MikeEM wrote:
did you say honest work? he's a two-time doper and still is in denial...gets pissed if a reporter dares to bring it up...i don't think "honest" and "gatlin" should ever be in the same argument
He's not a 2-time doper stop with your idiotic nonsense.
People like you love to tear down our country. And ignore the doping in the UK and Kenya.
But have no real solutions. Maybe it's time to change your old man diaper.
Down year wrote:
Holding the team trials so far ahead of the global championships requires that athletes peak twice. That time gap between the two championships would seem to be less than ideal.
The only U.S. medal at a distance above 400 meters was a bronze in the women's 10K.
. . . and according to the LR braintrust we stole that one right out from under us ;)
How about if the leading performance in an event by a certain date is guaranteed a spot, and the trials determines 2nd and 3rd?
There was a longer than usual gap between the Trials and the World Championships this year, mainly because the WCs were held a month later than usual. Maybe USATF was locked in to the June date and couldn't have it later, but this year was an anomaly. They really should look into having it closer to WCs as it appeared some US athletes peaked too soon -- Jager, for example.
alanson wrote:
Talent is pouring out of so-called third world countries whose athletes have access to decent training for the first time. This is no anomaly. Timing of US trials has very little impact compared to the expanding pool of elite athletes.
Infeld is my hero of these games, though.
Agree on Infeld. Great effort and personality that's great for the sport. Medals won on television are the best tool for expanding the pool of elite athletes. Even if won by Symmonds.
MikeEM wrote:
USA had a bad showing this year..but if you have access to any archives look up the medal standings for the Olympics - the past 100 years - you'll see the USA at the top...over and over and over.
Have you included beach volleyball and synchronized swimming, or just track and field?
It really sucks that David Oliver and Michael Tinsley both significantly hit hurdles in the 110 and 400 hurdle finals, especially given that David Oliver was on his game this season and was the defending champ, while Tinsley looked like he would have medalled with 100 to go. Not sure why Jager sucked so much though and Centro was plain gassed with 300 to go. Better luck next year.
Les wrote:
There was a longer than usual gap between the Trials and the World Championships this year, mainly because the WCs were held a month later than usual. Maybe USATF was locked in to the June date and couldn't have it later, but this year was an anomaly. They really should look into having it closer to WCs as it appeared some US athletes peaked too soon -- Jager, for example.
The world champs were absolutely not held "a month later than usual". The world champs usually fall squarely in August and some years they even extend into September. They've never been held in July. Ever.
Any real good examples of athletes that should have performed better?
Gatlin may have peaked soon but he was running crazy times in May, well before USATF and still only lost to the great Bolt.
Lashawn Merritt set a PR here.
3 men 1500m runners in the final is always good. Centro pretty much lost to faster runners finally.
Rupp ran a good double and the 4 runners ahead of him in each event were very good.
Jager could have done better but Huling had the same Trials and beat him.
Aries Merritt ran a season best.
I don't see anything about the Trials schedule that negatively affected these results.
And historically the US has done well in global championships having their Trials two months prior.
Don't blame USATF.
Blame Bolt, Niekerk, Kiprop, Rudisha and Farah for being too good.
Here are the dates for Olympics (easiest to find) that are also World Championships.
1976 Montreal - July 17 to August 1
1980 Moscow - July 19 to August 3
1984 Los Angeles - July 28 to August 12
1988 Seoul - September 17 to October 2
1992 Barcelona - July 25 to August 9
1996 Atlanta - July 19 to August 4
2000 Sydney - September 15 to October 1
2004 Athens - August 13 to August 29
2008 Beijing - August 8 to August 24
2012 London - July 27 to August 12
So no, not all championships run into September. Seems that the USA teams didn't do that well in Sydney but did do well in Seoul. I can't see a pattern.
You guys are silly. It's not the date of the trials, it's the humid weather in Beijing.
Seriously, how many U.S. runners trained in both heat & humidity at the same time this summer? As a counterexample, is it really all that surprising that Ghirmay prevailed in the Men's Marathon, given Eritrea's location & climate?
I'm tellin' ya, it's the weather, and U.S. athletes made the critical mistake of not training for it properly. Notice that only the U.S. athletes who are world-top talent won golds (Kovacs, Taylor, Eaton, Felix, etc.), and only world-top talent won silver (LaShawn Merritt, Justin Gatlin, etc.); talent that was good enough to prevail depite a potential lack of weather-preparation.
You might have something there as the Kenyan trials were July 31-Aug 1, only a few weeks before the World Championships, not two months like the US Trials, and Kenya had a great WCs. On the other hand, the US championships are usually around that time, regardless of how well the team does at the WCs.
Something went wrong this year. We have talent but the talent underperformed. (I mean the distance runners.)