http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/packagestory
article about a white sprinter who could have been one of the fastest sprinters in the world maybe…ran 6.57 60m as a teenager…
check out the videos also…
YEa Yea YEa. He was very quick but there are a ton of kids running supafast in highschool and do nothing after. He is just another.
I wish I had that sort of talent to waste.
Yea, I remember this guy. I saw him at the 1999 Nike indoor classic when I was warming up in the middle of the track at Ohio State Univ. He was the real deal as he put a sold gap between him and the rest of the pack at about the 30 meter mark! Kevin Jones who now plays in the NFL was in the race by the way.
Anyhow, and some of you may not like this but I blame the system more then I blame the athlete when superstar HS athletes fall by the wayside.
I mean not everybody is Collage material and if you can run world class times in HS why doesn’t a shoe company (who claim they care about running so much) or an elite coach (who claim they love the sport so much) pick up the athlete and give him a years worth of free training to see if he has the maturity and the ability to make a career out of it.
It seems to me that guys like Obea Moore, Combest, Roy Martain and others had a hard time because once they were booted out of one system, (High school) and could not find a another solid system to integrate themselves into, they lost there rhythm, got into trouble or just completely gave up.
That’s just stupid. Combest was a self-proclaimed gang banger and had consistently hung out with the wrong crowd and couldn’t approach a passable level of high school in Kentucky. He had plenty of issues himself. It is not the responsibility of anybody to travel to where he was (he didn’t like living away from home :rolleyes:), train him for free for a year, and try to make him the best athlete he can be. There is some individual responsibility in this and laziness doesn’t cut it. It costs people money to do what you are proposing and if they can’t even make it through a semester of junior college then they have a lot bigger issues.
I fully understand your points but many athletes as well as regular students don’t like being away from home. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s only natural to be loyal to the known then the unknown when you are young.
As far as laziness, well Combest along with others obliviously were doing just fine in HS other wise we would not be here talking about him/them 9+ years later.
So my point is, what happens to these guys AFTER they graduate that causes them to fall by the wayside? Who lets them down because after all they are only 18-19 and many times there parents don’t know much other then the menial job they haft to go to everyday.
Geez, I could use myself as example, I remember how I set school/meet records and helped my HS win a championship but after I graduated my HS coach could not even return my phone calls when I was just asking him for general advice to navigate in the “next level”. Seriously, I never got one call in return and to this day I don’t know why as I was a model pupil and gave him zero lip/trouble.
Anyhow, I wound up in a desert sort of speak for 6 years bouncing around from one coach who made me run 3-4 miles at practice to other coahes who would not even show up to practice at all; and this was at different collages so I did my part.
Just like you said however, (I agree) you haft to have self responsibility so I picked up the pieces on my own and I’m doing what I can with the time I have left.
This is going on a tangent but I really have to give credit where it’s due but I really appreciate this website that Charlie made along with Joe Defranco and James Smith because without these three guys I would be a bitter young man punching a time-clock.
I mean the guys you mentioned fell to the wayside because they obviously had personal issues. If someone can’t fit within society, there is nobody obligated to mold it for them. If they don’t like moving away from home, then they’ll just have to deal with not having a coach. You’re acting as-if athletes are all treated badly. I just don’t see it. For every athlete who isn’t given an opportunity there are at least two others (probably much more) who have all of the talent and opportunity in the world and throw it away (Combest).
BTW If you read the article, Trevor Graham did train Combest. Guy has had about as many opportunities as you can give a person.
Yes, thats true.
This is true as well but Combest had to leave because as soon as he started training with Graham the whole camp got busted for PED and other things.
From a reliable source, Combest did train with Trevor for several months but he pulled his hamstring even before Trevor’s problems came home to roost.
Apparently, Trevor felt he was ready to run well before the injury, but by the time Casey recovered, Trevor couldn’t coach anyone any more.
Speaking of talent unfulfilled, how about the great William Reed?
“There ain’t been no white world class sprinters in 60 yearz”
you tell 'em son
I can think of some folks named Kenderis, Thanou, Mennea, Borzov, Collio, Block, Gohr…who might find that comment a little humorous. 30 years after Mennea set his WR, all of 7 black sprinters have ever matched that time, and Carl, Ben, Mo, and Ato are not among them.
Collio…r u serious?
Casey Combest - Faster Than Usain Bolt - Fastest Man Alive (re-upload) ::: adarq.org.
Wouldn’t look out of place in the 10,000m. Light as a feather.
Well, I guess it shows two things. 1) Sprinters come in all shapes and sizes. He was tiny but generally power sprinters excel in 60m. He disproves that. That jump was ridiculous. 2) Without proper guidance and discipline, great talent is often wasted. It is sad that he had so much, but decided to do the less productive things in life. Too bad we never got to see that talent fully play itself out.
Apart from genetics/talent, what other qualities do you see in Casey accomplishing that 6.59?.
Low bodyweight?.
Great elasticity/spring?.
Doesn’t look to have great “strength” levels in the purest form of max strength.
I would think his low bodyweight certainly helped a lot. He looked like he must have a massively efficient CNS as well. Add to that a lot of elasticity as evidenced by the ease of that jump and I guess you have a perfect storm of talents.
can you post the link?
edit: nevermind