Not Everyone Hates Track

[gh]

Nice to see that there are those in the mainstream media who still give us some respect.

Exceedingly nice bit of writing in the International Herald Tribune i picked up in the Paris airport on the way out. Summation piece written by Peter Berlin starts this way:

<<The great advantage of sports over other forms of entertainment is that it can offer the implausible with utter credibility. On Sunday, the curtain came down ont he World Championships with a last act that offered more cliff-hanging climaxes than any blockbuster director would dare offer....>>

Then, after I got back and read 3 weeks worth of San Francisco Chronicles (my local rag), I found this in the column of a guy who spends most of his time promoting baseball and surfing:

<<Huge contrast: the riveting world championships of track and field, running all week on ESPN2 (with the big finish Sunday on ABC) against the tired spectacle of USA Basketball in the Tournament of the Americas -- on pay-per- view, if you can believe that.>>

Nice to know there's still hope.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Not Everyone Hates Track

drugs and money are ruining our sport.

[Guest]

Re: Not Everyone Hates Track

Also encouraging, here in Canada: the obvious enthousiasm and professionalism of the CBC television staff, like tv presenter Ron McLean, whose first love obviously is ice hockey.

[Guest]

Re: Not Everyone Hates Track

Gee, you think? A Canadian who loves hockey? He must love it a lot in order to put up with Don Cherry every Saturday night.

To take this a different direction -- it sure seemed like Canada was much more successful this time around than two years ago. They even put two women under 15:00. Can their tougher Worlds standards take the credit, or is it simply a new crop of athletes that has moved up?

[gh]

Re: Not Everyone Hates Track

>drugs and money are ruining our sport.>>

Drugs & money (or whatever pisses you off the most) are ruining just about everything in life----but only if you let them!

Excuse me for being Pollyanna, but I prefer to dwell on all the positives. Paris was an utterly fabulous 9 days of track, with a last day that rates among the best ever. If you choose to let random isolated acts ruin that for you, you might as well dress in sackcloth and walk the streets with a sign that says "the end is near."

[tafnut]

Re: Not Everyone Hates Track

The thing that actaully makes me angry is: we did have a great WC, with all the elements that make track so great, yet the media were so much more interested in Drummond and White that no one would even know what happened. No wonder the general public thinks we are a bunch of buffoons and cheats - that's all the press wrote about. If Track & Field News were ever to follow their lead, I would have to "Cancel my subscription!"