WHAT HAPPENED TO CAM LEVINS?

He is very disappointing. Looks like his 15 minutes are over.

Bjkbkjbkjbkuh wrote:

Really? He's always sick for the big races. Somebody chip in and buy him a bubble.

I wonder if he had the same thing my wife has. She gets sick before every single vacation... Like clockwork. I think her body tells her something.

lets see:

Olympics: somebody obviously came into them with a case of bronchiitis and because these athletes peaked and were driving themselves to the limit it spread. fyi Rupp and a bunch of others were victims of that one.

WXC: the Canadian team was hit quite badly with illness and some sort of flu has spread around this nation quite rampantly over the last 6 weeks.

First off, anyone who runs good mileage and has good form, does not necessarily "pound" mileage. He is too smooth for any pounding to be going on.

Also, he was indeed on antibiotics during the race and leading up to it, but he never mentioned it, others did. He is a man who makes no excuses.

It is possible that the mileage has little or nothing to do with his being sick twice. Perhaps he is marginally more open to bugs, like ALL elite athletes who train at a high level are - its a fine edge.

I also know that Natasha Fraser had a worse bug and trains less than half the volume Levins does....we also know everyone eventually gets colds and the flu and infections - sedentary people as well.

Nothing "happened" to Levins. First people are talking about him "coming out of nowhere", then suddenly, he is not performing. He moved up what? 30 spots in World Cross from his last performance, while being under the weather! That is solid.

The positives are that Chris Winter rocked the race as did Mo Ahmed. No one seems to mention Mo - the guy is a rock star. The team did well within themselves, in fact all four Canadian teams were solid!

Agreed that Cam had an off race. You can't compare performances to 2 years ago. 41st was not an improvement for Cam. Mo and Chris probably had good races, but again, it sounds very good when you compare to more competitive years. Look at what the US did. It was great, but everyone knows it was against inferior competition to 2011. This is now a "B" level race. A level athletes are going after the huge prise money on the roads.

That must have caught up to him quite badly if he was still on antibiotics. from past experiences myself (and I am nowhere near a pro), I have found all I am doing when running on illness antibiotics is damaging my heart and lungs, which forces another few days off than planned.

I actually wonder if the elites actually suffer permanent damage from training through sickness like the flu, fever and bronchiitis (common cold in some forms you can get away with, esepcially if it is warm).

Bjkbkjbkjbkuh wrote:

Really? He's always sick for the big races. Somebody chip in and buy him a bubble.

I wonder if he had the same thing my wife has. She gets sick before every single vacation... Like clockwork. I think her body tells her something.

"Always" sick for big races?

He seemed to be pretty good at NCAA championships in doubling the 5000 and 10,000. And although others explained how he was sick in the 5000 at the Olympics, let me remind you that he was the 2nd (to Rupp) non African born runner in the 10,000 and 5000 at the Olympics. This was in a year where he peaked for NCAAs.

Athleticsillustrated wrote:

Also, he was indeed on antibiotics during the race and leading up to it, but he never mentioned it, others did. He is a man who makes no excuses.

He must have mentioned it to someone, right?

The course wasn't Levins-certified. I looked back at his history, he has only run well on manicured courses.

Tlox wrote:

The course wasn't Levins-certified. I looked back at his history, he has only run well on manicured courses.

Quick, someone post the 2010 Canadian XC video.

nono wrote:

Tlox wrote:

The course wasn't Levins-certified. I looked back at his history, he has only run well on manicured courses.

Quick, someone post the 2010 Canadian XC video.

That comment doesn't make much sense as he has rarely ever had a bad race. 3 Can Champs in a row. Placed well in 2011 Worlds, ran well at Olympics, Double gold at NCAAs. PRs every year.

Constantly racing well= PED's.

I have always thought he was suspicious for doing such big mileage.

He spent too much time in your bed the night before the race.