Mirror, mirror n z wall, who's da fastest of m all?

[Stonigut]

http://www.jamaicaolympics.com/archives/8164

Hardcore look at Jamaican women sprinters, pretty dark and somber view!

[Peter R]

not encouraging...

[Historian]

Think Our Women Are a Problem?

not encouraging...

Despite trying, I am unable to get the video. Ironically, until recently our women were the ones giving us reasons to celebrate!! I’m talking about even as recently as the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin!

This weekend, the results of the women’s 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter relays, especially the latter, have revealed things that I long suspected. Thankfully, our women’s 4x400-meter relay team, in the absence of our best young quarter-miler Stephenie McPherson (the spelling of her first name here is correct, by the way), still managed a silver medal with the young Shericka Jackson on anchor. I am, as usual, less worried about our women’s 4x400-meter relay team when compared with the others.

Rather than focus on our women, however, I think we should look closely at our national embarrassment of a team, our men’s 4x400-meter relay team:

2008: Eight position (the Beijing Olympic Games)
2014: Eight position (the IAAF World Relays)

Still think our women are the problem? (And yes, I am aware that Javon Francis was absent this past weekend.)

Again, I did NOT see the video that was posted above.

[Stonigut]

Historian we have talked of this many times over the years and the truth is that we see a big fall off in development from world class pre twenty stage and making the transition to even consistent top ten performance at the senior stage, the list is quite long.

[Historian]

You Are Right

Historian we have talked of this many times over the years and the truth is that we see a big fall off in development from world class pre twenty stage and making the transition to even consistent top ten performance at the senior stage, the list is quite long.

You are 100 percent correct, and I fully agree with your comment.

Ironically, while we all celebrate Boys & Girls Champs (even claiming that it is the greatest high school national championship in the world), we often ignore the mindset of most of our coaches in this venture. In their desire to achieve great performances at Champs, are our excellent high school coaches sometimes inadvertently burning out our juniors?

[Jangle]

Isn't the claim justified?

[Islandman]

It is certainly justified if we are talking about track and field specifically.

Historian is also quite right that there can be a natural tension between what our high school coaches want from our junior athletes in the short term and what we all want from them in the longer term. That is where the administration has a role to play, to make sure that a healthy balance is maintained.

[Stonigut]

I hear that argument but does that hold water for Facey that was burning 10.9's at A&m, or maybe the us colleges is the other step of the argument that is The US college that burn them out. First, yard schools, then US college, then they fall apart after that?

Maybe the pathway for the most talented ones needs more greasing and handholding all along the way, not just leaving them to drift and wander into this camp or that camp none of which may be meeting their real needs.

I keep thinking how close were we to really losing Bolt after Athens, there was a stretch there of real doubt, even though we all recognized that he was as talented as we had ever seen, that transition of coaches from Coleman to mills could have possibly gone another way to someone else or to the states, would Bolt be The Bolt we know today or would it be the Everod Samuels argument.

All that to say that the transition from youth athlete to world star is a hell of a jump and maybe our expectations are too great when we think about the input of resources outside of the athlete.

What is Jaaa role in that stretch of the development process, that seems to be where the opportunity to improve may be.

[Islandman]

Good points. While the high schools deserve some blame, I have no doubt that the US college system has destroyed far more of our potential stars than our high schools have. Fortunately it doesn't happen as often these days with the really special ones because the opportunity to bypass NCAA and go straight professional now exists.

Personally I think we dodged a bullet with Bolt if one considers his spine curvature issues which could easily have curtailed his career if things had gone differently.