V5. N. 75 Three Articles Worth Your Time

Today  trackandfieldnews.com   has listed three articles from other agencies covering major track and field issues that are worth your time to read.  I'm listing the three  below and hope you have time to look at them.  They are written as far as I can tell by full time journalists who have the time and resources to go out and get info and put it on paper in a timely and succinct manner.

The articles are as follows:

1.
Calvin Coolige's Ghost: Nick Symmonds' Spirit Animal

This comes from Wire Sports written by Alan Abrahamson and looks at the Symmonds story of being left off the US team for Beijing WC from a different point of view.  It disagrees with the current reporting on CBS and Symmonds' own story,that USATF is only sharing 8% of their revenue with athletes.  It also disagrees with some of Nick's statements about the current situation.

2.IAAF have to understand why the public doesn't trust them and it's up to the new president to restore trust  by Nick Butler on Inside the Games published Aug. 10, 2015.   In this article, Butler provides a rather pessimistic view on the world body and its future.  Presidential election next week to decide on Coe or Bubka as the new leader.  Good luck.



3. Conte Says Coverup Protected Big Stars at Seoul Games  by Ed Odeven staff writer for The Japan Times.   This article is by far the most interesting although the title would make you think it is not timely.   However it is an interview with Victor Conte , ex-con (4 months) and former director of BALCO the testosterone provider to a number of well known athletes.  Apparently he has been asked to be a consultant to help weed out the cheaters (It takes one to know one?) by none other than Dick Pound the Canadian who was a co-founder of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).  When Pound took Conte's ideas to the present director of WADA, the idea was rejected.   Odeven quotes Conte indicating that WADA is as corrupt as the cheaters and was only created to protect sponsor investment in the sport.  It would not benefit the sport for a mass scandal to erupt.  It in fact would be a death knell.     Anyway, take a read and draw your own conclusions.  It also explains in layman's terms some of the testing procedures and use of data from past tests to nail cheaters.

4.Nick Symmonds, Another View by Sports Illustrated by Tim Laydon

A number of readers have expressed concern that the article by Alan Abrahamson was biased against Nick Symmonds, so we have added this article by Tim Laydon writing for Sports Illustrated.


The following comment appeared on 3 Wire Sports  website in response to Alan Abrahamson's piece.

New comment on 3 Wire Sports

susie b commented on Calvin Coolidge's ghost: Nick Symmonds' spirit animal?. in response to Alan Abrahamson: The business of America, Calvin Coolidge once said memorably, is business. Who knew that the ghost of Calvin Coolidge might be Nick Symmonds’ spirit animal? It’s all well and good that Symmonds, the middle-distance runner and provocateur CEO of Nick Symmonds LLC, wants to make money for Nick Symmonds. No quarrel there of any sort. […] I have long enjoyed reading your Olympic writings & especially this site. You have entertained & informed; to what all journalists should aspire. I especially loved the recent posts at the Swimming World Championships (Go Katie!). However, if I had never read your writing before & not know that you truly are very knowledgeable about Olympic sports, the IOC & the politics that pervade it, & the various sport organizations, I would think (based on this one piece) you are either a USATF official or paid spokesman for Nike. Very disappointing. I just read Tim Layden’s piece on SI.com & it is more informative & unbiased. You are better than this article. It’s so one-sided that I’m tempted to believe you wrote this ala ‘First Take’ – merely to get eyeballs & cause a ruckus. At the very least, I would like to see an article from you about the increasingly precarious financial structure of “professional” Track & Field, at least partly because of the increasing monopoly of Nike. And while I’m asking – I would also love an in-depth piece on WHY 99% of the “doping” stories in the mainstream media focus on athletes in the “poor” sports of cycling & Track & Field & almost NONE on the truly lucrative pro sports (the ‘Big 3’ in America, European soccer, boxing). Is it remotely feasible that athletes who could be paid tens & hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars to excel in their profession NOT be doping as much as those struggling for thousands? Why is it that the pro sports with the worst financial structures & the least amount of athlete power (i.e. no unions) be constantly thrust into the “DOPER/CHEATER/LIAR!” morality play that’s been “running” nonstop “off-Broadway” going on 3 decades while the highest paid pro athletes are barely tested & when they do actually get caught, are given slaps on the wrist & not a whimper of “cheater/liar!” is heard by their team’s fans? Don’t get me wrong – I would love to know that all sports I watch are competed by athletes on truly level playing grounds. What I cannot abide is the vastly different dope-testing procedures & penalties among all professional sports. AND the hypocrisy of the fans who denigrate some but discount or ignore completely the same transgressions by others.