We continue to watch the Olympic Trials through the lens of NBC producers and and their toadies. The big story was the Athing Mu fall on the back stretch near the 200 meter mark that sent her career into a nose dive. It just proves that the Trials are one of the toughest, most high pressure events in American sport. Were this to happen in the UK, the 'selection committee' might have the option to forgive that mistake and put her on the team. It appeared to be the result of her own misjudgement when she was cutting across the track. But that was only from the head on angle that we saw on the screen.
George-Now we see NBC Snooping, read Stooping, to new lows in broadcasting a sporting event. The time spent with him could have been used to broadcast actual USA Olympic Trials events! What has happened to covering the trials with viewers in mind. Surely this is not a prelude to what we will see in Paris! That women's 5,000 tops the list of exciting competition up to this point. I was just telling my two sons that the athletes who NBC focuses on, are jinxed by their coverage and then Athing gets tripped up and out. So sad. BTW-I thought reigning Oly Champs get an automatic pass into the next Olympic Games. Am I crazy? Darryl Taylor
Darryl
I think Snoop's in there purely to attract viewers who would not otherwise be interested in the Trials. I fully expect his team partner Martha Stewart to be there soon looking at wall coverings (ie. tattoo designs) with Sha'carri Richardson. Sydney McLaughlin Levrone or Valerie Allman have too much class for Martha. It's a shame what happened to Athing Mu. There's no free pass into the Olympics otherwise an aging Bob Schul might have been selected in 1968 and Bobby Morrow, with his bags packed, would not have been left at the gate in the airport in L.A. in 1960, so some 'connected' official could have a seat on the plane. Can you imagine the amount of money that was lost on that solitary trip by Athing Mu? Just before the event they did a piece on her, and she looked brilliant, like a high level model for all kinds of beauty products and clothing. And she was very articulate. Now is it all down the drain? That's show bizz. Hopefully she might be added to the 4x400 relay and taken to the games. There is always a lot of lobbying to set that fourth runner on the team. If not, it's a long four years until the next Games. Same for Christian Coleman. His chances are better with his 4th place in the 100 meters.
In 1968 there were two rounds of Trials, one in L.A. and the second at Echo Summit which was supposed to allow more room for removing error in the selection. There was still controversy in the elimination of Dave Patrick who was clearly one of the top 1500 meters hopes.
In a post event interview last night (Monday), Grant Holloway proved himself to be the most articulate member of the men's team so far. He also displayed a level of grace after his first round win in the 110HH with an excellent 12.92 timing by greeting a young child in the stands and holding him up for a photo.
And how bout that 1500 with Cole Hocker breaking the field with that long kick? And Elle St. Pierre holding off Liz Cranney. Nike may produce a pair of training shoes resembling those rubber Wellingtons she wears in the cow barn.
The suits on Madison Ave. clearly have a hand in all this in some kind of agreement with USATF to try "one last time'? to promote the sport. So we go with any recognizable names to the 30-40 years set that we can find on the block that might also match the profile of some of these athletes or events. When we think Snoop and pole vault, the common denominator is 'high'. Snoop in that fake Olympic track suit is the wet dream of some ad exec trying to make a name for her/himself in the marketing world. Is anyone working on a Taylor Swift connection? George