Isinbaeva blasts Gay and Powell

[EPelle]

Isinbayeva, Gay clarify position with Sportbladet:

Gay says that he and Asafa should probably meet a bit more often, stating that he doesn:t have anything against it. He hopes that there will be more meetings in the summer.

Isinbayeva says that if one goes to see a Real Madrid-Barcelona fotboll match, you see the biggest stars meet one another - the same goes for F1. That:s why, she believes, athletes like Powell and Gay need to take responsibility and dare to meet each other at the meets -- not just in the World Champs.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/f ... 1523925.ab

[Powell]

Mandated competition?

Gee, just what we need! A return to the days of the AAU and travel permits, and piss-ant administrators telling athletes when and where they will compete.

Not mandated competition per se. I'd like to see a system similar to tennis, where none of the top players voluntarily skip a Grand Slam tournament. They are not literally forced to play, but the incentive system (in terms of both money and ranking points) is built in such a way that choosing not to participate would be dumb.

[BruceFlorman]

Obviously I was trying to be a bit of a provocateur when I started this thread with the title I gave it. The little quote in the original short article clearly wasn’t much of a “blast”. But this evening I’m translating Ms. Maryanchik’s more lengthy Isinterview™ from Monaco that was posted Wednesday on Allsport.ru – http://www.allsport.ru/index.php?id=10176 – and while it's getting late and I’m probably gonna run out of gas tonight before I get it finished and send it off, I want to post a more complete version of what Isi really said. This young vaulter rather clearly echoes what others have said here.

If anyone's interested, the full English translation is now up on the All Sport website - http://www.allsport.ru/index.php?id=10343

[EPelle]

... sheer wildness!

[EPelle]

It may be a bit Borzakovskiy-esque, in that she spends better than half the competition in last place (except that the strategy typically works for her),

I like that comparison! Perhaps he should pull an "Isinbayeva" in his races.

[BruceFlorman]

Playing devil:s advokat here: What would happen if Powell or Gay responded with, Issy, contest lower heights in order to give the impression that you care about competing against your colleagues, not soaking the limelight for yourself simply because you can. We won:t duck if you don:t; you:re in it for the money, too, or you:d not come in when the competitors are nearly finished off and then take world-record attempts on your third or so effort of the evening.

Maybe I don't get what you're saying, but Isi's laying around twiddling her thumbs for the first hour of the meet doesn't strike me as "ducking", at least not in the sense that the big name sprinters practice. It may be a bit Borzakovskiy-esque, in that she spends better than half the competition in last place (except that the strategy typically works for her), but she certainly seems willing to face anybody good enough to still be around when the bar gets to her opening height. I guess I don't see how showing up for a dozen or so competitions during the season, winning 'em all, and frequently attempting to raise the WR, can be classified as "ducking".

Now if you wanted to complain that she's asking all the other "stars" to adopt a pattern of behavior that obviously comes naturally to her, but maybe not so much for others, then I'd probably have to agree. As much as we might like to be, not everybody is able to be gregarious and charismatic. Fortunately, no one is depending on me to promote their sport.

[tafnut]

Included is this photo of Izzy in civilized clothes

Ya gotta love The Shoulders!!!!

[bad hammy]

Not as sure about this quote though

I really love the Gala! To see everyone with whom you go to the tournaments all year, looking beautiful, well dressed, in civilized clothing – this is simply super!

SI has an online photo album of women sports stars off the playing field. Included is this photo of Izzy in civilized clothes: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multim ... nt.11.html

[Seeksreal]

Kudos to Isi! She is right on!! I think the golf example is also very valid. How can such a boring sport get so much media coverage???? T&F has way more to offer in terms of excitement and intensity. One way could be to make the WAT a true tour where each event is contested the same number of times and one overall male and one overall female winner is crowned at the end of the season in addition to individual event winners. If it is possible to add points from each meet to the total score, the top athletes would compete as much as possible and be less concerned about who they are up against in a single meet. I have thought out quite a detailed system for how this could be constructed and incorporating the concept of "majors" in it as well. I won't go into all that here, though, but if someone from IAAF wants to talk to me about it, I'm here.

[EPelle]

Playing devil:s advokat here: What would happen if Powell or Gay responded with, Issy, contest lower heights in order to give the impression that you care about competing against your colleagues, not soaking the limelight for yourself simply because you can. We won:t duck if you don:t; you:re in it for the money, too, or you:d not come in when the competitors are nearly finished off and then take world-record attempts on your third or so effort of the evening.

[BruceFlorman]

Obviously I was trying to be a bit of a provocateur when I started this thread with the title I gave it. The little quote in the original short article clearly wasn’t much of a “blast”. But this evening I’m translating Ms. Maryanchik’s more lengthy Isinterview™ from Monaco that was posted Wednesday on Allsport.ru – http://www.allsport.ru/index.php?id=10176 – and while it's getting late and I’m probably gonna run out of gas tonight before I get it finished and send it off, I want to post a more complete version of what Isi really said. This young vaulter rather clearly echoes what others have said here.

- But you know where all these problems with our image come from in general? Compare, for instance, football players, who play on the order of 40-60 matches per year. Okay, football is a team sport, so possibly the comparison isn’t valid. Let’s take "Formula-1". What do you think; can Schumacher forego the rivalry with Alonso? No, they always compete on the same track, because this is an issue of the popularity of their sport; an issue of the interest of the spectators and journalists. But what do we see in athletics? For instance, the best sprinters in the world, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay – why do they avoid facing each other? Why? They’re worried about insufficient money! I’m not interested! Just imagine how much more interesting it would be for the fans if Powell and Gay opposed each other at every tournament. We, the athletes, mustn’t think only about ourselves, but also about the popularity of our sport. Many athletes shy away from contact with the press - because of fatigue or unwillingness, they play no role. But stars must openly talk about themselves, about their country, about their position. For instance, Asafa is from Jamaica – not the best known country for many. But he can tell about it, present it in the way he considers necessary. Every country, on every continent has its stars. It’s worthwhile for them to speak more about their homelands. I don’t know where the problems of athletics are rooted, but I figure the solution, in any event, must begin with the athletes. They must understand that they’re important figures in the popularization of our sport.

[Dave]

$$$$$$

AND 4 majors per year which none of the top players would dream of missing because winning majors is what major careers are made of. Track has only three majors in four years, while golf and tennis have sixteen in that time. How about four indispensible majors per year in track? The likelihood of getting a world ranking would be remote for those who didn't compete in all four. And there could be other incentives, including money. Of course if you win three majors and are injured for the fourth, you're still going to rank well, but otherwise you better be at all four or you're not really a player in the sport.

How about:

Olympic year: Olympics, WAF, upgrade Zurich (all events), upgrade Pre (all events)
Olympics +1 : WAF, World Championships, Zurich (all events), upgrade Pre (all events), some big deal in Asia
Olympics +2:WAF,Zurich (all events), upgrade Pre (all events), some indoor meet
Olympics +3: WAF, World Championships, ,upgrade Zurich (all events), upgrade Pre (all events)

[gh]

$$$$$$

[Dave]

Sorry, I don't think it's just a "point of view." It's what happens when pin-headed bureaucrats have say over who competes when and where. It has happened before (think Pre) and there is nothing to stop it from happening again (just ask the Kenyan athletes and their ongoing federation problems).

Comparisons to the pro leagues just don't fly. That's a team sport, and everyone is progressing towards the same goal. They're also progressing while being guaranteed a league average of over a million bucks in salary (wonder how often people would run for that kind of deal?), and with union protection, employment contracts and a pension plan., etc., etc.

(Allow me once again to clarify that I agree that nothing--absolutely nothing--would be better for the sport than more heavyweight clashes among the titans. I just think that mandated competition isn't the right way to go about it. And I admit that I can't think of any other way that has much hope of working either. The civil libertarian in me says the current system is the least of all evils.)

So what mechanisms prevent this problem in golf? The idea that one player would be ducking another seems pretty remote.

[gh]

About the only way Coe's career/life could have turned out better is if he makes king, but I think that job's spoken for! :-)