Can someone explain how Cam Levins was the darling prince of NCAA'a last year and now foreigners are killing the sport?

Do we ever get to hear these 'interesting stories' though?

Are we supposed to use ESP to channel the fascinating stories while they answer 'I very happy' to every question in their interview?

The Africans are expected to dominate. It's no surprise when a Kenyan you've never heard of comes out and runs low 13s, it's just another African doing what Africans do.

When a white Canadian kid does it of course your gonna take notice, especially with the added novelty of the crazy high mileage.

If it was a Norwegian/Irish/ guy then it would be the same thing. Same with Rupp in the Olympic 10k. It's not racist to want him to win. The anomaly of a competitive white guy in a distance race creates the illusion of an underdog and people have supported the underdog since forever.

The first white guy home at the weekend was Rooney, technically a foreigner. Yet there were many people singing his praises on here. Yeah it's about the colour of his skin, but not in a racist way. He gets some love from letsrun because of the oddity that is an Irishman mixing it with the Africans.

You can flip it completely look at sport dominated by white guys. If a black cyclist started competing for the Tour then everyone would jump on his bandwagon.

But of course there's always some full blown racists out there too.

Dennis Reynolds wrote:

HRE wrote:

When a guy like Levins comes along we can recognize his name easily because it stands out from the names of the Africans he's racing.

So you are admitting that you are too stupid/ignorant to know the top competitors in a sport?

Absolutely. Or at best I lost interest in doing it ages ago.

Most of us don't have all that much in the line of interesting stories going for us, at least not ones that anyone hears. That's why a guy like Levins stands out and becomes as the OP says, a darling.

Find us an African who was on the high side of 14:00/29:00 when he was 18-19 and got himself to 13:00/27:30ish on 160 mile weeks, get the story around, and he too will get some interest.

You are right. At the start of his career, Tiger W was noticed as much because he was part Afican American than anything else. Then, of course, is ability took over as the main story.

HRE wrote:

Most of us don't have all that much in the line of interesting stories going for us, at least not ones that anyone hears. That's why a guy like Levins stands out and becomes as the OP says, a darling.

Find us an African who was on the high side of 14:00/29:00 when he was 18-19 and got himself to 13:00/27:30ish on 160 mile weeks, get the story around, and he too will get some interest.

This is nonsense.

How many other white guys had interesting stories like Cam Levins? NONE. This has nothing to do with foreigners or Africans. It only has to do with having an interesting story. So foreigners are not less interesting than Americans winning. They are not damaging the sport or causing disinterest anymore than boring white Americans are.

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying here. Remember I've already admitted to being stupid. But I believe we're more or less agreeing. I said that most of us, African or boring white Americans, don't have any real compelling stories going for us so when someone who does have one, as Levins does, they stand out. Brian Sell used to get a fair amount of mention for making an Olympic team despite never bettering 10:00 for two miles in high school. Ryan Hall gets a lot of attention both for his running and for his religious beliefs.

All most of us know about today's African runners in the NCAA is that some college coach gave them a scholarship to run for his school. If they stay in the US after graduation and compete well, Lagat comes to mind, they draw some interest.

weddcwd wrote:

HRE wrote:

Most of us don't have all that much in the line of interesting stories going for us, at least not ones that anyone hears. That's why a guy like Levins stands out and becomes as the OP says, a darling.

Find us an African who was on the high side of 14:00/29:00 when he was 18-19 and got himself to 13:00/27:30ish on 160 mile weeks, get the story around, and he too will get some interest.

This is nonsense.

How many other white guys had interesting stories like Cam Levins? NONE. This has nothing to do with foreigners or Africans. It only has to do with having an interesting story. So foreigners are not less interesting than Americans winning. They are not damaging the sport or causing disinterest anymore than boring white Americans are.

You are overlooking the human psyche though. People, whether good or bad, right or wrong, will associate to those that look like them. So a boring white guy is going to get more attention than a boring non white guy in a country (or more specifically a sport) that is mostly white.

There have been African runners that really caught the attention of the American running community, like Sammy Wanjiru. He had an interesting story but more importantly, he story was well known.

Odd that people think Cam Levins was a "mediocre" runner who just became a world class runner by sheer hard work. You don't run the times he's run in the 5K/10K and run the Olympic 10K final without the elite inherent running talent to do so. That Levins was a "mediocre" runner in high school probably means he was under trained or hadn't matured physically yet, or most likely a combination of both. In a way he's the new Pat Porter.

Adam C wrote:

That Levins was a "mediocre" runner in high school probably means he was under trained or hadn't matured physically yet, or most likely a combination of both.

Or it just means that the imaginary concept of talent is not important. Good training on the other hand is. Physical maturity certainly has nothing to do with it.

sjjsj wrote:

Adam C wrote:

That Levins was a "mediocre" runner in high school probably means he was under trained or hadn't matured physically yet, or most likely a combination of both.

Or it just means that the imaginary concept of talent is not important. Good training on the other hand is. Physical maturity certainly has nothing to do with it.

I think you've hit on a big part of the reason Levins has become a "darling." We have endless discussions here about how much of one's success or failure in the sport is attributable to training as opposed to inborn characteristics. Seeing someone make such big racing improvements after making a huge increase in his volume is inspiring to many and probably threatening to people who wanted to be good but never went all out in their training because they believed they lacked "talent".

justin bieber , michael j fox, Neil young, Dr frickin Evil, Capt Kirk !!are Canadain

i.e., culturally American but can play hockey

Giles Corey wrote:

If that were the case and it was not about race, Lawi LaLang would be the most beloved figure on letsrun.

How is that? Because he held the 1500 and 3000 meter school records out of a Kenyan High School? sure, sounds pretty blue collar to me. He ran a 3:59 mile in his second collegiate race with "virtually no formal training", having only been in the U.S. for two months.

Yeah that just SCREAMS blue collar who got there by hard work. Try again.

Also, Cam Levins was a regular college-aged guy, who didn't loom like he was 35.

trollism wrote:

People are missing the point completely.

African dominance IS damaging the sport. Whether it's right or not is another matter.

Saying that African dominance is negative for the overall popularity of distance running is not racist.

Not sure if you're serious, but: How is African dominance destroying the sport? Please explain.

As long as I use the word American-born instead of white and foreigner instead of black guy, I am not a racist.

To my mind, Lawi and Cam are virtually on opposite sides of the spectrum with regard to what I call "initial" talent. However, Cam has incredible "developmental" talent, far more than almost anyone I've seen or heard of in 40 years, save possibly Lindgren.

Both are cool and both are beyond my personal experience in terms of overall talent. Lawi is actually as better interview in my opinion, but I'd love to hang for a few (beers, miles) with either.

Rupp, not so much....

So now I'm a racist? wrote:

Am I missing sometihng here?

African dominance certainly isn't killing the sport for me. I like watching people run quickly, no matter what their color or nationality.

But the sheer artistry that the African runners bring to the act of running is transcendent.

Truth be told, I get more pleasure from watching the work of D. Komen or W. Kipketer or Geb or K. Bekele than I ever got from watching Bedford or Pre or even Moorcroft. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried when I watched Kipketer set the 800 indoor record. It was just too beautiful to bear.

It's now the African runners who best exemplify what a well-oiled human machine is capable of doing. And isn't that what we're all really after?