, train hard & just plain go for it. Just do it, as Nike says! Then get out if their not one of the best, period! Hard training is what brings this about.
Mr Jozast