Weakest U.S. track and field event

[gm]

wTJ, wHT, wJT

Has there ever been a major medalist in ANY of those events? Hell, I can't even recall the US having a finalist in any of them!

The US need help with the jumps. The technique on display in the womens LJ pit was surely humiliating, no? Jomoh and Reese have to go down as two of the most horrific technichians I have ever witnessed.

You need to get out more, dude.Your life seems to be full of Mondays...

[tandfman]

wTJ, wHT, wJT

Has there ever been a major medalist in ANY of those events? Hell, I can't even recall the US having a finalist in any of them!.

Once upon a time, there were Karin Smith, Kate Schmidt in JT.

Smith never won a major (OG or WCh) medal, but Didriksen did. Smith was a finalist.

Other finalists? Ellerbe, Price, Mahon, Gilreath, and Palmer have all been finalists in the World and/or Olympic HT. Kreiner made the Jav final once. Ditto Cynthea Rhodes in the TJ.

[mike renfro]

wTJ, wHT, wJT

Has there ever been a major medalist in ANY of those events? Hell, I can't even recall the US having a finalist in any of them!.

Once upon a time, there were Karin Smith, Kate Schmidt in JT.

Smith never won a major (OG or WCh) medal, but Didriksen did. Smith was a finalist.

Other finalists? Ellerbe, Price, Mahon, Gilreath, and Palmer have all been finalists in the World and/or Olympic HT. Kreiner made the Jav final once. Ditto Cynthea Rhodes in the TJ.

Kate the great won bronzes in '72 & 76. I had forgotten about Babe in '32 ops:

[Spickard]

it is all part and parcel of a system where coaches decide what events they want their athlete to compete in rather than finding what events the athletes would do best in. ideas like "this event is stupid" are rampant in the US coaching fraternity and the overall development of the sport suffers as a result. its no wonder we lose so many athletes to other sports.

AMEN BROTHER!

[tm71]

right now ? without counting the walks, the answer should be the women's javelin by far. a weak event internationally the us has not won a medal in a long time, rarely gets anyone in the final and rarely gets more than one competitor in the entire field. as far as the men go, the men's hammer, nothing since deal's silver in 96. as far as the jumps go the women's triple jump has never had any success outdoors and the events has been contested for 15 yrs. and as far as the track goes the women's 800 is the weakest right now, no one of the us entrants could make it into the semis...

[Marlow]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

My semi-annual rant continues . . . in the East Regional results today in the wTJ, of the top 5 finishers, 46' to 43''7 . . . NONE are American. ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

That's it! No more Murkan scholarships may be given to non-Ami women TJers! As I have spoken, so must it be done! :evil: :evil: :evil:

[unclezadok]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

Definitely the women's TJ, since we've never had a good one. Yeah, I know a couple of them won some meets with 46 foot jumps.

[Mighty Favog]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

I do some world rankings using a points system. Ignoring the walks, I think the women's TJ and JT are the only two events where no USA athletes are on the spreadsheet at all.

[7-sided]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

I completely agree with Zadok and Marlow that the weakest event is the wTJ, but eliminating scholarships for non-americans is the exact wrong way to address it. Below are all of the college age wTJ performers who jumped better than the best American (Erica McClain). It's actually worse if we go deeper.

This is coaching issue; and only one, Kimberly Williams, was coached in the USA. The only thing that eliminating foreigners would do is "dumb down" the competition, but it certainly wouldn't increase American medal chances.

14.64 1.3 Ekaterina Kayukova  RUS 09/10/1986 3  Cheboksary 26/07/2009 
14.62 0.5 Limei Xie  CHN 27/06/1986 1q2  Berlin 15/08/2009 
14.44 1.9 Alsu Murtazina  RUS 20/12/1987 1  Kazan 18/06/2009 
14.42 0.8 Cristina Bujin  ROU 12/04/1988 1  Bucuresti 01/08/2009 
14.40 -0.2 Anastasiya Taranova-Potapova  RUS 06/09/1985 2  Haniá 01/06/2009 
14.36 0.0 Dailenys Alcántara  CUB 10/08/1991 3  La Habana (PA) 29/05/2009 
14.35 -0.2 Paraskeví Papahrístou  GRE 17/04/1989 1  Thessaloníki 02/08/2009 
14.29 0.5 Carmen Toma  ROU 28/03/1989 1  Bucuresti (Dinamo) 12/06/2009 
14.27 1.3 Liliya Kulyk  UKR 27/01/1987 2  Yalta 05/06/2009 
14.20 1.9 Kaire Leibak  EST 21/05/1988 1  Valga 30/06/2009 
14.18 1.1 Petia Dacheva  BUL 10/03/1985 1  Sofia 04/07/2009 
14.16  Natalya Kutyakova  RUS 28/11/1986 1  Moskva 28/06/2009 
14.11 -0.2 Yufei Chen  CHN 26/01/1989 1  Jinan 25/10/2009 
14.11 2.0 Tingting Xu  CHN 12/07/1989 2  Guangzhou 11/11/2009 
14.10  Josleidy Ribalta  CUB 02/05/1990 1  La Habana (PA) 11/06/2009 
14.09 -0.6 Yanan Liu  CHN 18/01/1987 5  Shanghai 20/09/2009 
14.08 0.9 Kimberly Williams  JAM 03/11/1988 8q1  Berlin 15/08/2009 
14.02 1.8 Natallia Viatkina  BLR 10/02/1987 1  Minsk 29/05/2009 
14.02 0.0 Kristin Gierisch  GER 20/08/1990 1  Göttingen 28/06/2009 
13.99 1.5 Irina Litvinenko  KAZ 08/01/1987 3  Guangzhou 11/11/2009

[vip]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

Since we're on the topic of women's TJ, what happened to the Richardson girl at UCLA?Wasn't she T&FN national athlete of the year while in high school just a few years ago? I noticed she hasn't made any big marks on the collegiate level ... injuries, perhaps? Or is that a coaching thing, too?

[7-sided]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

I don't know why the IAAF's site only goes back to 1998 for World Juniors (1986, Athens was first) but of the World Juniors that have been listed (1998 - 2008) an American (Mclain) has only made the final ONE time - 2004. 11th place; did not qualify for the final 3 attempts.

Definitely, coaching. In the global scheme of things...Richardson...was not as good.

[Marlow]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

I completely agree with Zadok and Marlow that the weakest event is the wTJ, but eliminating scholarships for non-americans is the exact wrong way to address it. Below are all of the college age wTJ performers who jumped better than the best American (Erica McClain). It's actually worse if we go deeper. This is coaching issue; and only one, Kimberly Williams, was coached in the USA. The only thing that eliminating foreigners would do is "dumb down" the competition, but it certainly wouldn't increase American medal chances.

My point is that if we limited the furriners, we would HAVE to start coaching up the Amis. There ARE good American TJ coaches, but if we can just raid the foreign pantries for talent, the Ami girls won't get the attention they need. We OBVIOUSLY have the native talent, but there's no will to develop it as there is on foreign shores. So the event continues to languish here.

[Quick Silver]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

At the NAIA championships this weekend, both walks were won by Canadians. They're from British Colmbia, where racewalks have long been part of high school meets.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

[Half Miler]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

Erica McLain jumped a windy 47-3 3/4 today at the California Relays. Best American mark since 2008.

[The Norwegian]

Re: Weakest U.S. track and field event

men's 4x400