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V 10 N. 7 Update on What's Happening with Doping in Track and Field

February 9, 2020, 7:29 am
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Feb. 9, 2020
I've learned over the years that The Guardian is a great source of independent information not only in international and American news events but also sports.  Though heavily tied to rugby, soccer, and cricket, it also has some very good articles on Track and Field, or Athletics as the sport is more commonly referred to over there.  Also unlike most newspapers in the world,  The Guardian, can still be read without paying a subscription fee.   They make appeals for financial support, but they do not insist that you pay, and they still provide high quality reporting.  Three days ago Donald McRace, produced a very up to date article on Edwin Moses, who we all know, but who is also very at the center of things with the doping scandals that have continued to drain the credibility of our sport and even influence the powers that be to look the other way.  Moses as I'm sure you are aware has been very outspoken on the abuse of PEDs.  This article will inform you about what is presently going on and what to expect in the months leading up to the Olympics.  That is if the Corona Virus allows us to have an Olympics this year.  Anyone signed up for a cruise to Tokyo this summer?

If I may be allowed to editorialize briefly, I can only wish that the cheaters of the past who were never exposed or were protected by their respective national federations would now be named.  Sometimes it is better to rewrite the history books, even if it does give your country a bloody nose.    There are plenty of  them who benefitted from getting an illegal boost.   Without more tub thumping, here is the link to the article by McRae.   George Brose

"We All Knew Doping Was Happening"
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V 10 N. 7 Mondo Duplantis sets WR Indoors 20'3'' 6.17 meters

February 9, 2020, 4:11 pm
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What an incredible performance, incredible video, who needs a translator?

From The Advocate.  No by line  Feb. 8, 2020


TORUN, Poland — Armand "Mondo" Duplantis set the world record for the pole vault with a clearance of 6.17 meters Saturday at Orlen Copernicus Cup as part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. He broke Renaud Lavillenie’s mark of 6.16 meters set in 2014.
“I’ve wanted to break the world record since I was 3 years old,” said Duplantis, the former LSU vaulter and Lafayette native.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m on cloud nine right now. There’s no secret to what I do. I just put in a lot of hard work. I can’t thank my parents enough for helping me to get to where I’m at now. All the support I had from everybody is the reason why I did this.”
When translated into imperial form, Duplantis cleared 20 feet, 2.9 inches.
Duplantis, 20, competes for Sweden, his mother's homeland, and made a strong statement with the Tokyo Olympics just six months away.
During the competition, Duplantis cleared the following heights: 5.52 meters, 5.72 meters, 5.92 meters, and 6.01 meters before moving up to the world-record height of 6.17 meters. He cleared the height on his second try.
Tim Lemaire, Lafayette High athletic director and boys track and field coach commented on the record, saying, "I saw the video, and after what he did a few days ago (at PSD Bank Meeting in Düsseldorf, Germany), just missing (the world record), I guess we all knew it was a matter of time."
Lemaire also described how close he came to the record in Germany.
"He had his body over it, and he kind brushed it with his arm coming down," Lemaire said. "That knocked it off, but he was over it. His jump at six meters previous to that, he was way over it. So I could see him breaking this again often and frequently over the next few months. Who knows?"
Lemaire said after watching Duplantis practice every day in high school, he knew Duplantis was destined to break a world record.
"When he was at Lafayette High, just the things he would do at practice, watching him jump 18-6 like it was nothing in practice, you knew something great was coming," Lemaire said. "He's so motivated and focused. That was dream, and he obviously worked (extremely hard) for it."

 I watched Mondo's vault again and saw what he did with his legs.  Rather than drive one knee up and have his takeoff leg stay behind to create a split, Mondo rocked back and brought both legs to his chest and thrusted both legs just in front of the bar.  That seems like a good idea and gave him more momentum to take advantage of the unbending of the pole.  Bill Schnier

Mondo's hips were a good foot over the bar, thighs grazed the bar on way down. More records ahead.  Bruce Kritzler
 
   I only saw Mondo's WR vault but he didn't even look as if he rocked back all the way.  I think he has more in him.  Bill Schnier

Mondo wr in pv Donovan Brazier  AR in 800. Good start to year !
Bruce  

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V10 N. 8 Another Article on Shoe Wars from The Guardian

February 11, 2020, 6:28 am
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Jonathan Liew's article on shoe tech today sums up a lot the questions and views that we are currently dealing with in the shoe wars.  Actually at this point in time it is not a shoe war so much as a shoe conquest and post war occupation of the running world.  Bold type are my comments.

Running reaches crossroads as Nike-led footwear arms race infects mainstream

from The Guardian Feb. 11, 2020  by Jonathan Liew
There was a guy at parkrun (fun run) the weekend before last wearing a pair of lime-green Vaporflys on the start line. At least he looked suitably sheepish about it – pointedly ignoring the sharp whispers, the discreet pointing, the gentle ribbing from his running club mates. With its clownish platform heels and lurid alien colour scheme, the Vaporfly is not a shoe for blending into the crowd. Even in a field of 600 anonymous runners the eye is always going to be drawn to the one wearing what looks like a mutant tropical fish on each foot. The race began and off he streaked: a blur of lime-green disappearing into the distance, leaving the rest of us, with our boring reasonably-priced shoes and sniggering moral judgments, in his dust.
Of course, it’s easy to scoff when the stakes are minuscule. Turning up for your local Saturday morning fun run in £250 space-age trainers: objectively very funny, and largely analogous to the guy who wears his Lionel Messi astro boots to Wednesday five-a-side (and leaves with several painful stud-shaped indentations in his ankle). What happens, though, when the stakes are far higher? When the prize is an Olympic gold medal, when the audience is global, when the margins are life-changing? Should it matter what shoes the competitors are wearing? And if not, why not?  (Haven't we as spectators always looked at the shoes as well as the runner wearing them?)
These are some of the questions with which athletics has been grappling in recent months. In a way they go well beyond the optimum thickness of a nitrogen-infused midsole or whether two carbon plates should be allowed to overlap. No question of sporting ethics can be resolved purely through science and, by the same token, the terms of our emotional engagement are far too important to be dictated by administrators bearing formulae. The question of the Nike Vaporflys – and its successor models – is thus one that cuts to the very core of what sport is about, or should be.
By now readers will be aware of how Vaporfly-shod athletes have been laying waste to the record books, quietly and quickly changing the face of the sport. Eight of the 12 fastest men’s or women’s marathons in history have been run in the last 18 months. In October, in Vienna, Eliud Kipchoge became the first man to run the marathon distance in under two hours. The prototype Alphafly shoes he wore for that effort are banned but last month World Athletics retroactively declared the Vaporflys legal as well as the records set in them.
The first point to make here – although in the scale of things, not a terrifically helpful one – is that Nike have done nothing illegal or even that novel. Carbon plates date back to the early 2000s, with Paul Tergat breaking the marathon world record in a pair of Filas in 2003. Nor is there much new in the deployment of energy-efficient foam, which Adidas first pioneered almost a decade ago. Nike’s stroke of insight has been to synthesise largely existent technologies into a single devastating package, one that with the backing of World Athletics has in effect rewritten the terms of distance running. Either you join the arms race (if, that is, you can negotiate Nike’s imperial battalion of patent lawyers). Or you lose.
You don’t have to be a luddite or a nostalgic to wonder about where this vision of athletics might ultimately lead. For those at the vanguard of the revolution these are genuinely transformative times – a chance to rebrand athletics as a high-powered, jaw-dropping spectator entertainment. When Kipchoge states, with all the evangelical zeal of a tech bro in a headset giving a Ted talk, that “we must go with technology” and compares Nike’s trainer innovation with the role of tyre manufacturers in Formula One, he is articulating an entirely different sort of sport from the one we grew up with: one in which the turning wheel of technological progress is not merely an auxiliary sideshow but part of the spectacle itself.
The main gripe here is not driven by ideology or anti-progress. We are not talking about returning to cinder tracks and putting everyone in Dunlop Green Flash. (Converse or Wilson trainers) Nor is it the increasingly corrosive influence of Nike on athletics, an entire sport now in effect in thrall to a single company; nor the inevitable human wastage of athletes physiologically unsuited to the new technology or sponsored by companies unable to replicate it or simply unable to afford it; nor even the colossal environmental dereliction of a shoe that has to be thrown away after 200 miles of use.  (200 miles?  I could barely get my Gazelles broken in at that distance.)
No, the real point is this: in the same way that nobody reads novels to marvel at the typeface, nobody watches athletics – in many ways the oldest and purest sport of all – to gawp at the trainers. (Actually not many watch athletics aka 'track and field' period.) Do you know how many butt-numbingly boring articles about shoe technology I had to read before I could start writing this column? Even its very existence feels like the triumph of the inane over the essential, a lame surrender to the Nike marketing octopus. (Woman in Nike’s PR department, reading Vaporfly’s press coverage: “Oh, no. Another article criticising our shoes for being too fast. How utterly terrible.”)
But then, if you’re a sport in 2020 and not somehow facilitating disposable parasite-consumerism, then do you even really exist? Perhaps once, long ago, before we were terminally jaded by doping scandals, we could still cling to the idea that athletics somehow represented the very best of us as a species; that its feats might inspire us, rather than simply inspire us to buy trainers; that this was genuinely a sport operating by the laws of the body, not the laws of the market. Or perhaps this too was always delusion: a lime-green speck on the horizon, gently receding ever further into the distance.
(I'm wondering what can be done with 'worn out' Vaporflys.   Could some kind of communal art project be made with dozens  molded together in a sculpture or a wall hanging? Or maybe recycled into engine mounts for electric vehicles? Or flotation devices for Kenyan  and Ethiopean refugees crossing the Mediteranean Sea in unsafe vessels?)
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V 10 N. 9 Some Pages from an Old Program

February 16, 2020, 9:50 am
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February 15, 2020
      I received several photo copied pictures from a  program for the Princeton Invitation Track
Meet held on June 19, 1937.   (Bruce Kritzler provided these documents.)  There must have been a lot going on at the school with graduation and other year end activities.  Still there were some big time races on that track in the late 1930s.   Jack Lovelock came over to race the best Americans on July 15, 1933 and set a world record in the mile in Palmer Stadium on the Princeton campus. (see article below)  Lovelock in fact strongly resembles the lead runner in this cover art work.

      The second picture is the Two Mile Run line up with world records current and pending and American record holders.

     The third page is a list of athletes appearing from around the US, and one international Luigi Beccali the Italian 1932 1500 Olympic champion.   I don't know if Beccali stayed in the US during WWII or went back to Italy. He did end up living in the States in Florida after the war and was a prosperous wine merchant.

     Of note in picture three below, all the athetes' AAU registration numbers as well as their race numbers are listed in the program.  This must have been one of the formalities of the times that the pretentious AAU heirarchy prescribed on everyone.  Not just to be 'registered' and perform under their approval, but to demonstrate their power by putting those numbers in the program to display that overwhelming power, as if saying,   "See what we did to Jesse Owens when he didn't follow our orders after Berlin?"  At the same time Avery Brundage had received the contract to build the new German embassy in Washington and enjoyed the Asian objets d'art    presented to him by the Germans.  Art taken from Jewish citizens by the Nazi regime. 

Beccali's 'international registration' is also listed.  George Brose














An archival photo of Zamperini before his ill fated flight that led to a prison camp and torture.
He is looking through a flak hole in his aircraft.


A brief write up follows about the Princeton Invitational of 1937 in the Alumni Magazine giving us some info about the upcoming meeting.  Note the language is not the same as the typical sportswriting of the day, but a university journal's attempt at authenticity projected to an 'elite establishment' of Princeton alumni readers.  I'm wondering how these Tiger alums perceived the mention of two sets of twins  from North Texas Teachers College, Elmer and Delmer Brown and Blaine and Wayne Rideout trodding on that hallowed track.  Was it one of welcome or just tolerance of the unwashed from the Dust Bowl?  Here is that touting of the upcoming track meet.

...."Banner fields have been selected in the quarter-mile, two mile and mile features which should promise a repetition of former Invitation Meet thrills..  "

    "Six men comprise the 440 yard entries including the Brown twins, Elmer and Delmer of North Texas Teachers, Dennis Shore of South Africa, Bob Young , Olympic team member for U.C.L.A., Jim Herbert and Eddie O'Brien winner of the event in 1935 who will be making his farewell appearance on the 19th."

     "The other famous pair of twins from North Texas Teachers, Blaine and Wayne Rideout are entered in the 2 mile run along with Ray Sears, who won the event two years ago, Louis Zamperini of Southern California, Olympic competitor, and Howard Welch, Cornell Intercollegiate Champion."

     " The mile fixture, the meeting between the world's greatest performers in this event offers another possibility for the long heralded  'Mile of the Century'.  Although Jack Lovelock conqueror of Bonthron and Cunningham here two years ago, is out of competition,  Archie San Romani, who took the measure of the New Zealander in a special race in Palmer Stadium, last fall, will match strokes with Cunningham, Venzke, Luigi Beccali, the 1932 Olympic Champion at 1500 meters, and Don Lash, who toured the two mile event in the rain last year for a new World Record in the event at  the first running here 3 years ago, Cunningham who recently completed a sensational indoor campaign and last week hung up a new World Record in the three quarters at Travers Island. "

     "Bill Bonthron '34 who used to engage in some memorial clashes with Cunningham and Gene Venzke will watch his old opponents flash by while he acts as a judge."

     History tells us that San Romani won this mile race in his all time personal best of 4:07.2.
I am still searching for the 2 mile outcome.  Youtube carries several memorable races from Pinceton in the late 1930s, if you search a bit.

Readers of this blog are always have my back.  Tom Trumpler just sent three clippings from the St. Louis Post Dispatch reporting on the Princeton Meeting and the NCAA meet which went off on the same weekend.  Zamperini won the two mile in 9:28.2.    Tom asks why Zamperini went to the Princeton meet instead of the NCAA.  He surmizes that Dean Cromwell figured USC could still win the meet without Zamperini.   The Brown Twins got in the results with Delmer winning the 440 in 48.0 and Elmer coming in 6th.   The Rideout brothers did not place in the 2 miles.  Full results of both meets can be seen below.  The blue sheet is the box score for the Princeton meet.  I made some comments about the writing in the Princeton Alumni journal, and I have to as well in the St. Louis P.D.  If an athlete is not white, he is immediately defined as being a Negro.  Just the way things were written in those days.

Tom's notes on each clipping follow.  Imagine all this track and field material in one issue of newspaper.  No way that will happen today.




              The article on the Princeton Invite, plus results.
            - The text in the article recounts in great detail the mile, but nothing about the two-mile!
            - To learn that Louie Zamperini was the two-mile winner, go to the summary of results!
              (Hey, why wasn't Louie running at the NCAA meet, maybe it was because Dean Cromwell 
              knew he had it won.



- A banner headline of Archie San Romani and Lash running the mile.
            - A column 5 sub-headline notes that USC won the NCAA track championship






 The article and summary results of the NCAA meet. Johnny Woodruff set an NCAA 800M mark of 1:50.3


This is the story of that earlier 'Mile of the Century' when Lovclock set a  World Record in the Mile.

This article is from the website New Zealand History

Jack Lovelock’s run at Princeton University beat the record for the mile, held by Jules Ladoumègue, by 1.6 seconds. The race was dubbed the ‘greatest mile of all time’ by Time magazine.
The race was part of the sixth annual Oxford-Cambridge vs Princeton-Cornell track meet. There was much media interest in the showdown between Lovelock (Oxford) and Bill Bonthron (Princeton), with speculation that the world record might be broken. Bonthron had won that year’s intercollegiate 800-m and 1500-m events impressively. As a warm-up for the Princeton-Cornell meet, Lovelock and his teammate Forbes Horan (Cambridge) competed against a Yale-Harvard team in the mile. Lovelock won this race in 4 minutes 12.6 seconds, an intercollegiate record.
On the day of the event there were about 5000 spectators at Palmer Stadium, Princeton. Rain threatened but held off, and by the start of the programme at 4.30 p.m. conditions were good for running. The mile was a tactical race. Bonthron took the lead before giving way to John Hazen (Cornell). To Lovelock’s delight, they set a fast pace. With half a mile to go, Bonthron moved back to the front. At the top corner Horan overtook Bonthron to make sure the ¾-mile mark was reached in the target time. Horan soon dropped back, leaving the race to Bonthron and Lovelock.
With 300 m to go, Bonthron pulled away. Lovelock was prepared and shortened and quickened his stride, closing the gap before the final bend. As they came into the home straight he drew level and then hit the front. Bonthron was unable to muster his usual ‘blistering kick’ and Lovelock breasted the tape seven strides ahead.
Lovelock’s time of 4 minutes 7.6 seconds broke the world record by 1.6 seconds. It was the first time a New Zealander had set a recognised world record. Now the top miler in the world, Lovelock was inundated with invitations to social engagements and races in Europe and the United States. In 1933 Lovelock ran 33 major races, winning most of them. That year he came second to baseballer Carl Hubbell in the Associated Press Athlete of the Year poll in the US.

More on those Eagle Twins
The “Eagle Twins” consisted of two sets of twins on the North Texas College men’s track team. Elmer Brown, Delmer Brown, Wayne Rideout and Blaine Rideout set a world record in the indoor mile and seven-eighths medley relay on February 5, 1938, at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, New York.


Elmer and Delmer Brown and Blaine and Wayne Rideout

Elmer Brown

Delmer Brown

A ticket to the Princeton Invitational cost  $1.00. But you could request special seating with this form.
Comments from Bill Schnier on the 1937 NCAA Meet.

   Today there would not be a college sponsored meet on the same day as the NCAA.  Was T&F a bit like basketball where the NIT was considered more important than the NCAA for about 15 years?  At the NCAA in 1937 Jesse Owens was no longer at OSU but disqualified for academic reasons.  However, Cleveland East Tech and OSU teammate, David Albritton, was still present and won the NCAA high jump.  He would later be elected as a state representative in Ohio.  Southern Cal was the team champion once again with a strong showing from Indiana.  Were any of the members of the famous USA 1926 Olympic 4x100 relay running at Princeton because they were not at the NCAA?  A number of small schools, later Division II, would  emerge with placers in the meet.  The mile at Princeton was won with a 4:07 but at the NCAA it was 4:13.  Only Southern Cal, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Georgia placed in the three sprints among warm weather schools with the others coming from cold weather climates.  That would not happen today.  The winning times of 9.7, 21.3 and 47.1 were comparable to those of Lamar Preyor of TMHS in 1975:  9.4, 21.0 and 47.7.  How much of that can be attributed to polyurethene tracks?  No women were at either meet. 
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V 10 N. 10 Mondo Duplantis Puts Another Notch on His Pole

February 17, 2020, 7:49 am
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February 17, 2020

The Guardian and Sean Ingle reported this morning that Mondo Duplantis has raised the WR in the Pole Vault another cm to 6.18 in Glasgow yesterday.   Twice in one week.


Mondo Duplantis reinforced his status as being at the vanguard of athletics’ new wave of super talents by breaking the world pole vault record for the second time in a week at the Glasgow grand prix.
The way the 20-year-old cleared 6.18m – easily beating the mark he set in Poland last week – to earn another $30,000 bonus from World Athletics suggested there will be plenty more pay cheques coming his way.
“It’s the best little split second that could ever be,” said Duplantis, describing how he felt once he was over the bar. “Everything builds up to that one tiny little moment. That little free-fall is a magical moment.”
The Swede has already had plenty of those moments in his fledgling career. He was a child prodigy took up the event aged four – it helped that his dad, who cleared 5.80m in the 1990s, built a pole vault pit in their back garden – and set world bests from seven to twelve years.
By 14, Duplantis had already vaulted higher than a London double-decker bus. By 18 he had cleared six metres. Who knows how high he could eventually go now? “Every competition I go into I want to win and that’s the main goal,” he said afterwards. “I want to jump high, I want to break the world record but first you’ve got to win and that’s the main goal. But if I have a bit of energy left, I’ll try to crank it up.”
When asked about his brilliant run of form, Duplantis said that leaving Louisiana State University to turn professional had made a massive difference. “I wasn’t going out every night, but I tried not to let athletics overpower me where I couldn’t live any life,” he said of his time as a student. “But since then I’ve cut out a lot. This is my first year as a professional – I’m not a college kid any more – so I wanted to take it pretty professionally. I try to eat better, I have a better sleep schedule, take recovery more seriously and train harder. I feel great doing it.”
As for what he will spend his bonus on, Duplantis is uncertain. “We’ll see,” he said, with a smile. “Maybe I’ll keep saving.”
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V 10 N. 11 Asia Marathons, Some Are Off, Some Are On

February 17, 2020, 4:23 pm
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Feb. 17, 2020

                                                            Tokyo Marathon Cancelled
I saw in today's  The Guardian , yes I read it almost everyday, and noted that the Tokyo Marathon has been cancelled.  Forty Thousand Entries being told to stay home.  With the Olympics only five months away, you don't want 40,000 wheezers running through the streets and boroughs of the nation's capitol and maybe one percent of that mob having been in contact with someone who has or has had the corona virus contaminating the air.   The entry fee for the Tokyo is $165, multiply that by 40,000 and you get a $6.6 million to be sent back.   The Elite Marathon will continue as scheduled however.  Now if you are an elite runner, how willing are you to risk it?  Probably a pretty safe bet that you won't get sick, but.......    When the Spanish Influenza circled the globe in 1918 millions died.  We're taking better precautions these days but there is no guarantee that everyone will be spared.   American casualties in WW I  were greater from the Spanish Flue than from bullets and artillery fire...
                                                            Seoul Marathon Still on 
Dave Elger, an old friend and very good marathoner living in South Korea has informed me that there are 30 confirmed cases of the virus in South Korea.  Consequently   some restrictions are  now being placed on the Korea Marathon which is coming up shortly.  However at the time of this writing, the race is still on.  This is another 40,000 ($70 entry feex 40K = $2.8  million) entries with an international half marathon.   The international half has been postponed to September.  They may be able to pick up a few Tokyo Olympics stragglers needing some pocket money from that race.  Their marathon is still on, but with a lot of caveats.

Here are a few of the things the Korea organizing committee has posted.  Some a bit confusing but nevertheless.

Thank you for all the love and support. Also, we would like to appreciate 40,000 runners and 4,000 volunteers for participating in the 2020 Seoul Marathon.
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We are currently receiving numerous inquiries if the COVID-19 outbreak affects Seoul Marathon schedule. The Seoul Marathon Committee confirms that at this moment all preparations for the race are in accordance with the original schedule.
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However, we strongly recommend considering your cancellation and request a refund, if you don't feel well or are insecure about the situation before February 24th, 2020 at 6:00 PM. (Korean local time GMT+9)
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The Korean government has advised all citizens and travelers who have been to China within the past 14 days or have fever, cough or breathing problems, not to participate at mass or public events. We urge all the participants to strictly follow this recommendation.
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If you are currently staying in China, please reconsider your participation in accordance with the measurement of Korean government.
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Korean government has also announced that the following procedure will be applied to the citizens and travelers who arrive in Korea.
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-Hubei issued passport holders or any foreigner who visited Hubei province within the past 14 days are not allowed to board a flight heading to South Korea.
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-All visas issued by Korean consulate in Wuhan are not valid.
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-Flight transfer in Korea of Chinese passengers without a visa regardless of their departure is not allowed anymore.
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-Any foreigner who is eligible for a Visa to enter Korea is not allowed to transfer in Korea without a Visa.
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-Every passenger who arrives in Korea from China, Hong Kong and Macau must provide a valid mobile phone and number.
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-Every foreigner who arrives in Korea must fill out a Health Questionnaire.
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-Every foreigner who arrives in Korea must fill out a Travel Record Declaration.
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-All passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau must check their fever and cough symptoms by thermal cameras and thermometers.
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-If you have no significant symptoms it is mandatory to download Self Diagnosis Mobile App and report fever, cough and breathing difficulty immediately if those symptoms should occur.
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-All passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau should provide and verify contacts and addresses in Korea.
Depending on further situations, conditions may change. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates accordingly. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
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V10 N. 13. Mo Farah In a Bit of a Shit Storm Over L-Carnatine Injections

February 24, 2020, 6:22 am
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Once again, Sean Ingle of The Guardian is keeping us in the loop with the seemingly endless drama of doping in sport.  This time it is with a series of injections of L-carnatine,  a 'naturally occurring' amino acid into Mo Farah.  My question, if it is naturally occuring, why do you need more?  There is a legal limit of injecting 50ml of the stuff and Mo was well under that limit.   But when questioned by the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) about getting the injections by a United Kingdom  Athletics (UKA) doctor in the presence of then coach Alberto Salazar, Mo seemed to have forgotten that this had happened.  Mo according to the report denied taking the injections several times, this being just prior to the 2014 London Marathon (a race he did not run well).  Then after walking out of  that interview, he suddenly remembered he had taken the injections, walked back into the interview room and 'fessed up.  This to me seems in no way to admit to any wrongdoing, but it does make me wonder why  so many additives need to be pumped into elite runners, just under what the rule book allows.  It almost makes me wish we were back in the 'shamateur' days of the sport.  I don't know if we were ever in a truly drug or additive-free period of sport, but the game these days is being played out to the extreme of human capacity to absorb the 'stuff of victory'.   

As for 'forgetting what he had taken' I can completely understand.  Hell I take at least three drugs everyday to keep me alive and functioning, but if you asked me to name all three and the dosages, I would fail the test.  But forgetting those specific injections makes me think that he was getting a lot of injections all the time.  Otherwise why would you forget a couple of them that you took just a day or so before a big race?

The other problem that athletes sometimes forget or maybe never are aware of is the shallowness of their lives when this is the only goal they seem to have.  They appear to be living only for these few fleeting moments of youth (and the money) , and they make extraordinary efforts to extend their youth, as we now see world class sprinters in their late thirties, and they have no idea what lies around the corner.  I guess that is a classic description of youth.  It's how the old convince the young to go to war.  They have no idea.   

But in the day when many of the best athletes also had to earn a living in the real world just to be able to show up at the starting line, they were much better prepared for life after competition and  were less a victim of commercial parasites draining everything out of them and leaving them on the scrap heap.    George Brose

Here is Sean Ingle's report.

Mo Farah Changes Account During USADA Interview
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V 10 N. 13. Passing of Coach Harry Groves, R.I.P.

February 24, 2020, 5:57 pm
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Today, Coach Harry Groves the long time track and field coach at Penn State University left us and is probably busy somewhere organizing an indoor meet or getting ready for the Penn Relays.   It is too soon to write a lot about Harry as we are waiting for letters and reports to come in to the Penn State Track and Field Blog which we will pass on to you as those testimonies come in.  Keep checking on this particular posting for updates.   I'm sure he is jawing with John Jacobs, my former coach at Oklahoma. 



Our sympathies go out to the Penn State Family on this occasion.
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V 10 N. 14 Dick Bank, Track Legend R.I.P.

February 25, 2020, 8:46 pm
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Dick Bank passed away today.  Harry Groves died yesterday.  Who of us who were living and aware of our sport in 1964 will ever forget Dick Bank's incredible call on the last fifty yards of the Olympic 10,000 meters final when Billy Mills drove through to the finish line despite all the experts seeing it as Mohammed Gammoudi or Ron Clarke's race right to the end.  Bud Palmer, a nice guy, but not a track man, he played pro ball for the New York Knicks, was calling the race and clearly unaware that Billy was coming to the fore, and it looked like he would miss call the race of our lifetimes.  But Dick whose job was to be a technical expert somehow got on the mike and was shouting something like 'Look at Mills!  Look at Mills!"   In viewing a replay of the last lap (see link) Palmer was aware of Mills early in the last 400, but coming down to the finish there was a lot of lapped traffic and the monitor actually zoomed in on Gammoudi, and it was impossible to see Billy for a short time.  Perhaps Palmer was looking at the monitor rather than the track and failed to pick out Mills.  But he quickly covered his tracks and was exclaiming the win before Billy came to a halt.  In the background you can hear Bank rejoicing with some wordless huzzahs. 

The Last Lap of the 10,000 at Tokyo  This clip is 1 min. and 21 seconds.  It covers the race as it was seen on TV.   If you stay on the link, a second film comes up; covering the race from the Japanese film on the 64 Olympics.  It is in color and better photography, but of course Dick Bank was not on their team. 

That day I was in the TV lounge on the second floor at Jefferson House on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.   Billy wasn't a Sooner, but we knew who he was.  He was from our conference, the Big 8.

He had PR'd in the first 5,000 meters of that 10,000 meter race.  He became the fourth Jayhawk in recent times to win an Olympic medal in track and field.  The others were Al Oerter, Bill Neider, and Cliff Cushman.  Bill Griffin, a sprinter on our team and a member of the Kiowa First Nation was staring in disbelief.  He knew Billy, a Lakota Sioux from the numerous times the Sooners and Jayhawks ran against each other every year, in dual meets indoors, outdoors and cross country.  They were brothers of the first order.  I want to believe that there were tears in my eyes that afternoon.

Dick Bank though made that race indelible in our minds with his enthusiasm and willingness to take the risk to step in front of the talking heads and tell it like it was.  It eventually cost him his job, but I don't belief he ever grieved for one moment his decision to fill the void.  The only other person who can compare in telling this tale is Billy Mills.  If you ever have a chance to hear him.....don't miss the opportunity.

I once called Dick Bank on a whim, to get some information on the location of some track legend.  He was skeptical for a few moments with this cold caller.  I was afraid he would hang up on me.  But he warmed up very quickly coming up with some obscure track trivia related to my school, who the coach was and his placing in the NCAA meet in the polevault in 1949.  I thought he had an incredibly fast computer, but he didn't use computers, he used his brain to store all those numbers and stories.  I learned too that if Dick did not know the information that I was seeking, there was only one other human to contact,  Ron Morris.

Yes, we've lost two legends this week with Harry and Dick,  oh jeez did I say that?  I hope you guys are entertaining the daylights out of each other in heaven or hell or somewhere in between.


Tom Trumpler brought this story to our attention this afternoon.  It is the obit from the L.A. Daily News by Scott Reid, this 25th day of February, 2020.  I have not attempted to edit this piece as you will see in the first line.  George Brose


OBITUARY  -- Dick Banks
by Scott Reid, columnist

BANK, THE VOICE OF MILLS EPIC OLYMPIC UPSET CALL, DIES AT 90

In the days leading up to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo there was a long line of track athletes waiting to get into a small shoe stand adidas set up in the Olympic Village.
The whole world, it seemed, wanted a pair of Adi Dassler’s soon to be famous blue suede shoes. Dassler, the founder and genius behind the three-stripe brand, had created ground breaking track spikes before both the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games, each edition named after the host city. His latest creation was just as revolutionary. Dassler’s “Tokyo” It was much lighter than anything Puma, Dassler’s brother Rudolph’s brand, had to offer.
And it “fit like a glove,” Dick Bank recalled more than a half century later.
Bank, a broadcaster, jazz producer, constant on the Los Angeles sports scene for decades who died Sunday night at the age of 90, also spent much of the 1960s working as a rep for adidas. Bank was busy handing out free pairs of Tokyos to other athletes when an unknown American distance runner named Billy Mills showed up at the adidas shoe stand.
Unknown to most but not Bank.

In the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, few were more plugged in to the track and field than Bank. While preparing to broadcast the historic U.S.-Soviet Union meet at Stanford in 1962, Soviet coach Gavriil Korobkov told Bank “you know more about my athletes than I do.”
In the spring of 1964, Mills, who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and was then a U.S. Marine Lt. stationed at Camp Pendleton, caught Bank’s eye. Keep your eye on the Marine, Bank told friends.

But another adidas rep, the company’s U.S. distributor, had no idea who Mills was and turned him away shoeless.
Hearing of the incident an enraged Bank shouted “where’s Billy” and ran out of the stand in search of Mills. Bank found him, apologized for his co-worker’s ignorance and rudeness and made sure that Mills would be wearing adidas when he stepped to the starting line for the Olympic 10,000 meter final.

“Of course he got his shoes size 12, if memory serve me correctly,” Bank wrote to me in 2015, one of the letters he faxed to me on an almost daily basis for several years.
A few days after the shoe stand incident, Mills pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history, storming out of nowhere down the chaotic homestretch of the 10,000 meter final, perhaps distance running’s most unlikely gold medalist ever, Bank providing the soundtrack that carried him across the finish line.

Broadcaster Bud Palmer convinced his bosses at NBC to hire Bank as an analyst for the network’s track coverage in Tokyo. Bank was at Palmer’s side when the bell rang out signaling the final lap of the 10,000.

“And here we go into the final lap of the Olympic gold medal in the 10,000,” Palmer announced.
Australia’s Ron Clarke, the pre-Olympic favorite, bumped Mills staggering into lane 3 as they passed a lap runner. At the top backstretch Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia charged into the lead. Clarke took off after him, also opening a gap on Mills. Around the turn it looked like Gammoudi might run away with the gold medal. But coming off the final turn, Clarke pulled up
alongside the Tunisian as they sprinted through track full of lapped runners on either side of them.
And then like Paul Revere, Bank shouted out a warning.
“Look at Mills!”
“Look at Mills!”

Clarke and Gammoudi had no response as Mills flew by them, Bank unleashing a whoop that chased his final steps.
“It has been written that I was giggling with glee,” Bank wrote to me in 2015 not long after his close friend Clarke’s death. “It was more like unrestrained euphoria that quickly became tears.”

The suits at NBC, however, did not share Bank’s joy.
“They said I was very unprofessional,” Bank recalled.
The network turned off his mike for two days.

On the third day he received a message to call NBC producer Dick Auerbach at his Tokyo hotel.
“I have some bad news,” Auerbach said.
Bank immediately thought something had happened to his father back in Los Angeles. The elder Bank had suffered a heart attack three years earlier.
“From today on, you are no longer working for NBC,” Auerbach said.
“So what’s the bad news,” Bank said without missing a beat.

In the following decades and with the emergence of YouTube, “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!” would become track’s equivalent of Al Michael’s exclamation point on another Olympic miracle. Dick Bank didn’t suffer fools—or sometimes even friends. I think whoever coined the phrase “brutally honest” did so with Dick in mind. I was on the receiving end of both his sharp critiques and his kindness, sometimes in the same day. To the end he was unapologetic about that golden day in Tokyo and in the rare occasions when he let his guard down you could sense his pride that his Tokyo call had been embraced by a new generation. More than once he told me how much it tickled him that my sons found the “Look at Mills! Look at Mills” T-shirts they bought online as hip.

He could even laugh at the incident at the Olympic Village shoe stand.
“I would have been absolutely mortified had he won in Puma.”
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V 10 N. 15 Will the Olympics Go On Despite Corona Virus?

March 4, 2020, 7:38 am
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March 4, 2020

The news changes so fast about the spread of the Corona Virus or Covid 19 that one needs to put a date on each mention of it.  What was unknown a week ago is now old news.  Two weeks ago I noted that Tokyo had cancelled an upcoming marathon with 40,000 entries out of fear the event would be a feeder to the virus.  They had maintained their half marathon for elite runners however.  At the same time a similarly large marathon in South Korea was still on and at the time there were only 30 reported cases in that country.  Now the South Koreans have cancelled their marathon  and the virus deaths in that country are steadily climbing.

So how will this play out by the late summer when the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin?  We are told that warm weather  keeps the virus from spreading.  It survives better in colder climates.  Tokyo had already decided to move the Olympic marathon to Sapporo where it would not be so hot and uncomfortable for the marathon runners, but that strategy may be contrary to what is now known about the virus.

We also know that the most threatened are the old and chronically unhealthy in our population.  This certainly does not fit the age range and health of the athletes of the Games.  They are the young and healthy.  So why not just say, "Old folks, stay home, watch the Games on your TV's, and be sure to wash your hands."

One of the problems with that response is that a lot of people over 50 are planning to be sitting in the stands and spending a lot of money in the Japanese economy.  This would all go away if people took it upon themselves to play it safe, or if Japan restricts travel into and out of the country.  Even if I had the money to go, I wouldn't want to be stepping over the bodies of seniors to get to my seat in the stadium.  Hopefully this will not be the case, but no one at this time can say for sure what the situation will be.

If you want to talk money, ask the tv suits what their position is.

The Japanese are also hedging their bets as recently as yesterday by saying that they are only obligated to host the Olympics at any time in the year 2020.  The Games could theoretically be postponed until December if by then the virus runs its course. Who can say?   Personally I am not going to rely on any world, national or municipal health authority to tell me when it will be safe to travel and mix with other members of my species, especially six months in advance.

I looked up a  bit of history about the events in 1918 when the Spanish Influenza ran through the world.  It was mentioned that the flu struck in two waves.  The first was in the Spring, and it did not pack the punch in terms of fatalities like the second wave did later that year.   Stories of people going to work in the morning feeling healthy and not making it home that night because they were stricken and died were common.  I know that at least two of my family members died of the flu.  One, an infant less than two years of age, and the other a healthy American soldier who died on the boat on his way to Europe.  More American soldiers died of influenza than from the bullets and artillery of the Germans.  The Spanish flu knew no age boundaries as the Corona virus seems to be limited to the old, or so we are told by our public health officers. 

The other piece to be concerned about is whether we are getting accurate information from our public health people because of the political implications in an election year.  Is the truth being withheld or manipulated  or at least expressed in a way as to maintain the political status quo, or are we getting rliable and accurate information?  My personal feeling is it's a little of both and also even the most astute scientists and epidemiologists do not yet have all the answers.  One thing we do know is that it takes a long time to develop a vaccine against this new type of flu, and that by the time one is developed, a lot of people will probably die.  Just nature's way of maintaining balance.

The Games have been cancelled in the past only because of the two world wars (1918, 1940, and 1944).  This time the reason  could be something even more deadly.    George Brose

This came in from my good friend and former teammate Stephen Morelock, who knows a lot more about commerce and bidness than do I.

Good thoughts. I suspect the Olympics will be postponed, given the current trajectory of Covid-19.

I'm not sure the weather is quite the factor you opine. This virus has come out due to global warming. 

And you are almost certainly right that TV will make the final call. Nobody trusts the government, at least not here, and businesses are looking out for their own interests and those of their employees. This bodes very ill, I am delighted to speculate, for Trump. He may have to do an LBJ by the fall.

Interestingly, if everyone stays home and watches on TV, but the games go on, Japan will suffer economically, but TV may be able to raise their commercial rates due to higher viewership. Other networks may be able to work their way into the coverage.

Loved your piece on the Mills race.
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V 10 N. 16 Two Weeks Ago, Who'da Thunk?

March 12, 2020, 4:24 pm
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Wow,  two weeks ago we were talking in very, very speculative terms about cancelling the Olympics this coming July.  Status of our society seems to change about 10 times in every news cycle.  Now all winter sports and spring sports in the NCAA have been cancelled.   Where do we go next?  Will football be put on hold next Fall?  How shall we amuse ourselves?  How shall we manage our lives?

I'm not worried about the effect on big money athletes, but I am concerned about the peripheral jobs that will go away, and those people can least afford to lose a paycheck.

I live in a small community where it is relatively easy to avoid contact with people apart from going to the grocery.  But I do travel around Vancouver Island to do mediation cases.  That could theoretically be done by phone and Zoom on the computer, but I'm not sure I can manage the technology.

Our readership is a fairly aged population, and I really am concerned about all of our track and field community.   Hoping all the best for you and that you don't take unecessary risks.  I guess we'll be watching old track meets on youtube.
Take care,
George   Roy   Steve



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V 10 N. 17 How the NCAA Indoor Championships Did Not Happen

March 15, 2020, 1:37 pm
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The NCAA Indoor Championships did not happen this weekend.  It's just the opposite of the old peace slogan:  "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"  Everybody came to Albequerque, but they didn't have a meet.   Dr. Richard Ceronie, from the track program at the University of New Mexico and the chronicler for the program has given this poignant description of the event, step by step as it was gradually reduced to nothingness.  I can only hope that those teams returning home did not have to go through the Hell of O'Hare airport in Chicago, but I'm sure many of them did.  Recognition needs to go to all the team and staff who worked so hard to put the national meet together and were sitting ready to go when the event was pronounced over before it began.

Here is the link to Dr. Ceronie's newsletter.


NCAA INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE CONVENTION CENTER ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO FRIDAY, MARCH 13 & SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020
Cancelled

With the fast-moving, and ever-changing national situation with COVID-19 there was an uncomfortable atmosphere at the Albuquerque Convention Center, host of the 2020 NCAA Championship.  When teams were first allowed into the facility Wednesday at noon for their pre-meet practice there were no restrictions.  Then later on Wednesday the NCAA announced the banquet on Thursday evening would have to be changed from a buffet where athletes serve themselves to a served meal where athletes did not touch the food or utensils.  Then several hours later the NCAA announced instead of that the banquet would have to be cancelled.  Finally on Wednesday it was announced that only family and limited spectators would be allowed to watch the championship.  Then on Thursday morning the NCAA announced no family or friends would be allowedd inside the Albuquerque Convention Center, and only athletes, officials, and necessary workers would be involved in the NCAA Championship.  This was based on information flowing to the NCAA from the Center for Disease Control.  But by early afternoon things began to change as individual conferences (ACC and Big Ten) had begun to tell their teams to come back to campus, and quickly the meet began to fall apart.  While athletes were on the track doing their pre-meet routine, a buzz came over all, and people began to ask.......would they really cancel the NCAA Championship?  And then in a stunning announcement the NCAA Championship was cancelled.  When the e-mail was sent around 2:00pm on Thursday there was a strange atmosphere on the track and on the infield of the Convention Center as coaches simply looked at their cell phones, and the message from the NCAA.  Coaches tried to explain to their athletes what was happening, athletes just stood on the track sobbing and on the infield with a glazed looks over their eyes.  NCAA officials did their best to explain why the final decision had been made, but no amount of explanation could help the confused atmosphere.  The 2020 NCAA Championships was done.
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V 10 N. 18 Our Predictions on Holding the 2020 Olympic Games

March 19, 2020, 7:19 am
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Literally every world organization seems to be taking moves to adapt to the current world health
crisis, with a few exceptions.  Major waffelers are the International Olympic Committee and the Japan/Tokyo Olympic organization.  There may be other organizations as well, but these two seem to be the biggest footdraggers in current news from around the world.  Perhaps the IOC and the Tokyo Olympic Organization consider themselves bigger than all the governments of the world that are taking very serious steps to halt gatherings  ranging from 10 to 100 people depending where you are looking.  Perhaps the IOC is basing their stance on the fact that Wuhan, China has not seen any new cases erupt in the last few days.  Maybe the IOC is hoping that every nation is going to take the same drastic steps to lockdown a population center and allow Covid-19 to run its course. 

However when looking at past history of world pandemics, it must be remembered that the 1918 Pandemic hit in two waves.  The first wave that hit in the early part of the year was mild by comparison to the second wave that came and killed millions around the globe.  We don't know anything yet about whether that characteristic will be a part of Covid-19's pedigree.

Also to be considered is the training of athletes in the next few months and selection of teams.  How will that be done and will it be fair to all?  Will we go to a 'selection committee' and not have an Olympic Trials?  How will athletes get preparatory competitions when all sports competitions seem to be cancelled in the US?  All we have to base judgements on are the indoor season.  Okay, there is a marathon team on the books, but that's about it.  Will there be underground competitions that are set up and held without announcing those to the public?   "Okay guys, there's going to be a meet May 16 on the Ukiah, CA high school track.  It will start at 2:00AM and finish at sunrise.  Do not wear athletic gear on the streets, as it may attract attention.  We don't expect the police to enforce any bans on gathering more than 50 people, because the local department is greatly understaffed due to the virus."   Results will be sent in to USATF for evaluation.   "There will be similar meetings around the country, Salina, Kansas,  Sheboygan, Wisconsin,  Paducah, Kentucky, and McKeeport, Pennsylvania.  "Again remember to be as low profile as possible.   Pole Vaulters disguise your poles and have them delivered to the track by UPS, or buy them from Amazon.  Wait, Amazon is shut down.  Use UPS."

All this sounds like science fiction.  Which it is, as I've just made this up.  But I'm reminded a bit of the book :"On the Beach", by Neville Shute.

What I think may well happen, is that individual countries will start abandoning the Olympics for this year.  It will catch on and others will follow until the IOC and the Tokyo organizers are faced with the possibility of a dual meet between North Korea and Russia.  Wait, Russia is only allowed to have twenty athletes not wearing the national uniform.  Oh, Hell, we'll make an exception.  Russia can bring a full team.  And there will be no drug testing.  We can't risk bringing all those technicians and urine and blood samples contaminating the premises.

Let's also consider travel to Japan.  Who in their right mind would want to go there this summer under current condtions?

In 1972 after the P.L.O. massacre of Israeli athletes, many thought the Games should have been cancelled.  Avery Brundage gave it a day off and went back to work.  But it must be remembered, that there were thousands of athletes already in place,  There were many thousands of tourists in Munich for the Games, and big time television sports organizations though in their infancy were still swinging some weight.  And Brundage may have gotten some serious bribes from the Germans like he did in 1936.  Today, those powerful organizations are most likely behind the stance of the IOC and Tokyo's positioning.  We may never know.  But if nations withdraw individually and the Games are cancelled,  we will be watching reruns of 'Battle of the Network Stars'  and the trash sport show "Superstars" of the 1970's.

Stop  the Presses:

The Latest:  from Sean Ingle of The Guardian, 

Sebastian Coe has admitted that “nobody is saying we will be going to the Games come what may” as the debate over whether the Tokyo Olympics should be staged this summer continues to intensify.


Read the Guardian article here








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V 10 N. 19 Walt Murphy's This Day in Track and Field

March 22, 2020, 6:03 pm
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Our mutual blog writer, Walt Murphy sent the following note.  Some of you on his mailing list may have been left off recently.  Also if you are not on his mailing list he explains how to get on it.  His daily blog is a must read.  Full of what happened on this day in track and field over a long period of time.  It covers some of his own adventures as a track nut, and includes a of information on music and entertainment.  But it is primarily for the track and field reader.  Here is his note along with the March 20 issue (track stuff only).  You can reach Walt at    wmurphy25@aol.com

Hi George,
   I had to recreate my master email file some time ago, and it looks like your address was inadvertently dropped. Sorry 'bout that.
   Still trying to get the word out about This Day in T&F, especially at a time when there's very little current news for fans to read about these days.
   Would you be willing to let your readers know they can sign up for free just by contacting me?
Regards,

Walt
P.S. Since I was there in 1964, I've been looking forward to this year's Olympics ever since they were awarded to Tokyo, but I'm not optimistic that they are going to take place.


(c)Copyright 2020-all rights reserved. May not be reprinted or retransmitted without permission
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country--March 20
(Bikila, World Cross-’71, ’77, ’83, ’05, ’11, 2016 World Indoors/Birthdays-Shamier Little, Kevin Sullivan, Shola Lynch, Dennis Lewis, Rick Wanamaker)
1969--Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, the winner of the marathon at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, was involved in an automobile accident that  left him paralyzed from the waist down. His injuries ultimately led to his death in 1973. 
1971--Doris Brown(Heritage) won her 5th (and final) World (International) X-Country title (2.8-miles) in San Sebastian, Spain, leading the U.S. women to a 3rd-place finish. Winners of the men’s Senior(7.5-miles) and Junior(4.35-miles)   races, respectively,  were England’s Dave Bedford and Nick Rose, a future NCAA Champion (1974/Western Kentucky). England swept all 3 team titles. (The U.S. only entered a women’s team!)
Other notable finishers
Senior Men: 9.Ian Stewart (Scotland), 10.Rod Dixon (New Zealand), 12.Gaston Roelants (Belgium); DNF-Emiel Puttemans (Belgium). 
Junior Men:18.Eamonn Coghlan (Ireland/destined to become the “Chairman of the Boards”), 24.Neil Cusack (Ireland/1972 NCAA Champion-East Tennessee/winner of the 1974 Boston Marathon)
Women: 11.Beth Bonner (USA/Unofficially the 1st female “winner” of the NY City Marathon-1971)
1977--Top-10 finishes from winner Thom Hunt and Mark Spilsbury (5th) led the U.S. to a narrow win over Spain (36-40) at the World X-C Championships in Brussels, giving the Americans their 4th straight title in the Men’s Junior Race. Other U.S. team members--Marty Froelick (12th), Chris Fox(18th), who would coach Syracuse to the 2015 NCAA XC title, Harold Schulz (33rd), and Jeff Creer(34th).
Sue Kinsey’s 8th-place finish helped the USA win the silver medals in the women’s race.
Other Races:
Senior Men(12.3k/Belgium)-1.Leon Schots (Belgium) 37:43, 2.Carlos Lopes (Portugal) 37:48…24.Jeff Wells (USA)…37.Rob De Castella (Australia), 42.Gary Tuttle (USA), 44.Jos Hermens (Netherlands), 45.Dave Bedford (England), 91.Ray Treacy (Ireland), 99.Tom Wysocki (USA), 103.Steve Jones (Wales), 104.Tony Sandoval (USA), 106.Jon Anderson (USA, 109.Neil Cusack (Ireland), 111.Ric Rojas (USA), 112.Steve Flanagan (USA/Shalane’s father), 132.Roger Robinson (New Zealand/running journalist), 159.Donal Walsh (Ireland/ex-Villanova) 
Senior Women(5.1k/Soviet Union):1.Carmen Valero (Spain (17:26), 2.Lyudmila Bragina (Soviet Union) 17:28, 8.Sue Kinsey (USA) , 9.Anne Audain (New Zealand), 11.Kathy Mills (USA), 14.Julie Brown (USA), 15.Paula Neppel (USA), 48.Doris Brown-Heritage (USA), 54.Eryn Forbes (USA) 
1982—Billy Olson  cleared 18-8  ¾ (5.71) in Brownwood,TX, to break Dave Roberts’ 6-year old American Record in the Pole Vault (18-8  1/4/5.70).
1983--The U.S. squad put on a strong display in the women’s race at the World X-C Championships in Gateshead, England, as Joan Benoit (4th), Betty Springs(5th), Margaret Groos(9th), and Jan Merrill(13th) all ran well to give the U.S. its 3rd team title (also won the women’s race in 1975 and 1979). Also on the U.S. team were Nan Doak(40th) and Kathy Hadler(42nd). Norway’s Grete Waitz won her 5th (and final) individual title.
There was an exciting Senior Men’s race (12k) as four men came across the finish line together, with Ethiopia’s Bekele Debele (36:52) edging Portugal’s Carlos Lopes (36:52), Kenya’s Some Muge (36:52), and American Alberto Salazar (36:53). The U.S. also got a 9th-place finish from Pat Porter as it won the team silver medals behind Ethiopia (Kenya was 3rd). Other members of the U.S. squad (9 entries, 6 scored):Thom Hunt (28), Ed Eyestone(30), the current men’s coach at BYU, Craig Virgin(47), Mark Anderson(57), Doug Brown(118), Bill Donakowski(147), and John Idstrom(160). The U.S. team celebrated its fine performance by climbing to the roof of their hotel and raising the American flag!
2005--(St.Etienne,France). Still grieving over the sudden death of his fiancee earlier in the year, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele won the short(3-19) and long(3-20) double for the 4th year in a row. The U.S., led by top-25 finishes from Lauren Fleshman(11th), Blake Russell(15th), Shalane Flanagan(20th), and Shayne Culpepper(21st), won the bronze medals in the women’s short course race.
2011—U.S. women came away with individual and team bronze medals at the World X-Country Championships in warm conditions in Punta Umbria, Spain. 
Shalane Flanagan (25:10) finished 3rd in the 9k race, behind Kenyans Vivian Cheruiyot (24:58) and Linet Masai (25:07), to lead the American team to its 2nd straight 3rd-place finish. Supporting Flanagan with strong performances were Molly Huddle (17th), Magdalena Lewy-Boulet (18th), and Blake Russell (19th).
With 4 runners scoring, Kenya (15) was an easy team winner over Ethiopia (29) and the U.S. (57).
Said Flanagan, “I had to rise up and elevate my game today. I was so pleased to be in medal position. It was a lot of fun today. I know that we have to elevate our game in order to be in a medal position. I love the fact that this is a team sport, and there is a great team dynamic going with all of the ladies on the team”.
Other Races:
Senior Men (12k/Kenya-14)-1.Imane Merga (Ethiopia) 33:50, 2.Paul Tanui (Kenya) 33:52…35.Ben True (USA)
Junior Men (8k/Kenya-20)-1.Geoffrey Kamworor (Kenya) 22:21…29.Craig Lutz (USA)
Junior Women (6k/Ethiopia-17)-1.Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) 18:53…17.Aisling Cuffe (USA) 
2016—It was a good weekend at the World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, for Team USA, which captured a record total of 13 gold medals (also a record 23 medals overall).
5 of those gold medals were won on the final day of competition:
Men
Full of run after a slow early pace(2:07.88/800!), Matthew Centrowitz sprinted past New Zealand’s Nick Willis in the homestretch to won the 1500-meters (3:44.22) and would go on to win Olympic gold in Rio
A lineup of Kyle Clemons (46.6), Calvin Smith (45.6), Chris Giesting (45.3), and Vernon Norwood (45.0) won the 4x400 in 3:02.45 
Marquis Dendy won the Men’s Long Jump with a leap of 27-1  ¼ (8.26), 
Women
High School senior Vashti Cunningham won the Women’s High Jump (6-5[1.96])
A lineup of Natasha Hastings (51.9), Quanera Hayes (51.0), Courtney Okolo (50.7), and Ashley Spencer (52.8) won the 4x400 in 3:26.38.
In other highlights, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha (7:57.21) edged American Ryan Hill (7:57.39) in the men’s 3000; Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba (2:00.01) won the Women’s 800 over American Ajee’ Wilson (2:00.27); Genzebe Dibaba (8:47.43) and Meseret Defar (8:54.26) gave Ethiopia a 1-2 sweep in the Women’s 3000, with American Shannon Rowbury winning the bronze medal (8:55.55); Jamaica’s Omar McLeod won the Men’s 60-meter hurdles in 7.41.
Previous days’ recaps:
3-17/ France’s Renaud Lavillenie (19-9[6.02]) and American Jenn Suhr 16-3/4 (4.90) set Championship Records in the Men’s and Women’s Pole Vault, which were held in the Portland Convention Center. 
3-18/3 wins for the U.S.: Men’s 60-Trayvon Bromell(6.47); Women’s 60-hurdles-Nia Ali 7.81; Women’s Long Jump-Brittney Reese 23-8  ¼ (7.22);  Canada’s Brianne Theisen won the Pentathlon(4881).
3-19/4 more wins for the U.S.: Men’s 800 Boris Berian (1:45.83); Women’s 60-Barbara Pierre 7.02, Finishing behind Pierre in the women’s 60 were the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers (7.04) and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson (7.06), who would later win the 100 and 200 at the Rio Olympics; Ashton Eaton(64760) won his 3rd straight title in the Heptathlon a day after his wife won the Pentathlon); Women’s Shot Put-Michelle Carter (66-3  ¾  [20.21]) got the win and an American Record on her last throw.
Born On This Day*
Shamier Little  25(1995)  3-time NCAA Champion while at Texas A&M (2014-2016)
                  Silver medalist in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2015 World Championships—failed to 
                     make the final  at the 2017 World Championships in London
                  2014 World Junior Champion—400-hurdles, 4x400
                  2-time U.S. Junior Champion—400-hurdles (2012,2014)
                  2015 Pan-American Games Champion—400-hurdles, 4x400
                  Considered one of the early favorites to win gold in Rio in 2016, she failed to make the final at the U.S. 
                     Olympic Trials…
                  4th at the 2019 U.S. Championships
                  Turned pro after the 2016 NCAA Championships, giving up her final year of collegiate eligibility. 
                  Ranked #1 in the World in 2018 (2015-#2, 2017-#4, 2019-#3)
                  PBs: 50.50/400 (2017), 52.75/400h (2017); 2019 SB: 53.73
                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamier_Little
                  Turning Pro:
                           Rankings: https://trackandfieldnews.com/rankings/
Kevin Sullivan 46(1974) 1995 NCAA Champion—1500m(Michigan/1994-3rd, 1997-2nd)
            3-time NCAA Indoor Champion—Mile (1995,1998), DMR (1995)  
            5th in the 1500 at the 1995 World Championships and 2000 Olympics…semi-finalist at the 2004 and 2008 
                Olympics and 4 World Championships (2001-2003-2005-2007)
            Canadian record holder 1500-meters (3:31.71/2000), mile (3:50.26/2000)
            Other PBs: 3:55.33i (1995), 7:41.61 (2008), 13:19.27 (2007)
            Currently the head men’s X-Country coach at Michigan, his alma mater.
            Video-1998 NCAA Indoor Mile(Great Finish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfwO2nLCWdM
Shola Lynch 51(1969)  2-time U.S. Junior Champion—800m(1983-14 at the time!,1986)
            All-American at Texas—5th at the 1992 NCAA Championships
            Ran 2:07.14 in 1983 as a 14-year old 8th-grader
            Currently a noted filmmaker…directed “Runner”, part of ESPN’s Nine for IX series, which commemorated the 40th
                  anniversary of Title IX—featured Mary Decker and Zola Budd.
            Regular on Sesame Street from the age of 2-6!
            https://sholalynch.wordpress.com
            RUNNER: 
(All New)
Dan Steele 51(1969)  1992 NCAA Champion—400m-Hurdles (Eastern Illinois/1990-5th); PBs:49.79 (1992), 8130(1999)
            8th in the Decathlon at the 1999 World Championships; 5th at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials
            Silver medalist in the Decathlon at the 1999 Pan-American Games
            2-time U.S. Olympian in the bobsled (1998,2002)…bronze medalist in the 4-man event in 2002
            Coached Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen while they were at the University of Oregon…also coached at Northern 
                 Iowa and Iowa State
            Still recovering from a near-fatal stroke that he suffered in 2017, he hopes to return to coaching some day.
            Twin brother Darrin had a decathlon best of 8129 and was also a 2-time U.S. Olympian in the bobsled.
Darrin Steele  51(1969) All-American in the Decathlon (Eastern Illinois/1991 NCAA-5th); PB:8129 (1995)
            2-time U.S. Olympian in the bobsled(1998,2002)…Former CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton
            See above for info on his twin brother Dan
Dennis Lewis 61(1959)  1984 U.S. Indoor Champion—High Jump 
            Thought he had set an American Record when he cleared 7-8  ¼ in the high jump at a meet hosted by USC. 
However, that was an imperial measurement and U.S.(and IAAF) rules required that all new records in field events must be measured metrically. When officials checked their conversion tables, they discovered there was no metric equivalent for 7-8  ¼, so they had to submit a mark of 2.34, which meant that Lewis would only get credit for tying Dwight Stones’ AR of 7-8!
      "I'm not upset about the changing of the marks," Lewis said. "It's early in the season. There is no way I can be peaking now. How can I be peaking when it's my first meet?” (As it turned out, Lewis never did jump higher than he did on this date).
         Lewis had set a National H.S. Indoor Record of 7-2(2.185?) as a senior at Ypsilanti(MI) H.S. in 1977 and jumped   7-3(2.21) indoors as a Michigan State freshman in 1978, but quickly faded from the sport for a variety of reasons.
          He returned to competition in 1984, winning the U.S. Indoor title over a loaded field, and finishing 7th at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
He was ranked #5 in the U.S. in 1985 and #4 in 1986, and later became active in Masters competition, clearing 6-8  ¼(2.06) in 2006 at the age of 47.
Hilary Tuwei—Kenya 64(1956) 4-time NCAA finalist in the steeplechase while at Richmond
                 (’77-4th, ’78-4th, ’79-3rd, ’80-5th)
            NCAA Indoor-3 mile(’79-2nd, ’80-5th); PBs: 13:33.6/5k, 28:35.8, 8:22.4sc
Clyde McPherson  69(1951)  2-time NCAA Indoor Champion—Mile Relay (Adelphi/1971,1972)
            1971 Penn Relays Champion—Mile Relay (46.7 anchor); PB:46.7y(1972)
            4-time NCAA Div.II Champion—440y(1970), Mile Relay(1970-1972)
Rick Wanamaker 72(1948)  Was the 1st  NCAA Champion in the Decathlon(Drake/1970); 1971 U.S. Champion; 
            1971 Pan-American Games Champion; PB:7989 (1971)
            Ranked #1 in the U.S. in 1971, he suffered a sprained ankle (his plant foot) a few days before the start of the 
                1972 U.S. Olympic Trials…finished 18th after no-heighting in the Pole Vault and only clearing 6-feet in the High 
                Jump (had a best of 7-feet).
            Standing 6’-8” (2.03), he played basketball at Drake University…once blocked a shot by UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (aka 
                 Kareem Abdul Jabbar) in the 1969 Final Four semi-finals(Drake almost upset the Bruins)…play was #100 in the 
                 Bleacher Report’s 100 greatest plays in College Basketball history (Through 2012)
Deceased
Jim Dupree  (1936-?) 2-time U.S. Champion—880y (1961, 1963-finished 2nd to Canada’s Bill Crothers)
            1961 NCAA Champion—880y(Southern Illinois)
            A freshman at New Mexico at the time, he finished in a virtual dead-heat with Ernie Cunliffe for 3rd place in the 
                800-meters at the 1960 U.S. Olympic Trialstook officials a very long time to decide that Cunliffe would be the 
                3rd member of the U.S. team (along with Tom Murphy and Jerry Siebert)

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V 10 N. 20 "Hell, No. We Won't Go" Canada Takes the First Bold Step

March 22, 2020, 9:21 pm
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This evening in The Guardian it was announced that Canada has stated that it shall not attend the Olympics.   Following our prediction last week,  expect a domino effect as nations begin spouting the same policy and eventually the games will go crash for this year.  Looks like the Aussies may be next.

Here is the beginning of the Guardian article.

Canada has become the first country to warn that it won’t send its athletes to the Tokyo Olympics unless they are postponed for a year, as pressure builds to delay the Games due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Canadian Olympic Committee said holding the Games as planned would threaten the health of its athletes, “their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training for these Games”.
“In fact, it runs counter to the public health advice which we urge all Canadians to follow,” it said in a statement, hours after the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, conceded for the first time that postponement was now a possibility if the Games could not be held in their “complete form”.
The committee added: “While we recognise the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.”
The Australian Olympic committee (AOC), meanwhile, has told its athletes to prepare to compete in the Olympics in the northern-hemisphere summer of 2021.

Sayonara but not goodbye.   
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V10 N. 21 It's Official, Tokyo 2020 Is Now Tokyo 2021, sort of...

March 24, 2020, 9:05 am
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It's official   Tokyo 2020 is now Tokyo 2021.   Not really, the Japan games committee is going to continue to call it the 2020 Olympics, so they don't have to throw away or overprint all those T Shirts they hoped to sell this summer.   Canada and Australia tipped over the bucket by stating they were withdrawing yesterday.  That's what it took for the IOC and the Japan Committee to see the light.

The Guardian   clik here to read The Guardian report.

The organizing committee actually did an overprint on their logo.   Now the question in the US is what about the Prefontaine Classic and the Olympic Trials and the World Championships?   Actually the first two are moot.  They will happen.  As for what to do about the World Championships, we're either going to have a lot of great track meets next summer or they may combine the WC with the OG.  It's an option. 

Another option this year is if the Conference Champhionships, Nationals, and Relays wish to be held,  ie. NCAAs, Drake, Penn, Mt. Sac.  Our suggestion is have them this Fall.  Drake can be held on a weekend that the Bulldog football team is playing an away game.    Those track athletes should be fired up for some competition this fall.  Cross country is a 'minor' sport to many and could be set aside or it could continue as always.  Remember when we would sometimes run cross country meets at half time of hte football games and finish in front of the football crowed?    From a financial point of view and academic, the seniors who have been granted another year of eligibility could come back in the Fall and complete their degrees and be out of there by Christmas, thus freeing up athletic scholarships to the incoming freshman class.

The big if is whether the Covid-19 will have passed by September or October or whether it will have mutated and come back with a second hit, as the 1918 pandemic did.  It's time for those college and athletic administrators to earn their inflated salaries by making some wise decisions.

Bill Schnier has added to these comments with his deep knowledge of NCAA rules which would come into play with my proposal above.

 Very interesting suggestion about the Drake and Penn Relays being held in the fall.  Since they are mostly college events, NCAA rules would have to be readjusted to allow competition in the fall, but since competition was prevented this spring they might make an exception.  I think it would be great.  Recent years saw southern meets held on the same day as Drake and Penn with more favorable weather overcoming tradition.  In one or two years those great meets were trivialized.  Since NCAA qualifying marks are the ONLY thing that count these days, teams flocked to Arkansas and Texas rather than Des Moines and Philly.  This would be a perfect opportunity to honor the great relay meets, including Mt. SAC, which have brought so much joy to the T&F community.  Let's get a petition approved to the NCAA.  Bill.
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V 10 N. 22 No Boston This Year? Here's the 1929 Race

March 25, 2020, 8:04 pm
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Getting tired of the same Covid 19 on the 24 hour news?   Tired of 100 best plays of the decade?
Well here's some re-runs I bet you have never seen.

We are not going to see the 2020 Boston Marathon next month.  And we won't get those great race photos from Ned Price who lives a few blocks off the course.  But Ned came up with two great films of Boston  1929 won by Johnny Miles in 2 hr 33   with sound  and New York City 1934.    Not how little crowd control there is for the NYC race.  The leaders seem to be accompanied the whole way by and unmarked car, but the runners have to fend for themselves through the congested streets.  Holy crap.  These guys were definitely trail blazers.  At one point they go onto a sidewalk to make a right turn.

   The Boston race course hasn't changed much at all through the opening miles, a narrow country road.  Both races the crowd at the finish line keeps closing in on the runners until there is no room in NYC for the third runner to get through.   The Boston runners are escorted a few feet from the finish line into a building, possibly a hotel while reporters try to get a few words.

This Boston film and the NYC films are beautifully filmed.  You can hear the foot slapping of the runners in the Boston race and some shouted comments from the film car.

Boston Marathon 1929  Won by Johnny Miles  2 hr 33.


The NYC race is really two short films.
The second one has some of the same footage as the first, but there is a lot more film in this second  one not seen in the first.  It goes from downtown out to Long Island.  Won by Bill Steiner.  Time 2hr 23 which seems a tad fast for those days.

NYC Marathon 1934


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V 10 N. 23 This Will Make You Feel Better Instantly

March 26, 2020, 9:23 am
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St. Olaf's Invitational 2015  Clik here.

Today I received an email from Dick Daymont in Minnesota.  I was reminded that about 5 years ago we posted a video of a cross country meet at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.  That film was made by Dick's son, Tom.    I looked at it again today and was crying over the beauty of Tom's work.  We live in a confined atmosphere these days.  Okay, I know some of you are sneaking out and getting a bit of exercise, but this video will take you to new heights.  I suggest you watch this right now and turn up the volume on your earphones.  It is truly spectacular.  The wind turbine is running at the same beat as the music and it just infiltrates your senses.  What a beautiful day, beautiful place, beautiful sport.
George
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V 10 N. 24 A Letter from an Impassioned Track Fan

March 27, 2020, 4:53 am
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Geoff Williams on the right with George Brose and John Cobley

Geoff Williams, a colleague and friend in Victoria, BC, sent me the following letter this morning.
I think it more than sums up many of our feelings about all that is going on and how it has affected our sport.  Interstingly Geoff had to write this statement a second time, because his first letter got 'lost in cyberspace'.   As I'm sure you are aware, that is not an easy thing to do, to re-create your sentiments and feelings a second time in a row.  I read once that Ernest Hemingway's first wife in packing their household for a move in Paris, lost his manuscript to a novel.  It was never found and understandably never re-created.  It may also have been the tipping point to ending that relationship. Geoff, I'm not implying that is the case here.  I just want people to look through the contents of all the boxes they see at an estate sale.  That unpublished Hemingway novel may still by lying around somewhere.  Here is Geoff's second go at a worthy subject.


 George,
I am sorry I made a mess of trying to send a comment on the Olympics cancellation thing.  I felt quite impassioned by the whole affair and so will try to give it another shot by straight email.  At my age I cannot even remember my own name, so I may miss some points.  If you think it worth while you are welcome to share it with our wider audience.
”The news about the cancellation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games hit home with me.  Like most of us this has been part of the overall sporting scene for all or most of our lives.  I am old enough to have been alive during the 1940 and 1944 cancellations due to the Second World War although as I was only 10 by the time of the latter one I did not pay much attention.  I was too busy with watching dogfights over London and then a few years later the arrival of the dreaded V1-the Buzzbomb.  By 1948 when London manfully staged the Austerity Games with the support of the USA and much of the (then)   British Empire I was much more interested in such things and followed what I could on the radio and in the newspapers.  I think it was that era which sparked my interest in Track and I have followed nearly all of the ensuing Games with varying levels of fervour.  Much to my great regret I have never actually attended an Olympic Games and now clearly will never do so.
I am not too sorry about that as the Games are so different from the original ideals set down by de Coubertin and generally ( except 1936) followed by everyone until around 1960 when things started to change.  The quality of the Games was not in doubt and TV made it so much easier and enjoyable to follow.  Soon after most of the worlds sports were beginning to hold their own World Championships  and the relevance of the OG is being put into question.  The IOC is its own worst enemy and greed and avarice are top of their agenda,  They appear not to pay too much attention to the needs and safety of the athletes ( their indentured servants) and the fans so long as those lovely dollars keep rolling in.  The delay in making a formal decision to cancel or postpone the 2020 Games was delayed far too long and only came about now because of Canada’s firm stand.  I will miss watching the great performances on the Track but there is always the lingering doubt as to drug use and that will likely be with us forever.  The on again off again handling of the Russia case is a further black mark against the ruling elite of the sport .
I feel very sorry for the athletes, many of whom have given up many years of their young lives to be able to achieve the dream of Olympic participation. While I am merely ( or was) a recreational athlete I have known a few Olympic participants in varying degrees and have a good idea of what they went through for in most cases little or no material reward.  Also I feel for the fans who have been waiting for four years or more to visit Tokyo and enjoy the Games.  I understand that they can expect no recompense for the large dollars they have shelled out because the Swiss gnomes made sure that the fine print in the Olympic charter covered that little matter.  This is not to take into account the numerous coaches and support teams that are needed to put on such an affair.
I am led to start thinking that we should have seen the last of the Olympic Games and that the obscene amounts of cash that they consume particularly in the light of the “New World” that we will inevitably be facing after the Corona Virus finally fades from sight-if it ever does.
I know we shall emerge from this crisis as better people but there will be a lot of tough decisions to be made, and it would interesting to know the opinions of those who have been involved in Track at all levels as to whether I am making any sense.”
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V 10 N. 25 Boo Morcom, Track Iconoclast

March 28, 2020, 9:03 am
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The idea of this posting comes from a book that has been sitting in my library for at least five years.  I never cracked it until Covid 19 put us  into the situation of closed libraries and bookstores these past two weeks. It is a compendium of articles written by the sportswriter  Ira Berkow,  Beyond the Dream, Occasional Heroes of Sports,  Atheneum, NY, 1975.  I’m glad I picked it up on a whim those many days past, as I’ve discovered Berkow’s gift of saying a lot in a few paragraphs . I will probably use some of his stories in postings of the future.  Today our ‘occasional hero’ is Boo Morcom.  Ring a bell?  His name did not ring any bells for me, but he has a great track and field pedigree.  He was for 35 years the coach at U. of Pennsylvania, then went back to his alma mater at U. of New Hampshire to finish out his coaching career.  He was one of the best pole vaulters in the world from the early 1940’s until 1948 when heavily favored at the London Olympics he could only manage a sixth place.   That was one of the only disappointments in his long career.  He was also in the 101st Airborne Division in WWII, which may have put him into Normandy.  He was called back up for the Korean conflict as well, but got sent elsewhere.  Not much is out there on his military achievements.  He also went on to Masters competition when Masters events were not yet popular and held many world and American records as he progressed through the age groups.  He had talent in many events from PV to Triple Jump, High Jump and Throwing events.  He had the first  pole vault over 14 feet set  above the Arctic Circle, which is a story in itself.  The more I looked into this colorful character and the other two American vaulters at London, the more I learned.   Third place, Bob Richards was the better known for his later wins in 1952 and 1956, but the winner that year was Quinn Smith, also a very interesting character.  At the end of this piece on Morcom, I’ve included bios of Smith and Richards, and Morcom, but this is mainly about Morcom.  I also give some samples of Berkow’s writing with liberal quotes from his three-page article.
Boo Morcom

Boo Morcom at Earth’s End  pp.98-100.
                September, 1975 
                What Richmond “Boo” Morcom did when he finished sixth after being the favorite in the pole vault in the 1948 Olympics was not to crawl deep in to the sawdust pit as he first wanted.  Since he was too embarrassed to return home to New Hampshire, he arranged his own post-Olympic tour, visited each foreign athlete who had beaten him (all Scandanavians ed.), challenged him man to man and topped him.  
                In the process, he became the first man to vault over 14 feet above the Arctic Circle when, wearing two pairs of long johns, he beat the silver-medal-winning Finn.  And Boo overcame a problem in Norway when his man was in jail awaiting trial on a drunk-and-disorderly charge.  Boo dug into his own pocket, bailed the competitor out, whipped him, and then left for Sweden to knock off the next guy.
Morcom and his college coach Paul Sweet and Sweet's son

                After Morcom came home, he continued competing in events as he aged, also competing in the first world masters competitions in Munich in 1972 just after the Olympics and winning the pole vault in his age group.  At the age of 50 he vaulted 13’ 8”  and had other WR’s of 38’ 10” in the Triple Jump, 5’8” I the High Jump and later set WR’s in the Decathlon and 400IH.  His athletes at Penn said that he was so dedicated to competing, that even at practices they found themselves competing with him.  They went to the trouble of devising events such as the two handed shot put to try to be on a par with him.  He was not a big guy, only 5’8” and 148 pounds.    His thoughts on coaching included this philosophy,  “ I always felt I was perfecting myself when trying to beat somebody.” 

                Berkow continues,  

                He remembers when he was in college at the University of New Hampshire and he would bet his teammates that he could vault well despite obstacles such as a wheelbarrow placed in the runway (he jumped over it) or 60 chairs put in the runway.  (He came in at a 45 degree angle)) or that he could jump 14 feet (almost an Olympic record in that day) without a warm-up (he would run out from the locker room, be handed a pole and vault).  Once he was handed two poles  tied together and made that one, too, and refused to acknowledge the trick in order to shake up his fellow bettors.
“I was shattered when I came in sixth in the Olympics on a wet, windy day and with a bad knee.  I got the idea of going into the backyards of the guys who beat me and beating them.  It was evil pride combined with a grand passion.  Two Americans were first and third, but they knew they were lucky that day and besides  I had beaten them many times before, so nothing to prove there.”

                After beating the Norwegian, the Swede, and the Finn,  Boo was invited to the house of the Finn, Erkki Kataja, after the Arctic Circle triumph.

                “By this time , says Boo, “everybody in Europe was calling me the world’s champ.   I went to this kid’s house and met his grandmother.  She went to the cupboard and brought out his Olympic silver medial.   She asked to see my Olympic medal.  She didn’t realize I didn’t have one.  That really put me in my place.  I  laughed.  It showed what kind of bastard I was.  But it was beautiful.  I could beat him but I couldn’t beat that.”



Addenda


The following, if you care to read on are from several sources  Quinn Smith’s obituary and Wikipedia on Morcom and Bob Richards.


 Owen Guinn Smith receiving the Olympic Gold Medal for the Pole Vault in London 1948 representing the USA and competing for the Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Owen Guinn Smith of San Francisco, a World War II pilot and former investment counselor who won a gold medal for pole vaulting in the 1948 Summer Olympics, has died at the age of 83.
"He was very tough," said his son, Stephen Whitlock Smith, a retired Army physician from Tacoma, Wash.
Guinn Smith lived on Russian Hill in San Francisco for more than three decades, was born in McKinney, Texas, but moved to Pasadena with his family as a child. He went to Pasadena High and graduated from UC Berkeley as a history major in 1942.

With World War II in full swing, he became a pilot in the Army Air Corps, flying "the hump" over the Himalayas and participating in the Allies' campaigns in Burma and on the Philippine island of Mindanao. Later, during the Korean War, he was recalled as an Air Force pilot and stationed in England.

He snagged his Olympic gold on a horribly windy and rainy London day. Mr. Smith was plagued with knee problems, resulting partly from a wartime injury when his plane was shot down. His first two attempts failed. For the third try, his son said, he switched to a bamboo pole sent to him by a Japanese pole vaulter he'd met after the war -- who couldn't compete in the games because athletes from Japan and Germany were barred.



"That's what it took to win," Stephen Smith said. "The Japanese person was very glad."
The winning vault was 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches, nowhere near Mr. Smith's personal best and far below today's records, achieved with fiberglass poles that didn't exist then. But it was enough, especially for someone who'd started out as a high jumper.

"He wanted to go to UC Berkeley, and they already had good high jumpers," Stephen Smith said. "But they didn't have any good pole vaulters at the time, so he took it up to give himself a competitive edge."

At Berkeley, Mr. Smith was captain of the 1940-41 track and field team.
Stephen Smith said his father's Olympic medal was displayed in the family's home, in a case on the wall, and was always available to his brother and him.

"We played with it," he said. "And in grade school, I'd bring my friends over to look at it."
He described his father as "a very private person but very charming when he wanted to be, someone who was totally in charge."

The career path Mr. Smith followed as an adult was varied and eclectic. He first worked at his alma mater in Berkeley and then became assistant dean at the Harvard Business School. After that, he moved on to a job as an investment counselor in Boston. Stephen Smith said his parents didn't like "the cold or taxes or corruption of Massachusetts" and missed the Bay Area greatly. So, amid the social ferment of the late 1960s, the "very conservative" ex-pilot and his wife, the late Nancy Jane Whitlock, returned to San Francisco and never left again. Mr. Smith worked here as administrator of the San Francisco branch of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic.
He died Tuesday at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco after a lengthy bout with emphysema.

"I did try to move him at different times to Tacoma," his son said. "But he would not leave San Francisco. He wanted to be within sight of the Campanile and the Berkeley hills and the Golden Gate Bridge. He was very much grounded in this city."

His Hyde Street apartment afforded views of all these places. In his latter years, Mr. Smith was fond of taking daily walks along the San Francisco Marina and visiting the Cliff House and Sutro Heights. He also enjoyed crossword puzzles and became adept at using his Macintosh computer.
Mr. Smith, who kept a power boat at the Berkeley Marina, belonged to the St. Francis Yacht Club, the Olympic Club and the Berkeley Masonic Lodge.


Albert Richmond "Boo" Morcom (May 1, 1921  - October 3, 2012)[1] was an American track and field athlete.
Early career
He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. While he is primarily known for his exploits in the pole vault event, he has demonstrated versatility in other events including long jump and high jump. He set several records at Braintree High School.
At the age of 19 he was the best pole vaulter in the state of Massachusetts. He became known as "the Barefoot Boy" for his habit of high jumping with one shoe on and one shoe off. Then when he matriculated to the University of New Hampshire under coach Paul Sweet, the Boston newspaper sport pages would refer to him as "One Shoe Boo". His fame spread as he pole vaulted on an athletic tour of Canada with three other athletes including Babe Ruth.[2] In 1940 he took his athletic skills to the University of New Hampshire, where his record in the long jump lasted for 67 years.[3]
His studies were interrupted by World War II. Before departing for the conflict, he won the 1942 United States National Championships in the pole vault.[4] He finished in second place in the high jump.[5] He returned to UNH to become the 1947 NCAA pole vault champion.[6]
In 1950, he was recalled to the Army's 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" as an officer and Jumpmaster for the Korean War.[7]
Olympics
Morcom competed in the pole vault at the 1948 Summer Olympics for the United States,[8] finishing in 6th place after passing at lesser heights, then during a rainstorm, missing at the height the eventual winners would clear of 4.20 meters.[9] [10] A week later he beat the winning height by 6 inches.[2] In 1949 he won his third United States national championship.[4]
He graduated with a degree in biology and went on to coach Track and Field at the University of Pennsylvania for 35 years before returning to coach in New Hampshire. He started one of the first high school track teams for girls in 1954 and opened the Penn athletic facilities to poor minority high school students.[2] In 1956, he was the coach of the USA Women's Olympic Track Team.
Masters
Morcom continued to compete in athletics as he advanced in age, competing in college meets through his 40s. As an early pioneer of masters athletics, he held the world record for the pole vault as he passed through each of the age divisions between age 50 and 70, plus world records in the high jump, long jump, decathlon, and pentathlon.[11] [12] He continued to vault past age 75, still ranked number one.[13]
Due to the advent of fiberglass vaulting poles, his world record in the M55 division was higher than his best vault in the Olympics almost three decades earlier.
He became well known for these activities, encountering, by his recollection, Jesse Owens, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jackie Robinson. He appeared on The Bob Hope Show.[2] He was inducted into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame in 1997.[14] He is also in the Braintree High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the UNH Athletic Hall of Fame, the Pole Vault Hall of Fame, the Massachusetts Track Coaches Hall of Fame, and as a coach in the Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame.
In 1987, at the age of 66, he was still able to jump 12'6" in the pole vault, as high as any high school athlete in the state of New Hampshire.[15] He was awarded the New Hampshire Male Athlete of the Year Trophy.



Bob Richards was the second man to vault 15 feet and, like the first man over this height, Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, he dominated the event for a number of years. Richards is the only man in history to win two Olympic gold medals in the pole vault, and these came after an Olympic bronze in 1948. Unlike many champions in this event, he was not an outstanding collegiate athlete, and while at Illinois, his best placing at the NCAA meet came in 1947 when he was in a six-way tie for first. However, he went on to win the AAU title a record nine times and won eight AAU indoor crowns. He was also Pan American Games champion in 1951 and 1955. Richards was also a top decathlete, winning the AAU title three times and the All-Around Championship once. In the 1955 Pan American Games decathlon he won the silver medal. In 1956 he made the Olympic team in the decathlon but, hampered by an injury, did not finsh. Richards later became a familiar face on TV. He did sports commentary and was a commercial spokesman for Wheaties. He formed his own company that specializes in motivational speaking and film producing. The Reverend Robert Richards, known as the "Vaulting Vicar", lost his family record of 15-6 (4.72) in the pole vault when his son, Bob, Jr., cleared 17-6 (5.33) in 1973.
Personal Bests: HJ – 6-3¼ (1.91) (1954); PV – 4.72i (1957); LJ – 23-3¼ (7.09) (1954); Dec – 7381 (1954).

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