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This was a week ⏱
Lap 18: Sponsored by Crazed Foods
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The redemption tour 🌞
There are a few ways to deal with a hangover. You can keep the blinds down and sulk privately from the discomfort of your own bed or you can chug a glass of water, buy a smoothie and shuffle through a crappy run. After the Olympic Trials, it’s understandable for some athletes to need a couple weeks of R&R before lining up again, but others got straight on a plane to mitigate their disappointment. After the 2016 800m champion, Kate Grace, finished 7th at the Trials, she bought the proverbial smoothie. Just four days later she was at the Oslo Diamond League…winning! And after breaking her five-year-old PB and defeating the defending World Champ, Grace lined up again in Stockholm and lowered her PB even more to 1:57.36. She is a testament to resilience! But she’s also a testament to just how tough it is to make the US Olympic team — there are legitimate medal contenders left home in multiple events. The best solution I can come up with is maybe we stop putting one meet so high up on a pedestal and celebrate other accomplishments with equal vigor. It might even help the sport!
The viking finally does it ⛵️
The longest standing record on the track finally fell at the fast-moving, expert-hurdling feet of Karsten Warholm. (The previous mark of 46.78 was set in the 1992 Olympics by American, Kevin Young.) The charismatic Norwegian had been on the cusp of taking down that mark for a couple years, but our sport has a tendency to create fairytales. And apparently Warholm was just waiting to do it in front of the home crowd! There are a couple reasons to believe that this mark won’t last another 29 years. First off, this was his season opener and he always improves as the year goes on. But the main factor is that the US Champ — and pride of Mt. Vernon, NY, Rai Benjamin, posted a dominant 46.83 in Eugene. Before the two square off in Tokyo, they’ll meet on Friday in Monaco. Given that they’re 25 and 23 years old respectively, there are some years left to this budding rivalry.
Watch this crazy throwback: The 2015 New Balance Nationals 400m finish between Rai Benjamin and Taylor McLaughlin. If you don’t know what happens in this video…don’t worry. Everyone was ok!
She ran too fast! 🇳🇦
If there is a consistent theme in T&F it’s that those in charge love to play god. Two 18-year-old Namibian athletes, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who are ranked #1 and #3 in the world at 400m, were discreetly scratched from the Olympics after a June 30th test indicated their natural testosterone levels were too high for eligibility in the female division of competition. According to the Namibian National Olympic Committee, the two athletes are not intersex and have XX chromosomes. But in order to be cleared to compete in events ranging from 400 to 1600m, it would be mandated that the two women undergo 6-months of hormonal suppression.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about this case, but I do have one answer I feel confident in sharing right now: Yes, this is bullshit.
Do these results seem strange to you? 🤔
Look, they tried! The Diamond League did its very best to innovate and experiment with something new, but how did multiple people approve this terrible new format for field events? After every competitor has their respective 5 attempts, the field is then narrowed down to the top 3 and the scoreboard is completely wiped before one final jump/throw to crown the victor. (If you’re confused and think this sounds dumb…good! It is!) And that’s it! So Mihambo jumped the farthest on the day going 7.02m in the 3rd round, but because she was beaten in sudden death — she wound up placing second. This is the equivalent of stopping a marathon with a quarter mile left, restarting it with just the top few runners on a track, and seeing who has the best last lap to declare a winner. What was point of the first 26 miles?
The tweet
‘Standing here, I’d just say don’t judge me because I am human. I’m you, I just happen to run a little faster.’
The running world knew her name, but now the rest of the world has met Sha’Carri too. That said, when people in your life, who have never watched a minute of track are asking for an opinion on one of our sport’s biggest stars, it’s generally not good news. I’ve been a fan since her breakout performance at NCAAs as a freshman at LSU and surely more fans hopped on the bandwagon after Mt. SAC and even more so from the Trials. But the way Sha’Carri has handled this moment has added millions more to her corner.
The facts are she screwed up and made a dumb mistake. Every athlete knows marijuana is illegal in-competition and that it’s tested for, especially if you win. But the way she has owned up to that error and taken responsibility is worth all the admiration coming her way. Even the ‘rules are rules’ crowd has to respect her poise and maturity.
Another fact — c’mon, it’s hard to dispute that this is a ridiculous rule! If any good can come of this situation aside from Sha’Carri’s surging popularity, it’s an immediate amendment to global anti-doping policy.
WADA cites three reasons for weed’s placement on the list, none of which hold up under even the most half-assed scrutiny. How will a slower reaction time endanger anyone? That’s just bad strategy. It’s not consistent with being a role model? [Insert Charles Barkley here.] And the claim that it’s a performance enhancer? Someone at WADA should experiment on themselves. Also, it’s legal in Oregon!
Unfortunately the general public, who just recently discovered T&F after five years of not caring at all, doesn’t understand the hierarchy of decision makers standing between Sha’Carri and the starting line in Tokyo. Oh how I wish we had a commissioner like Adam Silver who could snap his fingers to make this disappear! The one Hail Mary tossed around was the retroactive therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Given the circumstances of Sha’Carri learning about her biological mother’s passing from a reporter and her subsequent need to cope with that tragedy, it would seem like a valid reason to have one granted. Athletes have been given TUEs for marijuana before and it is listed as a method of treatment for pain management. It is 2021 — mental health should qualify!
Technically, USATF could have still named her to the 4x100 team, although it’d have bypassed the standard selection procedure — they did not however acquiesce to the public pressure to #LetHerRun. While the potential matchup between Sha’Carri, ShellyAnn Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah was a headliner, the relay would have made for some must-watch TV. If I can put my tinfoil hat on for a second, I’d imagine NBC was applying some pressure to make it happen.
It truly does suck Sha’Carri won’t get to show the world what she’s got next month. But in addition to the hopeful reconsideration of THC as a banned substance, the true spin zone take is that there are other meets! Sha’Carri will be eligible to be back in action for the Pre Classic on August 21st and will likely race the crowned gold medalist on a track she clearly loves running fast on. Of course she misses out on a chance to prove herself on the biggest stage and all the accolades that come with that honor, but when was the last time there was appointment television for a non-championship meet? Sha’Carri could do something that the sport has been trying to do forever — she could transcend the Olympics. We love to watch our heroes run fast, but legends are made in their comeback stories! And Sha’Carri is going to tell a great one.
Share the newsletter with your friends who just got into track this week!
More than a slap on the wrist
Quick personal anecdote since it’s my newsletter:
Professionals have to provide a daily hour window and location for drug testing availability. They may show up three times in a whole year, but you have to do this everyday regardless. I would routinely choose 7AM at my residence, but I was once delayed at the airport and not going to make it back. I forgot to update my whereabouts, but my wife sent me a reminder text. Before falling asleep I emailed USADA with an update. As chance would have it, the tester showed up the next morning and I wasn’t there. But upon checking his email he discovered my notice and I did not get hit with a missed test.
This isn’t a perfect system and mistakes happen — that’s why there are 3 strikes. But why can’t athletes simply add USADA to Find My Friends?
In 2016, after winning the Olympics, Brianna McNeal was banned for missing 3 tests in 12-months. The irony is that one was missed on a visit to her hometown for a celebration of her accomplishment. The second came while traveling to The White House — to celebrate her accomplishment. But Brianna accepted her punishment, was banned for a year and has been eligible to compete ever since. Until 2020, when she was accused of tampering with doping control procedures. She was able to controversially run at the Olympic Trials because her appeal had not yet been heard by CAS. And yes, she qualified — until the appeal failed.
Upon first hearing this news most fans probably thought it just. “How did she miss three tests again? She must be cheating!” But this was not her third missed test, it was her first [of the cycle] and that isn’t a suspension triggering occurrence. However, in her explanation as to why she missed the test, something that she was not required to provide, the date of a private ‘surprise medical procedure’ was off by a day. And that is why a 29-year-old star, who just qualified to defend Olympic gold is banned for 5 years! Because she incorrectly recalled the date of an abortion that she did not want publicly disclosed.
This is an extreme response as it was not necessary for Brianna to lay out any details at all. Had she remained silent, then she’d be headed to Tokyo. There should exist some form of intermediate penalty — not every situation should be made so categorical. Fine the athletes, add a strike to their record, create a probationary period, increase their testing frequency, require community service, I don’t know! But this is not an example of testing protecting clean athletes.
Buckle up for rankings talk 🚘
Why must we always insist on making the simplest sport so complicated? Inika McPherson tries to jump over a bar without knocking it over. She is one of the best in the world at it, and if you’ve ever watched her clear the bar, you know she should be going to Tokyo. But an algorithm and some weird rules have decided otherwise. Try to follow me:
The Olympic Standard in the Women’s High Jump is 1.96m
The United States can send up to 3 athletes to the Olympics
Selection is made dependent on placement at the US Trials
If an athlete doesn’t have the Olympic Standard they can be selected if their ranking places them within an event’s quota (32 in the HJ).4b. Rankings are determined by an average of the 5 best point performances based off of height achieved, the competition’s category level and finishing place.4c. There is a maximum of 3 athletes per country that can be represented within the quota
USATF takes the top 3 athletes at the Olympic Trials who are eligible according to World Athletics
Vashti Cunningham won and qualifies with the standard.
Nicole Greene finished 3rd, but does not have the ranking or standard and therefore does not qualify.
Rachel McCoy finished 4th and qualifies with the standard.
Inika McPherson finished 2nd and is “ranked” 27th in the world.
There are athletes who are ranked behind Inika but jumped the standard. They’re placed in front of her on the descending order list.
Inika is the first out of the top 32 by 1 point! She is not eligible despite having jumped higher than multiple individuals ranked ahead. (Reminder: Ranking is an average of 5 performances)
The 31st ranked jumper, Airine Palsyte (Lithuania) cleared the standard of 1.96m in 2018, but it doesn’t count for her Olympic Standard because it was outside the qualifying window. It does however count for her ranking.
Tynita Butts-Townsend was 14th at the Olympic Trials and does not have the standard, but is ranked 30th and therefore qualifies.
It is not USATF’s fault that Inika was not selected for the team despite her finishing higher than Tynita at the Trials. Under World Athletics rules, Inika was not eligible as she was outside the quota (see 4c.). The suggestion that if USATF scratched Tynita then Inika would be eligible to go is against all protocol. And it is a matter in order of operations: USATF looks at the field of eligible athletes and then takes the top 3 from that population.
Does this seem like a simple sport?
One of the most popular sports media personalities in the country tried to get into the Olympic Trials as a member of #TeamEngels, but went to bed not understanding who made the squad because no one could concisely explain the system. We are trying to compete with much more complex sports whose methodology is “whoever wins the game wins” and we are losing badly.
The biggest issue is the categories of competition. From highest to lowest they are: OW/DF/GW/GL/A/B/C/D/E/F and that determines how many bonus points are awarded for finishing position. Finish 3rd at a Diamond League meet (GW) and receive +150 points. Win a random meet (F) and get +15 points. Guess how many seconds that 135 point difference is worth in a 1500m? 10 seconds!
Run 3:40 and finish in 3rd at Diamond League meet and receive 1242 points.
Run 3:30 and win a random meet and receive 1242 points.
Does this seem to be a fair weighing system? It’s significantly easier to run fast with two professional rabbits and a world class field dragging you around the track. Having that sort of opportunity should be reward enough! Now consider how you get into those meets — your ranking! Is this starting to sound like our economy? The rich get richer. Once you acquire points, it’s much easier to get more. Of course there is an element of geographic bias involved. In 2021, ten of twelve Diamond League meets are being held in Europe. In 2019 it was Europe (10), Asia (2), North America (1) and Africa (1). Sorry South America, Oceania and Antarctica!
In theory, the idea is to compensate athletes for placing well in highly competitive races. But in practice it looks like this: NCAA Indoors (E), NCAA Outdoors (C), US Olympic Trials (B). And then there are meets like Sound Running and Payton Jordan, which despite featuring multiple international Olympians only gets an F! Why? According to World Athletics, in order to become a Bronze Level meet (A) you have to — among other things — pony up $25,000 in prize money. Look at Nick Willis: one meet being (fairly) upgraded was the difference for his 5th Olympics.
It’s all well-intentioned, but what happens instead is the athletes with the most time, money and resources, can chase the most-favorable-meet-category-to-weak-field-ratio. And in the process, it makes following the sport more difficult while creating an ambiguity as to whether or not any spot is ever secure. This is my proposal:
There is a 12-month rolling window of performances counting for any championship. Tabula rasa! No other sport gives you a pass because you were good the season before. It’s the 2021 Olympics, not the 2018…
Get rid of meet categories entirely as they provide no value. Everything is based on the performance mark.
Keep the one standard. (The old A/B was better, but still confusing.)
Top 3 performances get averaged for a ranking rather than 5. If an athlete runs 3:35 on 3 occasions that’s enough…we believe they’re good!
And I know some people won’t agree with me here as I am getting real radical, but…
Each federation can send as many eligible athletes as they have standards/ranked (maxing out at 3). But they don’t have to be the same athletes as who have the standard/ranking — it’s up to the federation to determine who goes. For example, if the US has 7 athletes with the standard, USATF gets 3 slots for the top 3 at the Trials. If a low-ranked 3:38 guy wins, he goes.
Other federations can choose their own policy. If Canada only has 2 athletes with the standard/ranking and only wants to send individuals who have achieved that themselves, then that’s up to their discretion.
This answers most of the current problems and most importantly makes it a digestible and short rule book. Fans and athletes will be able to follow along easier as it is known what must be done to qualify. The greatest asset to this would be that all a country’s athletes from a given event operate as an entity. Once 3 athletes from the United States hit the standard, everyone else can stop chasing. That establishes “this is a very competitive country” and then through the transitive property, the top 3 are good enough to warrant qualification. The ‘B’ standard will be the ability to qualify for the Olympic Trials (3:37.7 in the M1500 this year).
The number one counter to this is that athletes will rely on others to hit the standard and won’t race. I think this is false as we see athletes race all the time after hitting standards (and following the Olympics). But I believe we are currently too dependent on the Olympic/World Championship qualifying to ever get more creative as this endeavor occupies 5+ months of the calendar. I think this can help solve that conundrum.
This would be an opportunity for the sport to grow in other fun ways. Without having to worry about chasing standards, the top athletes can do more fun exhibition events like: road meets, relays, match races, majors, teams, dual meets, etc. where the emphasis can be placed on racing, winning money and prestige rather than time trialing vs. the clock.
Like this or hate this? Quote tweet me and let’s have a discussion! @sebcoe
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