To be fair even 3/4 races from his peak he should have had enough for silver (he ran 9.90 in the semi).
Certainly true but the build up prior to the injury was for gold- he entered rehab as the world record holder and was dethroned before he returned to competition. He has a hard time ‘settling’ for second. That said, he needs to get over that view. Your job in the big meets is to fight for every place- 2nd, 3rd, 23rd, no matter what!
That said, I wonder if the other guys who were so pumped before the race, with the prospect of at least a bronze, would have been equally pumped if Tyson was 100%, with the distince possibility of no medal of any color.
He ran 9.90 in the heats chillin and flew in the relay. It’s ALL mental.
You argue by saying that ‘fastest anchor ever’ is in quotes for a reason- we don’t really know what it was except that it was fast.
9.90 chillin is not 9.72. This is like arguing religion. You KNOW you’re right. I’ve said my piece already and everyone can take it or leave it. You choose to leave it.
Race prep doesn’t matter. Injuries don’t matter. Peaking doesn’t matter.
Of course I’m left to wonder why I wasted all those years thinking that coaching and planning mattered.
This is a great post. And great summary.
Fair enough!
I’d bet a healthy sum on it. Who runs 8.6 for a 100m fly with minimal to no wind?
I have another question. I remember someone saying that Bolt didn’t warm up much at all for the semi & final of the 100m. How much does Asafa warm up in these multi-round competitions? If he’s so lazy as they say, I can’t imagine him holding up well for multiple occurrences of these elite sprinter long warmup sessions.
I see a decent amount of ‘death by warmup’ at our level especially at the bigger meets.
Powell’s warm-up is similar to Bolt’s, except that Asafa does starting blocks trials. However, he does much less reps than Michael Frater, who PBed in final.
Does anyone have splits for this?
50-60m looked insane!!!
I agree with Lorien.
The 100m final was on 8/16/08
The 4x100 prelim was on 8/21/08
The 4x100 Final was on 8/22/08
Which means he had 5 days between the final and the. That’s a lot of time to recover if you ask me.
Not to mention, that prior understand of physical adaptation after missing training time and races lead me to the same conclusion as Charlie without having a specific number of 18 races. Although it is far too coincedental that the 4x100 final was his 18th race.
The split he ran all but confirmed for me that the pattern is real and it’s not something to simply ignore just so that the mental issue can take the front seat.
Regardless of whether he was fast enough to at least take the silver, he was most likely not fit enough to run the succession of rounds that he did, and come back an hour or two later to run under 9.89. I’m almost positive that if the Olympics were two rounds and the characters were in the final, Powell would have either won or got the silver.
That IMO points to physical preparation and not mental defeciencies(don’t know if I spelled that right)
Everyone may be taking his performances after the Olympics as prophetic, but it’s all for the wrong reasons. Instead of really doing some research or paying more attention, it’s simply easier to say that he’s mentally weak.
Thank you! It’s a coaches job to look at the information and see if there is something- hell anything- that can be done about it, not to just throw up his hands and say: “It’s all his fault and nothing can be done”
Treble, Charlie,
Everyone may be taking his performances after the Olympics as prophetic, but it’s all for the wrong reasons. Instead of really doing some research or paying more attention, it’s simply easier to say that he’s mentally weak.
I tend to agree to a certain degree with this assessment. And yes, Charlie is right that it is a coach’s job to be on his toes. However, it is a common ‘knowledge’ [at least that’s how the media painted the picture] that Asafa is a choker, and hell, he even admitted it himself [“I am maybe a guy for Grand Prix, not for a big occasion comp…”]. My question to both of you is this - how do we/one/ gets this misconception across to the media that it is not the case?
It is important because it is these guys who structure their questions with their tongue in cheek when they interview Asafa, and it is Asafa’s inability to objectively assess his current/past form and effectively and precisely explain to the media that ‘choking’ is NOT the an accurate assessment.
If they convince him that he is the choker - well, in his mind he is the choker. Can his coach, in that instance, jump in and correct them? I know he should, but can he?
Asafa fails and then concludes he’s not a big meet performer. But is he right or is he going along with everyone’s comments and ignoring correctable training issues?
I’d love to sit down with the guy and tell him what I see. And what I see is a lot of BS going on.
Franno needs to get Asafa’s agreement on his training AND his competition schedule!! Why the hell is he going to Brussels, when weather in northern Eurpoe turns to shit by Aug 20th, right before Rieti, where the weather is usually good and the track is a known commodity? Because the agent is running the show and that’s just plain ass-backwards!
Because the agent is running the show and that’s just plain ass-backwards!
I am glad you said that!
If this is the case then how good is Asafa’s coach? I am not trying to shit on anyone here but it seems to me that - athlete management skills -ain’t there.
As you would agree coaching job includes much more than just prescribing the magic recipe.
If it is the agent that has been dictating the recent developments - SF has failed.
If it is not only the agent but also SF - even worse.
Asafa needs to reassess things, now. But how does he do that? I like Asafa as an athlete but neither he or others from the JAM camp do not radiate 140+ IQ rays, I reluctantly must admit.
So, what do we do? 
I’m amazed that some of you so called experts are thinking this is a training issue or meet schedule issue with Asafa…
i was talking today with one of the head sports psych people for USATF and she said to me that this year in year out issue with Asafa is one the most obvious sports psych issues she has ever seen…
You simply can not say that Asafa was in 9.95 shape during the 100m final and then 5 days later was in arguably 9.70 shape again and then that shape the next week…
come on people, are you serious !?
Who said that it is NOT a psych issue among other things? A stew does not have only meat to make it so tasty.
A number of factors contributed to Asafa’s poor performance in the final, however, with better management he would have done much better.
management…
disagree…if he hadnt have gotten injured yes he would have done better i think…
but his personality is affecting him right now…
Clearly SF is doing something right and knows something, as he’s trained the most consistent European Circuit runner ever, and the second fastest human ever. However, Asafa keeps getting hurt and this is interrupting his training. He very well might get hurt in Brussels if it’s cold, as there are a couple of slightly speedy people he’s running against and those guys might not go easy if the weather is crap.
Asking for an 140 IQ might be asking a lot though. While there are several people on this board that can claim that, it’s pretty damn smart.
I got 142 on a IQ test in grade 3 and 139 in grade 2. Guess I can claim a 140 then, since im also in gifted education as well.