OT: Spoiler alert: track results

[Blakeon18]

19 year old Athing Mu...New Jersey...won the gold in the 800[women] meters...1:55.21..an American record.
She is the first American to win the 800 gold in over a half-century.

Sydney McLaughlin...New Jersey...set a world record in the 400 meter hurdles...51.49...breaking her own record.
Teammate Delilah Muhammad got the silver...she also broke Sydney's old record.

Coming up: 200 meters final...men.
Erriyon Knighton...USA...just 17 years old...has made the finals...the youngest to do so in decades.
I gather this kid has a HUGE ceiling. He has broken Usain Bolt's under 20 world record with a 19.88 in the U.S. trials.
Got a shot at a medal...or too early for that?

 

[Bigboote]

Speaking of huge ceilings, McLaughlin is only 21. She can probably lower her time over the next 8 years or so, and she just broke her world record by almost half a second.

The future's bright for US track & field.

 

[Blakeon18]

De Grasse holds off 3 Americans for 200 gold

Andre de Grasse of Canada has won the Olympic gold medal in the 200 meters five years after finishing second to Usain Bolt, holding off three American runners who finished second through fourth.

www.espn.com

Canada takes the 200 men's gold....19.62.
Americans go 2-3-4.
'The KId' was 4th in 19.93.

BTW: Bolt's world record is 19.19....his 100 world record is 9.58.

 

[Plebe]

I'm really happy for Andre de Grasse. He was hailed as a future champion when he burst onto the scene with back-to-back bronze medals at the 2015 WCs and Rio 2016 at the age of 20-21. It took him a few extra years to find his way to the top of a world podium, but he's earned it.

Disappointing finish for Noah Lyles, who was looked good coming off the curve but seemed to tie up on the backstretch, slipping to 3rd.

 

[EricLA]

Lyles hadn't lost a race in quite a while, no? I thought he was the favorite to win gold. Good to see so many great sprinters pushing each other!

 

[Plebe]

Lyles hadn't lost a race in quite a while, no? I thought he was the favorite to win gold. Good to see so many great sprinters pushing each other!

I think the race was pretty open. Lyles had won 200m gold at the 2019 world championship, but he's talked openly about how the pandemic year was rough on him, including struggles with depression.

IMO there weren't enough meaningful elite races in 2020-2021 to gauge who was favored. Lyles focused more on the 100m in training and competition, but he somehow bombed in the 100m final at the Olympic trials, finishing 7th. A poor start was blamed.

He barely edged out Bednarek to win the 200m at trials, in a time that was world season's best coming into Tokyo, but he made a bad tactical error in his semifinal, easing up just too soon to fall to 3rd in a photo finish, and ended drawing a bad lane assignment for the final. He didn't lose the final by much, but he clearly just wasn't in peak form -- unlike De Grasse, who looked fantastic in Tokyo and finally broke through the "always a bridesmaid" barrier.

Lyles, at 24, is still young. And if he's motivated and can manage his (for lack of a better word) demons, he can certainly challenge for gold in Paris 2024.

 

[ShmiCO]

Erriyon Knighton...USA...just 17 years old...has made the finals...the youngest to do so in decades.
I gather this kid has a HUGE ceiling. He has broken Usain Bolt's under 20 world record with a 19.88 in the U.S. trials.

Actually, he broke Bolt's youth and junior WRs this summer. Placed 4th today so no medal, but he's one to keep an eye on.

If you're a track fan (nerd?) like me, here's a summary of how well Knighton stacks up against other sprinters when they were his age.

 

[Plebe]

Speaking of huge ceilings, McLaughlin is only 21. She can probably lower her time over the next 8 years or so, and she just broke her world record by almost half a second.

The future's bright for US track & field.

There are some incredibly bright spots, no doubt. In addition to McLaughlin, 19-year-old Athing Mu has emerged to not just win but dominate the 800m, and she looks like a serious threat to take down the world record in the coming years. She is such a delightful runner and personality.

And though she's no rookie, I'm astounded at how close Muhammad came to beating McLaughlin after a very difficult year for her, in which she had to recover from Covid.

The two 400m hurdle finals (W and M) were both truly epic, by far the best races I've ever seen in the event. Though he didn't win gold, Rai Benjamin is just 24 and he demolished the previous WR in the 400m hurdles. It just defies belief that his time was only enough for silver, as the legend of Karsten Warholm continues to grow. The two of them should be having more epic duels in at least the next 3-4 years.

On the less bright side, the US's demons in the men's sprint relay continue. They just failed to qualify for the 4x100 relay final. They had one very poor exchange between legs 2 and 3, which was likely the difference between qualifying and not. But still, it's not like any of them were tearing up the track. Their anchor leg got run down by both Germany and Ghana.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Calling Carl Lewis!!

 

[Plebe]

 

[Plebe]

Congrats to each of these four athletes. Tremendous performances by each of them.

Congrats as well to other medal-winning field athletes, who also deserve recognition:
— Brittney Reese, silver, long jump
— Raven Saunders, silver, shot put
— Chris Nilsen, silver, pole vault

I'm pretty certain each of them carried the flag with pride as well. In track and field the medalists are typically handed a national flag from the stands to display.

 

[eebmg]

US vs Australia Women's Beach Volleyball Live Gold Medal Match on NBC

 

[Blakeon18]

women's 4 by 100 relay

Gold: Jamaica
Silver: USA
Bronze: Great Britain

Jamaica set a national record of 41.02...second fastest time of all time.
Remember that Jamaica swept the medals in the 100. Guess their baton passes were pretty smooth too.

 

[EricLA]

It's mind boggling to me how many times Team USA has botched the baton exchange in the 100x relays. They finished 6th in just their own heat in the semi's. Carl Lewis had it right - “The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay,” he tweeted. “The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw.”

A pretty blistering condemnation. Not too far off either. I would think that part of the responsibility of making team USA is to practice the relays. Only 3 guys make it to the individual 100, but i think they take 5 or 6 for the prelims etc. I would think they would spend most of their time working on the relay exchanges, especially given that we've continuously and historically had so many problems.

Last question/rant - how is it that all these other countries have clean exchanges? It's not like USA basketball where the women and men are both playing in their American leagues and just don't have time to play together before the Olympics. These guys pretty much have one job in the relays and plenty of time to be prepared...

Side note - Lewis went even further in his blistering comments: I kind of love it - if anyone is qualified to speak about the track events and relays, it's him. He competed in them for years during his incredible run of 9 gold and 1 silver across multiple Olympics. "Clown show" ROFL

“This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared,” Lewis told USA Today. “It’s unacceptable. It’s so disheartening to see this because it’s people’s lives. We’re just playing games with people’s lives. That’s why I’m so upset. It’s totally avoidable. And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can’t take it anymore. It’s just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.”

He added, “We’ve been talking about this forever. The relay program has been a disaster for years because there’s no leadership and no system. When I said everything is wrong, it is. If you break it down, people were in the wrong legs, obviously they were not taught how to pass the baton in those legs. Just simple things like that. I watched it. I’m not blaming the athletes so much. This was leadership.”

 

[Plebe]

Allyson Felix wins bronze in the 400m for her 10th Olympic medal, more than any other woman and track and field.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo of Bahamas won gold by a large margin, and Marileidys Paulino (silver) became the first Dominican woman to win a medal in track and field.

It was a great race by Felix, her best since returning from pregnancy. I'm assuming she will also run the 4x400m relay tomorrow, in which case she could now break a tie with Carl Lewis for most track and field medals.

So who will run the 4x400 for the US women? I'm hoping for:
Dalilah Muhammad
Athing Mu
Sydney McLaughlin
Allyson Felix

I'd love to see Felix win gold on the anchor leg. This team could be very fast.

 

[Plebe]

It's mind boggling to me how many times Team USA has botched the baton exchange in the 100x relays. They finished 6th in just their own heat in the semi's. Carl Lewis had it right - “The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay,” he tweeted. “The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw.”

A pretty blistering condemnation. Not too far off either. I would think that part of the responsibility of making team USA is to practice the relays. Only 3 guys make it to the individual 100, but i think they take 5 or 6 for the prelims etc. I would think they would spend most of their time working on the relay exchanges, especially given that we've continuously and historically had so many problems.

Last question/rant - how is it that all these other countries have clean exchanges? It's not like USA basketball where the women and men are both playing in their American leagues and just don't have time to play together before the Olympics. These guys pretty much have one job in the relays and plenty of time to be prepared...

Side note - Lewis went even further in his blistering comments: I kind of love it - if anyone is qualified to speak about the track events and relays, it's him. He competed in them for years during his incredible run of 9 gold and 1 silver across multiple Olympics. "Clown show" ROFL

“This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared,” Lewis told USA Today. “It’s unacceptable. It’s so disheartening to see this because it’s people’s lives. We’re just playing games with people’s lives. That’s why I’m so upset. It’s totally avoidable. And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can’t take it anymore. It’s just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.”

He added, “We’ve been talking about this forever. The relay program has been a disaster for years because there’s no leadership and no system. When I said everything is wrong, it is. If you break it down, people were in the wrong legs, obviously they were not taught how to pass the baton in those legs. Just simple things like that. I watched it. I’m not blaming the athletes so much. This was leadership.”

Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson, probably the two greatest US male sprinters ever, both agree that the issue is a lack of leadership.




And it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's a systemic and organizational (i.e., leadership) failure when you have the same debacles happening again and again over multiple decades. It's clearly not the athletes' fault; they're just being led to failure.

Supposedly, about 20 years ago, USATF hired a "relay coach" specifically to address the persistent baton-passing problems. I don't know if that's still a specific coaching position, but whatever the case, obviously nothing has worked.

 

[ShmiCO]

Allyson Felix wins bronze in the 400m for her 10th Olympic medal, more than any other woman and track and field.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo of Bahamas won gold by a large margin, and Marileidys Paulino (silver) became the first Dominican woman to win a medal in track and field.

It was a great race by Felix, her best since returning from pregnancy. I'm assuming she will also run the 4x400m relay tomorrow, in which case she could now break a tie with Carl Lewis for most track and field medals.

So who will run the 4x400 for the US women? I'm hoping for:
Dalilah Muhammad
Athing Mu
Sydney McLaughlin
Allyson Felix

I'd love to see Felix win gold on the anchor leg. This team could be very fast.

This is a race I'm really looking forward too -- your lineup includes 4 of my favorite women runners. Hoping for some squeaky clean baton passing.

 

[ShmiCO]

Women's 4x400, dominating victory for the USA! @Plebe called the lineup, although the ran in a different order. McLaughlin > Felix. Then Muhammed, who opened a substantial lead. Anchor leg was 19-yo Mu, who made that lead gigantic! Time was 3.16.85, about 1.5 seconds slower than the world record.

A beautiful race. What i love about the 400m showed really well here -- relaxed, natural running style without the heavy tactical emphasis you see in longer races. And our gals all have beautiful form, better than average in my (perhaps biased) opinion. A joy to watch!

 

[Bigboote]

As one who ran both the 4x100 and 4x400 (4x110 and 4x440 in those days), I'm just shaking my head at the US dropping (or almost dropping) the baton three Olympics in a row. It's just NOT that complicated. I'm sure all those guys ran relays in high school and possibly college, so they should know the fundamentals.

Evidently they're not practicing exchanges, which is egregious. At the trials all the sprinters in contention should practice exchanges for say 15 minutes a day. The coaches/committee should observe them and remove from contention anyone who can't get it. They should also observe long enough that they can make the order partly based on how well pairs hand off to each other.

 

[EricLA]

As one who ran both the 4x100 and 4x400 (4x110 and 4x440 in those days), I'm just shaking my head at the US dropping (or almost dropping) the baton three Olympics in a row. It's just NOT that complicated. I'm sure all those guys ran relays in high school and possibly college, so they should know the fundamentals.

Evidently they're not practicing exchanges, which is egregious. At the trials all the sprinters in contention should practice exchanges for say 15 minutes a day. The coaches/committee should observe them and remove from contention anyone who can't get it. They should also observe long enough that they can make the order partly based on how well pairs hand off to each other.

I will admit I ran the short relays about 40 years ago but I agree ... it's simply not rocket science.

The person receiving the baton needs to know the distance, but basically starts running at the appropriate time and does NOT look back. If the baton is being passed on the right, then all recipients will run, hold their right arm behind them with their thumb spread, and the runner with the baton will barely slow down enough to bring the baton up into their outstretched hand.

Truly good exchanges to not need the baton to be adjusted. taking your other hand and fixing the baton, or moving it to another hand, will only slow you down. In a race that comes down to seconds for winning, there's just no time for mistakes or adjustments.

Given that I was taught this in high school, and I was good but not great, there is ZERO reason elite Olympic athletes have not been taught this. It's especially egregious for the runners who are NOT in the individual 100M finals to be incapable of passing correctly, but passing properly is not a skill that requires years of fine tuning.

It is shameful that these athletes are not trained properly.

 

[Plebe]

Fifth-fastest time in history!
And the fastest since 1993!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Fifth-fastest time in history!
And the fastest since 1993!

Athing was age 2 when Allyson ran in her 1st Olympics. Allyson is retiring with the most Olympic track and field medals of any woman in history. Sydney, Delilah, and Athing (age 19) look to have very bright futures.

 

[Plebe]

Side note - Lewis went even further in his blistering comments: I kind of love it - if anyone is qualified to speak about the track events and relays, it's him. He competed in them for years during his incredible run of 9 gold and 1 silver across multiple Olympics. "Clown show" ROFL

Ha, Carl has never been one to hold back his opinion. He's now the T&F coach at University of Houston, and I get the impression that perhaps his outspokenness left him on the outside looking in when it comes to USATF and the "establishment".

For those interested in digging into the causes of the problem and the potential fixes, Carl held a live discussion on the topic on his Instagram page:

 

[triaddukefan]

I'd like to give mention to Paul Chelimo... a graduate of UNC-Greensboro... winning the bronze in the 5,000 meters. While I am still mad over Shaunae Miller-Uibo diving at the finish line to win the 400 in Rio.... Chelimo dove at the line to clinch a medal in his race ( I see no problem in him doing it) He becomes the first American to win multiple medals in the 5,000 as he won the silver in Rio. Years ago... while on a walk in my favorite park... while still a student at UNCG, Chelmio ran by me while training.

Two NCA&T runners got gold medals in the 4X400.. Randolph Ross and Trevor Stewart. They didnt run in the finals, but they ran in the prelimary round and finished 1st place in that heat. Stewart also won a bronze in the 4X400 mixed relay. Aggie Pride.