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Don't get my wrong I love this country and our runners, but I also love seeing a more open-ended competition where there is no one country just dominating the final. Like take this year in the 100. There are many non-american sprinters this year so far with impressive times, like Partick Johnson, Frank Fredericks, Kim Collins, Deji Aliu, Dwain Chambers, Nicolas Macrozonaris, and Shingo Suestugu. There are only two Americans in the top 10 right now (not counting World rankings), and it seems that in each meet a non-American is winning the race. I know America is deep in the sprints, like kenya is deep in the distance races, but it looks like maybe this year the finals at the WC 100 will have no more than maybe 1 or 2 Americans, and no racer will be the favorite. I can't remember when a 100 race of this importance has been so up for grabs (but I'm barely almost 20 so I'm just a youngen haha). Anyone have a different view? I find this forum to be very educational as an aspiring athlete.
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Re: declining US sprinters
The important thing to remember here is the date of August 25. That's when the World Champs 100 final is. That's almost two months from now. What the sprint scene looks like now and what it will look like then are two different animals. Here's what we wrote in the World Rankigns issue of T&FN last December about how the 100 Rankings played out (1. Montgomery; 2. Chambers; 3. Greene):
<<THE MERCURIAL NATURE of the sprint game left the identity of the top end of the Rankings very much in flux as the season progressed.
At the end of June, Greene and Chambers were about even for No. 1, with Montgomery No. 3.
Chambers was invisible in July and Greene was hot, so the American became a clear No. 1.
But in August, Mo’s form unraveled while Montgomery came on strong, so suddenly Montgomery was 2, Greene 3.
PARIS WOULD DECIDE ALL. And it did, in thrilling fashion, Montgomery’s win in WR time propelling him to the top.>> -
Re: declining US sprinters
American Football and girls college athletics are responsible for the decline in US sprinting. College Footballs sucks away resources from other Olympics sports that the US used to utterly dominate. Girl’s varsity sports are also taking away resources from men’s athletics.
60 minutes did a cover story on this topic this past Sunday.
No sports has been more adversely affected by this trend than men's gymnastics. There were once 200 college programs for men’s gymnastics now there are only 20 nationwide!!
American Football is destroying American athletics.
I always knew Football was a bad game.
What does Football do for American - NOTHING!Comment
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Re: declining US sprinters
Yep, blame football.Comment
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Re: declining US sprinters
funny that track and field news 12 yrs ago when i started subscribing to it had an article called why johnny cant sprint and that was when the us swept the 100 meters in tokyo and lewis set the world record. various factors have contributed to a relative decline, but like gh said the worlds would be the litmus test. i doubt it will be like 91 and 01 (sweep) and i doubt it would be like 95 and 96 (shutout). i think the us male sprinters will get 1 oe 2 medals in the 100, 1 or 2 in the 200, 2 in the 400 and win both relays (if they dont drop the stick). the female sprinters will have it a little more difficult without marion jones, but prospects will be much better next year when jones returns.Comment
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Re: declining US sprinters
Just when everybody says the US is down in the sprints, we come back with someone. There is a lot of talent out there. If Gatlin doesn't go down in Mexico with a quad pull this discussion probably never takes place. Yeah, there are plenty of sports that take away talent but we'll always have sprinters and hurdlers. dave sComment
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