I used to love this sport

[Flumpy]

Re: I used to love this sport

- it survived ohourogou

:?: :?: :?:

Why on earth would you place Christine alongside the rest of that list???

[bad hammy]

Re: I used to love this sport

- it survived ohourogou

Why on earth would you place Christine alongside the rest of that list???

In the past few days I've seen folks here dump on Inger Miller for a caffeine test, so bringing up someone with a bust for missing tests seems fair . . .

[mojo]

Track AND FIELD is like one of my kids. No matter what happens or what "it" does I will always love it. 8)

There is more to the sport than the very elite, much more. Go find some kids in your local communtiy to cheer on and support if top level track depresses you too much.

[tafnut]

Go find some kids in your local communtiy to cheer on and support if top level track depresses you too much.

I get much more joy from a HJ boy's first-time clearance of 6' or a PV girl's first clearance of 10', then I do a World Championship m800 race won in 1:47!

[croflash]

Go find some kids in your local communtiy to cheer on and support if top level track depresses you too much.

I get much more joy from a HJ boy's first-time clearance of 6' or a PV girl's first clearance of 10', then I do a World Championship m800 race won in 1:47!

You're not alone with that one.

[SQUACKEE]

Track AND FIELD is like one of my kids. No matter what happens or what "it" does I will always love it. 8)

There is more to the sport than the very elite, much more. Go find some kids in your local communtiy to cheer on and support if top level track depresses you too much.

I read your post and actually felt a weight lift off of my shoulders, thank you!

[tandfman]

I'm afraid it will take more than that to let me shrug off the doping issue, but I know what mojo means. There is a subset of US track nuts who focus almost exclusively on high school track. I sometimes envy those guys. I don't doubt that there are some high school kids using PED's, but it's minimal, and it hasn't yet become an issue that drags down high school track. For those who follow mainly that part of the sport, the pure joy of being a fan has not yet been impaired by Marion Jones or any of the other causes of our disillusionment who preceded her.

[bad hammy]

High school track and field rocks! (Except for that 1600 thing . . .)

[Mats Nilsson]

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[Mennisco]

Do drugs help you connect with the ball? No. Do they help you know the ball out of the park when you DO connect? Absolutely.

Same in golf, which many people think isn't aided by PEDs. Even bowling is aided.

Confession time: In high school me and some friends took "bennies" before going to the 10 pin alley for gym class. People wondered how my 5-5/115 girlfriend could whip a ball that size with such ferocity! :lol:

Quality Canuck physical education.

[tafnut]

Highschool football is completely LITTERED with drug abusers in the US. These athletes are also doing track and field. You have a problem from top to bottom whether you like it or not. If you guys want to make a change in your athletes' attitudes you have to start at the grass-root level with instilling a sense of ethics and fair play. Winning-at-all-costs is unfortunately stressed more than fair play in some countries...and this is the root of your evil as well. Early preventive education is a key aspect of solving this rampant problem.

You can't possibly KNOW that. I am IN a high school environment and I have a very good understanding of who does it and how large the problem is. There certainly ARE pockets of steroid use, especially in affluent suburban areas, but it is NOT wide-spread and although the word 'littered' is sufficiently vague for you to hide behind, it's connotation is wrong. Winning-at-all-costs is NOT the USA HS motto, as I'm sure you must know. Sportsmanship and being-the-best-you-can-be (sorry US Army) is. "Early preventative education" IS rampant in the USA.

[Daisy]

Winning-at-all-costs is NOT the USA HS motto, as I'm sure you must know. Sportsmanship and being-the-best-you-can-be (sorry US Army) is. "Early preventative education" IS rampant in the USA.

They can say that stuff but what counts is reality. I've noticed winning at all costs is the reality and they hide behind the words of sportmanship and be the best you can.

How else do you explain that non-matching sports bra disqualification? How else do explain the retarded parents that abuse the umpires? How else do you explain coaches being fired for perfectly reasonable seasons that did not garner a championship? There are exceptions of course. The Steelers franchise have stuck with their coach and can be viewed as great role models for the kids. But that is highly unusual and what you see at the top level is more often than not reflective of the attitude at the grass roots level too.

[mojo]

Track AND FIELD is like one of my kids. No matter what happens or what "it" does I will always love it. 8)

There is more to the sport than the very elite, much more. Go find some kids in your local communtiy to cheer on and support if top level track depresses you too much.

I read your post and actually felt a weight lift off of my shoulders, thank you!

Glad I could be of assistance. 8)

I am involved in the sport at all levels and in just about every capacity so if one area isn't going well I can always focus on something else.
I really enjoyed getting a glimpse at the lives of top athletes this year and while it has incredible perks that we can only dream about it isn't that much different than what we do on a lesser scale.
As one top athlete said- it is just running and training with lots of boring down time and brief moments of excitement. It isn't as glamourous as it seems.
That made me feel better.

But it still beats a real life job.

[tafnut]

They can say that stuff but what counts is reality. I've noticed winning at all costs is the reality and they hide behind the words of sportmanship and be the best you can. How else do you explain that non-matching sports bra disqualification? How else do explain the retarded parents that abuse the umpires? How else do you explain coaches being fired for perfectly reasonable seasons that did not garner a championship? There are exceptions of course. The Steelers franchise have stuck with their coach and can be viewed as great role models for the kids. But that is highly unusual and what you see at the top level is more often than not reflective of the attitude at the grass roots level too.

The media sees only what it wants to see, so it can sensationalize what is actually a rather mundane pastime. 99% of HS sports is so amazingly mediocre, it would not even cross anyone's mind to take PEDs and risk side-effects. I need to do a Larry Rawson here and tell everyone to go down to their local HS and watch your average athletes, like the 5'9", 150 pound, 5.6 (40 yds) football players, the volleyball players with 12" verts, the cross country boys who run varsity with 20 minute 5K times, the basketball players who can't out-rebound a Mexican jumping bean, the soccer players who swing and miss the ball, etc., etc.. That's what we're dealing with in High school FOR THE MOST PART!!!!!! i KNOW. I see it every day!!! We were the Flordia 2A State Champions in girls track last year and here's our line-up (top girl in each event)

100 12.8
200 28.1
400 62
800 2:18 (finished 4th in the state)
1600 5:05 (won the state title)
3200 11:18 (won the state title
100H 16.8
300H 52
HJ 5' (won District)
PV 12'9 (won state, best ALL classes)
LJ 17'
TJ 33'
SP 26'
DT 90'
4x1 53
4x4 4:15
4x8 9:40

does that look like PEDs performances? The boys were far worse comparatively!

[Daisy]

does that look like PEDs performances? The boys were far worse comparatively!

Are you sure the're not contemplating gettng a new track coach? :wink: