US Track and Field = embarrassing

[newdusk]

I am not really a flag waving US fanatic but the Olympics do somehow get me in the spirit of cheering for my country. Usain Bolt is hands down a freak and an amazing athlete If he is running any race I believe our best bet would be a silver medal.

It's just a sad state of affairs when our guys barely qualify for the medal rounds. It's horrible listening to the US commentary and they are trying to make excuses or act like the Americans are gaining ground. I love Jamaica and it's great to see that country make a big splash but at the same time it is tremendously embarrassing.

[wdleehi]

5 medals in 15 events isn't embarrassing. 

[Roy Hobbs]

5 medals in 15 events isn't embarrassing. 

I think the disconnect this year is, the U.S. normally consistently places in all the sprint races.  They're not doing that this year, and then when you juxtapose that against our swim teams, the track and field stars look like downright underachievers.

[wdleehi]

And if you look at some of the qualifying, the US is in position to win some more.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/results?discId=3

[yall hate]

5 medals in 15 events isn't embarrassing. 

I think the disconnect this year is, the U.S. normally consistently places in all the sprint races.  They're not doing that this year, and then when you juxtapose that against our swim teams, the track and field stars look like downright underachievers.

With Balco shut down, our sprinters lost their edge...


But in all seriousness, if Gay had been healthy he could have done better, since he was our best chance.  I think in a lot of these events we are seeing the results of our stars retiring and a lot of the guys who it looked like would step up were in trouble with steroids.  We are just at a transition period right now.

[cordobes]

Cheer up, your athletes just won the 3 medals in the 400 m hurdles. And where do you think those Jamaicans and Caribbeans train? Anyway, color me as unimpressed with Bolt and most of those sprinters. He should enter in a program like the one that USADA is running with Phelps and Dara Torres, for example. Tyson Gay entered it and since then it's been always downhill. He didn't even qualify for the final. And I'm still suspicious that a designer version of the CERA, for example, can make longitudinal tests pretty useless. Anyway, I'm not suspending my disbelief on Bolt. Ben Johnson, Florence Griffith Joyner, Gatlin and Marion Jones were also freaking impressive. When something looks too good to be true, than it's probably false.

[crownsy]

Cheer up, your athletes just won the 3 medals in the 400 m hurdles. And where do you think those Jamaicans and Caribbeans train? Anyway, color me as unimpressed with Bolt and most of those sprinters. He should enter in a program like the one that USADA is running with Phelps and Dara Torres, for example. Tyson Gay entered it and since then it's been always downhill. He didn't even qualify for the final. And I'm still suspicious that a designer version of the CERA, for example, can make longitudinal tests pretty useless. Anyway, I'm not suspending my disbelief on Bolt. Ben Johnson, Florence Griffith Joyner, Gatlin and Marion Jones were also freaking impressive. When something looks too good to be true, than it's probably false.

eh, mixed feelings. by this logic anyone who wins is a cheater.

going by this phelps is cetrainly under suspican, so are may/walsh, the usa basketball team, torres, soni, and lukin and johnson.

and thats just from the USA, never mind the other countries. are all the jamican's using?

[jackson_34]

While we are on the subject of track and field, did anyone manage to catch the heats of the hurdles?

The chinese gold medal winner from Athens pulled out of the race after another athelete's false start...  I have never seen a stadium go from such a great atmosphere to near silence. He was obviously holding an injury and had been coaxed into racing and did not look comfortable for the whole time he was out there. Such an anti-climax for the athletics that day.

[cordobes]

Cheer up, your athletes just won the 3 medals in the 400 m hurdles. And where do you think those Jamaicans and Caribbeans train? Anyway, color me as unimpressed with Bolt and most of those sprinters. He should enter in a program like the one that USADA is running with Phelps and Dara Torres, for example. Tyson Gay entered it and since then it's been always downhill. He didn't even qualify for the final. And I'm still suspicious that a designer version of the CERA, for example, can make longitudinal tests pretty useless. Anyway, I'm not suspending my disbelief on Bolt. Ben Johnson, Florence Griffith Joyner, Gatlin and Marion Jones were also freaking impressive. When something looks too good to be true, than it's probably false.

eh, mixed feelings. by this logic anyone who wins is a cheater.

going by this phelps is cetrainly under suspican, so are may/walsh, the usa basketball team, torres, soni, and lukin and johnson.

and thats just from the USA, never mind the other countries. are all the jamican's using?

Nah, because not all winners, let alone sports, are equal. The athletic evolution of some guys makes more sense, it's more understandable. Of others, not so much. And Phelps, for example, is under the kind of anti-doping program I'd like to see other top athletes join (it's called "My Victory" or something, but there are others). Doesn't rule anything out, but it does enforce their credibility. As I've said, since Gay joined it, he was never that good again. Of course that trying to second guess who is or who isn't a cheater is many times a lesson in futility. But there are some good hints.

For starters, just check the evolution of the 100 meters world record:
In 1991 it was  9.86. Sixteen years later, it was 9.79 (set by Maurice Greene, who admitted connections to Heredia). Then CERA (a variant of erythropoietin that is the most fashionable PED at the moment) becomes available. In the following year the record drops to 9.69!! Geez, it took more than 20 years to drop from 9.99 to 9.95.

As a road cycling fan, I try to not worry much about this stuff. But this year I've seen an almost clean Tour of France and... well... it was quite obvious that this one was (almost) clean. Some track&field races just make me remember the past years Tour.

[crownsy]

Cheer up, your athletes just won the 3 medals in the 400 m hurdles. And where do you think those Jamaicans and Caribbeans train? Anyway, color me as unimpressed with Bolt and most of those sprinters. He should enter in a program like the one that USADA is running with Phelps and Dara Torres, for example. Tyson Gay entered it and since then it's been always downhill. He didn't even qualify for the final. And I'm still suspicious that a designer version of the CERA, for example, can make longitudinal tests pretty useless. Anyway, I'm not suspending my disbelief on Bolt. Ben Johnson, Florence Griffith Joyner, Gatlin and Marion Jones were also freaking impressive. When something looks too good to be true, than it's probably false.

eh, mixed feelings. by this logic anyone who wins is a cheater.

going by this phelps is cetrainly under suspican, so are may/walsh, the usa basketball team, torres, soni, and lukin and johnson.

and thats just from the USA, never mind the other countries. are all the jamican's using?

Nah, because not all winners, let alone sports, are equal. The athletic evolution of some guys makes more sense, it's more understandable. Of others, not so much. And Phelps, for example, is under the kind of anti-doping program I'd like to see other top athletes join (it's called "My Victory" or something, but there are others). Doesn't rule anything out, but it does enforce their credibility. As I've said, since Gay joined it, he was never that good again. Of course that trying to second guess who is or who isn't a cheater is many times a lesson in futility. But there are some good hints.

For starters, just check the evolution of the 100 meters world record:
In 1991 it was  9.86. Sixteen years later, it was 9.79 (set by Maurice Greene, who admitted connections to Heredia). Then CERA (a variant of erythropoietin that is the most fashionable PED at the moment) becomes available. In the following year the record drops to 9.69!! Geez, it took more than 20 years to drop from 9.99 to 9.95.

As a road cycling fan, I try to not worry much about this stuff. But this year I've seen an almost clean Tour of France and... well... it was quite obvious that this one was (almost) clean. Some track&field races just make me remember the past years Tour.

Note before example, i agree with you on phelps.

But, if were goign by evoulotion of recoreds, thats not a good argument for phelps considerign out of his 7 WR's, he obliterated 4 of them, and swimming in general has destroyed all its recoreds in china.

Its a somewhat of a seprate issue to me, since with swimming its technology based, but im not sure i can condeem sprinters because they blew away thier WR's yet give swimmers, who i belive are 32/38 for breaking WR's this year, a pass.

[zerophase]

some years the us has amazing runners, some years we don't. plus, the Jamaican lightening bolts are just amazing this year.

[Roy Hobbs]

I think you answered your own distinction, crownsy.  With swimming, it's technology based.  There have been gigantic advances in the suit technology.  Additionally, from what I read, the Chinese constructed their pool specifically to have absolutely ideal conditions for making times as fast as possible.

I tend to give these guys the benefit of the doubt (naively) until they're proven dirty, but I do agree with cordobes that a red flag goes up any time you see a runner destroy a world record like that (especially when he's a relative newcomer to the 100 meters distance).

[drza44]

Leave it to the hurdlers to get the US back on track!  Medal-sweep in the men's 400 m hurdles, led by Georgia Tech boy and 2000 gold medalist Angelo Taylor!  Georgia Tech track, we represent!

(I may not have been anywhere close to getting to the Olympics myself, but I'll rep my school's accomplishments to the fullest!)

[crownsy]

I think you answered your own distinction, crownsy.  With swimming, it's technology based.  There have been gigantic advances in the suit technology.  Additionally, from what I read, the Chinese constructed their pool specifically to have absolutely ideal conditions for making times as fast as possible.

I tend to give these guys the benefit of the doubt (naively) until they're proven dirty, but I do agree with cordobes that a red flag goes up any time you see a runner destroy a world record like that (especially when he's a relative newcomer to the 100 meters distance).

yea, i think i just tend to give people the benifit of the doubt in general, the whole innocent till proven guilty thing some of us still follow ya know?  

if he's not clean, in today's day and age, that will come out. look how long it took to run down jones, but it got done. Until then, i'll give him the benifit of the doubt, which i give to all but He on the uneven bars. serously, if your missing baby teeth, don't lie to me and say your 16 hehe.

[Sweet17]

Blasting world records is Ben Johnson stuff. I think you have to doubt. A fast guy is a fast guy - and the differences in times in sprinting is generally tiny. People get to a certain point where your basically all fast twitch, the form is down, and you have the right build and your going to run events at close to world record times..

How do you "bust" those records - chemical help. The fact that the US is "embarrasing" makes me believe we are running clean this year. <g>

Pete