The Olympic Trials are just 72 hours away. I just finished listening to the two USATF pressers today. I must say, I am so inspired by the athletes we listened to on Monday and Tuesday! I have viewed or visited each Olympic Trials since 1976 (began writing in 1984 on them), so here are a few observations from someone who loves the sport but also knows that critical viewing and commenting is key to covering the sport for our readers.
2021 Oregon Twilight Meet, May 7, 2021, photo by Larry Eder
1. There will always be doping issues. My concern about Shelby Houlihan is this. In the U.S., we are innocent until proven guilty. In much of Europe, thanks to Monsieur Napoleon Bonaparte, one is guilty until proven innocent.
There has not been an Olympic Trials since 1976 that doping did not play a big role. In 1992, it almost destroyed the Olympic Trials with the Butch Reynolds fiasco. And as the late James Dunaway told us, the easiest stories to write are on doping issues. Covering the Olympic Trials is more than asking doping questions in a mixed zone.
2. We will miss some key athletes. Olympic silver and WC bronze medalist Evan Jager, one of the finest steeplechasers in the world, will not be competing. We hope that he recovers soon. Molly Huddle and Shannon Rowbury, two of the most amazingly gutty athletes that it has been my privilege to view and write about, are not competing.
Thanks to all three for inspiring us and giving us so many fantastic events to view!
Christian Taylor, we will miss you and hope that Will Claye will be up to his game without competing against you. You two make the TJ what it is, one of the most amazing events in our sport!
Christian Coleman, we will miss you. We want you to come back because, you made a mistake, and we do not want your career defined by that mistake.
3. Hayward Field is a true sanctuary to the sport.
Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight dropped some serious coin to build this sanctuary to Duck history. It is to track & field what the Cathedral to Notre Dame was, in the Middle Ages to the creator.
This sanctuary of sport is an imposing and fitting habitat for athletics and will host the 2021 USA Olympic Track & Field Trials as well as 2022 World Athletics Championships.
But, we need more. Mt. SAC, Stanford, Drake and somewhere on the East coast are a minimum of what we need to showcase the sport between 2022 and 2028.
Plus the bespoke meets, the ones like Jesse Williams, Chris Chavez, Paul Doyle and the Miles of Trials put together.
Finally, we need street meets. Mark Wetmore and Global athletics have built a meet in Boston that should be in at least six cities!
