I will just wait for this to play out in the relevant systems. Agree with Sharmer on the sensationalism of the story.
I think you put your post under the wrong thread. Powell and Simpson were the ones who tested positive for a stimulant. It hasn’t been announced what Gay tested positive for, but judging from the comments from Tyson himself, I would say it’s not the type of thing that will just go away like a stimulant positive.
News was he has withdrwn from the worlds, I think that speaks volumes unfortunately. I was looking forward to seeing him against Bolt.
This was the title in the Globe and Mail in Toronto today.
" It was a grim day in the track world…"
[b]It will always be tough to avoid negative comments regarding political rhetoric currently going on in Track and Field in the world.
It’s especially tough to comment when we see behaviors endemic to athletes without any support for those athletes that other professional organizations seem to have.
Track and field is a sport that has fed talent into so many other sports where unions educate and organize athletes so they have choices for a range of successes.
It’s a tough environment out their to compete for only one spot in say the men’s 100 meter title of " Best sprinter in the world".
The prize for one spot seems to matter most and all other victories fall by the way side.
I wonder why we do not start more discussion about how to create change in this sport and talk more about the power given to the agencies that exclude the athlete’s as part of the solution?[/b]
Good point Angela.
Events that have become hugely popular here are one’s without winners.
Eg tough mudder and events like that.
So I think the ability to develop events that creates fast guys without focusing on only one guy can become a reality.
I suggested a while ago that there needs to be a professional sprinting league akin to the NFL and NBA. These are the 2 most successful professional sporting organizations in the world, so why not try to start emulating them. The sprint events 400m (specifically the 100 and 200) and below are where ALL the money is, so why not cut out the events that drag down meets and generate little to no fan interest. Then, you can cut out all the bs bureaucratic organizations like the IAAF, WADA, USADA, and all the other -ADA’s, and the usually terrible national federation’s who obsessively attempt to enforce unenforceable and unrealistic standards. The new professional sprinting league would be in charge of everything, including drug testing, like the NFL and NBA. There would be a union for the athletes to ensure that everyone is getting paid and not just Usain Bolt. Much simpler and PROVEN design. And let’s be honest, when was the last time you heard of any NBA player test positive for a PED? When was the last time a big name NFL star tested positive? The protection is already built in. Obviously this would not be popular with the rest of the Track and Field/Athletics world but when almost all of a sports biggest names of past and present are sniped by tests or are in some way associated with a controversy, then that sport is destined to die off. Change needs to be made.
They should do like bodybuilding and have natural track and a regular track league. Then see which one the fans flock to.
- an american sprint/sprint workout league comprised of 8 competitions occuring every 2 weeks
-each competition contains relays 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x100, 200, 300, 400m(medley relay) - the 4 professional league teams(hockey, football, baseball, basketball) each donate 1million - 15 million per year to make up the prize money(a very broad generalist revenue sharing protocol)
-schwarzenegger with help of obama enforces the team owners donate their share
-also contains complementary/paired ‘athlete readiness’ training events i.e. the 50/60/70/80m sprint than within an hour or 2 you do a bench squat or deadlift or pull ups(athlete readiness means if you only feel like running to 40 or 50 then you could and still get paid, as well if you could lift a heavy weight after the sprint you could and get paid)
-also a 100/110/120/130m complementary/paired ‘athlete readiness’ event with same lifts aforementioned
-prize for the sprint/lift events is based on split time analysis and weight lifted.i.e run a 4.5x 40m then bench 400lbs (you earn $40,000 for the sprint and $40,000 for the lift…run a 5.4x 50m then squat 400lbs. you earn $50,000 for sprint and $40,000 for the lift) - if you can only sprint for the ‘athlete readiness event’ and you run a 60m in 6.3x you earn $60,000(but if you run the full 80m in 7.9x you earn 80,000 plus an extra 10,000 for hitting each of the fast 50, 60, 70, splits.
-5.6x 50m would earn you $40,000…6.4x 60m would get $50,000…7.2x 70m would get $60,000…8.0x 80m would get $70,000
-split time-based/pyramid based prize money is awarded for the relays i.e. running an 8.7x 4x100m split awards $100,000, 8.8x awards $95,000, 8.9x awards $90,000, 9.0x awards $85,000…running an 17.4x 4x200m split awards $150,000
-its similar to crossfit in a sense, only with the paired complementary events
-run a 9.5x 100m earn $200,000 plus 30,000 for the accompanying fast 50,60,70,and 80m splits
-run 9.6x 100m earn $180,000 plus $25,000 for each accompanying 50,60,70,80m
split
Continued…
-the 100/110/120/130/140m will be run on a straight
-run a 10.3x 110m split earns $230,000 plus $30,000 each for each accompanying 50/60/70/80m split…a 10.4x 110m earns $210,000 plus $25,000 each for each accompanying splits…a 10.5x 110m earns $200,000 compared to a 9.7x 100m which earns $160,000
-9.8x 100m earns $140,000…9.9x 100m earns $120,000…10.0x 100m earns $100,000…10.1x 100m earns $80,000… at the end of the lineis 10.3x 100m earning $40,000
-accompanying 50,60,70,80m split prize money tops out at $30,000 per each individual split for a 9.5x 100m…and ends at $5,000 per for a 10.0x 100m
-315lb. Heavy lifts after sprint events are worth $30,000…$405 lb. Lifts after sprints worth $40,000…$495 lb. Lifts after sprints worth $50,000…$585 lb. Lifts after sprints worth $60,000
-a 11.1x 120m is worth $260,000…an 11.9x 130m is worth $290,000…a 12.8x 140m is worth $320,000
- going down the 140m pay scale…$
-you could even have shorter ‘athlete readiness’ time trials…such as the 20/30/40m sprint/ weight lift event…limit 40m pay prizes at times/cut-offs in 4.7x range where a 4.5x would earn $60,000 and 4.7x earning $20,000…a 30m prize limit cut off at around 3.8x earning $20,000 would exist whereas 3.6x would yield $60,000 - if a stockier athlete runs a 3.6x 30m then lifts 495 lbs. Lhe earns $110,000($60,000 sprint + $50,000 lift)
-arnold schwarzenegger would be owner, ben johnson would be the president, mo greene would be the vice president, steve williams would be meet manager
all good ideas. I would love to see something like this… 
Yes, Prophet. It’s a great idea to professionalize sprinting and or all track and field events.
I had heard years ago that Edwin Moses was interested in leading a union for our beloved sport. Now he sits with the big dogs upholding status quo. Ummm. Mr. Sergei Bubka … same … although I never heard he wanted to start a union but he is also part of the IAAF.
Superstars of this magnitude would be needed to lead the way or no one would care to follow.
My thoughts are that track inherently fosters an every man for himself mentality opposed to a more civilized way of cooperation by all for mutual success. Charlie and I were most impressed by the various team sport athletes that came to work with us along the way. So much so I began my own coaching at grassroots for soccer. Thankfully I am not seeing any politics in this sport what so ever…
You have put a fair bit of thought into this Flettotenko. It’s interesting to me why nothing changes. I like to think and talk about change. Change is so hard but such a constant for all of us.
Arnold has his own Super festival. - If you want Arnold to manage, you need to get some sort of sprint event to tie in with that. He won’t do an outside event.
Part of his Festival is the 5km and Pump. This looks pretty cool - I wouldn’t mind finding the cash and flying over for that.
This festival is Huge, and has potential to include some type of Sprint and Squat event or such…
Yea basically when i mentioned arnold, i was trying to brainstorm aloud some potential government links which could work something out with obama to create a lucrative payout for all types of speed merchants with different body types and strengths…rather than a ‘100m top of the pyramid/food chain type structure’…there’d be no need for wada but rather a regression to ‘nfl/nhl/mlb’ type ‘in-house testing…the government could create revenue sharing amongst the four other professional sports( nhl, nba, nfl, mlb) and all their teams to create this lucrative sprint/sprint workout spectacle where ‘speed power athletes’ of all different body types and speed types could all potentially make as much as an ‘alex ovechkin’( hockey), ‘alex rodtiguez’( mlb ), ’ dwain wade’( nba), ‘adrian peterson’( nfl)…
The second I read “government”, “schwarzenegger” and “obama” in your post, that ended any seriousness for me about this thought process… as learned in just about every aspect the government touches, it does not make anything “better”, it complicates and makes things much much worse, costing many times more and totally inefficient including scandels… been watching the news lately?
I am sure I don’t have to give any examples here…
This is not even logical, if your complaint is with the bureaucratic organizations like the IAAF, WADA, USADA etc. and their politics, who in their right mind would replace that with a government/obama/Politician buracracy?
A system could be thought out, those interested in contributing and building it could be found and brought in… create the rules that would make for a better system… but please, keep “government” out of it as that is not its place.
Obama seems to enjoy the intricacies of sports competition…seems to be a genuine hockey fan( for instance his ‘hockey scout mindset’-commented on how given the shorter stature of sidney crosby in comparison to his penguin teammates, he must be really fast)…this tells you he must have an appreciation for american speed sports
With Schwarzenegger you have a former bodybuilder whom appreciates the beauty of ‘seemingly absurd endeavours’ (bodybuilding)…We all probably seen the video footage of the 70’s where he compared his bodybuilding in terms of ’ absurdity’ to 'trying to propel a vehicle to go a quarter mile in 10 seconds(drag racing)…the sprints (60m-200m) would basically be human drag racing to Arnold.
The fact that the ‘western world’ governments put their hands where they don’t
belong is why id vouch for their undertaking of professional sports funds to disperse to ‘american based’(competing in U.S.A.) speed athletes…
I gotta agree with rich. While it is clear you spent a lot of time thinking about changes to the current state of sprinting, I have to say, they don’t make any sense. I’m not sure why you would make such radical changes to sprinting. I think your changes cheapen what is already in place and are gimmicks. You would turn sprinting into a circus instead of a legitimate sport. If that’s the direction you want sprinting to go, then you should just watch Cross-Fit competitions and call it a day. Also, your payout system doesn’t make any sense. If a guy runs a 6.2 60m, then it stands to reason that he would break the 100m WR. However, by your payout system, you would punish him for the fact that the race was scheduled to be a 60m instead of a 100m. Your payout system essentially makes longer races more financially attractive for the simple fact that it is a longer race and no other reason. The beauty of sprinting is that it doesn’t need any major changes! It is by far the most popular event of the OLYMPICS!! It doesn’t need to be re-marketed or re-branded, because it markets itself. Sprinting is where ALL of the money in Track and Field/Athletics is! Occassionally, there is a dominant distance runner who can command appearance fees near what the top sprinters make, but by and large sprinting dominates in all aspects. The only change that sprinting needs to make is to cut ties with the Track and Field/Athletics world. They need to give the finger to all the bs bureaucratic organizations and tell them where they can shove it!
Then, a professional sprinting league can be formed, which controls everything, similar to the NFL and NBA’s model. For legal simplicity’s sake it should all be based in 1 country (the US is obviously the best option). They need a union to ensure all runners are making decent money and not just 1 or 2 top sprinters. Coaches and training staff can be brought in under contract of the league (like the NFL and NBA model, notice a trend…). The thing I hate about track and field in the US school system is the attempt to turn it into a “team” sport, when it is so obviously not. It is an individual sport and should be embraced as such. However, what can be done is you can have regional training bases that are headed by a coaching staff and a training staff that have a roster of sprinters, similar to a “team” and what is really pretty much already in place. The beauty of this is that the infrastructure is already in place for this to happen. For instance, the World Athletics Center in Phoenix, which is headed by Dan Pfaff, and numerous Olympic training centers could serve as home fields for the teams. There could even be “teams” in different parts of the world as long as they agree to abide by all rules set forth by the professional league (this would keep the national pride aspect of sprinting intact). Then, I would take a page from the auto racing world and the Formula 1 league, to be specific. The regional training bases can have team names and there will be a point system which keeps track of the places and performances of sprinters by team and at the end of the season, the team with the most points would win the “Constructor’s Championship”, a la Formula 1.
The structure of the season could be kept pretty much the same with an indoors and outdoors. I do like the idea of more odd distances being run, though. There could be more 50m-60m races. There could be 150m or 300m or other distance races as a mainstay in the league, instead of being rare occurrences. There would be a “playoff series” of races which culminate in the “Super Bowl” every year and determine who is the world champion. The “playoff series” and the “Super Bowl” would begin in the month of May or June and end in August or September (which it pretty much already is now) to coincide with the end of the NBA season and the beginning of the NFL season to gain maximum viewership.
All sprinters running in the league would be under contract through the league and would be REQUIRED to run a certain number of races EVERY YEAR, both indoor and outdoor!!! This means no more ducking and getting free passes to a win and I can’t stress this point enough!!! The key to long-term viability in any sport is having a strong league. That means the success of the league will and should be put above the success of any individual (Just look at how well the UFC has done in such a small amount of time with this plan). Obviously, if the sprinter is legitimately injured, he would not have to compete. The gain in popularity of sprinting around the world would be tremendous. Imagine seeing a race like last year’s men’s 100m Olympic final EVERY YEAR and MULTIPLE TIMES A YEAR!
I don’t know where track and field is headed in the immediate future, but I do believe that ultimately, this is the direction that sprinting will go. The popularity is already there. Just look at how many stadiums Usain Bolt has sold out all by himself!! There is absolutely no reason that men’s and maybe even women’s sprinting can’t enjoy the level of success that the other major professional sports leagues have enjoyed (NFL, NBA, MLB, etc…). The only thing holding it back is the current structure of Track and Field/Athletics. The first step is always the hardest, but it will come eventually, one way or another.
-say for instance theres a cat that’s 5’9" and 180 lbs. but maybe he comes from a football training/ background…he trains year round, short accellerations and a decent amount of top speed…as well, from his formative years of football/hypertrophy weight training his tree trunk legs are ‘here to stay’, and as a result he just so happens to have maintained his ability to squat 585-675 lbs and bench 495 lbs…chances are if he could be awarded to run 6.3x or 6.2x to 60m he’s gonna be able to cash in on that as well as cash in on some heavy weight lift after that sprint, if a ‘sprint/sprint workout’ league existed…so while ultimately his muscle bulk may have hindered his ability to develop and maintain a ‘top speed to deceleration decay’ similar to a ‘taller less bulkier/more speed enduranced athlete’ ala usain bolt, this fantastic wonderful athlete should still be able to cash in on $70,000 for that ‘sprint’ and $60,000 for that ‘lift’
- in america alone, how much athletes would you presume have fallen by the wayside after having childhood dreams of playing nfl, only to come up short after years(around 4-8) of football training…this is where the american ‘sprint/sprint workout’ league would financially award these cats…all these 4.1x, 4.2x, 4.3x 40 yard dash cats who don’t make nfl could redirect their training toward an ‘annual 8 competition/14 week sprint/sprint workout league’, where they’d be able to earn their living after years of ‘american dream nfl training’
-with the aforementioned theoretical athlete, the '50/60/70/80m athlete readiness sprint would likely play into his strengths…maybe for the 1st competition he runs 5.4x to 50m and then squats 585 lbs to earn $60,00 for the sprint and $60,000 for the lift…then at competition 2 he feels ready to go to 60m and goes 6.3x and then squats 585 lbs to earn another $60,000 to $70,000 for the sprint and $60,000 for the lift…at competition 3, 4 weeks after the start of season he progresses to 6.2x 60m and 495 lb bench to earn $70,000 for the sprint and $50,000 for the lift…at competition 4 he does 60m again and goes 6.3x, leading into competition 5, where he feels ready to go to 70m and goes 7.1x to collect $80,000…at competition 6 he goed to 70m and does another 7.1x for another $80,000…finally at competition 7 he goes the full 80m of the ‘50,60,70,80 athlete readiness sprint’, and runs 8.0x for $80,000 and squats 495 lbs for $40,000…then to cap off his season, he runs the full 80m again and goes sub 8 seconds at 7.90 and earns $90,000 for the 80m and an additional $10,000 for each of the 50,60,and 70 m accompanying splits. Plus he then benches 495 lbs 1 hour later for $40,000…
+1 I agree 100%.