Mole Of The Meet - April 07

I have not formally given a #MoleOfTheMeet to anyone since the indoor season when Mary Cain, who is a 16 tear old high school athlete, won the USA indoor national championship while beating a bunch of women, that's right, grown women who get paid to be professionals in the sports of T&F!

Why did I choose to call it Mole? Well, Moles have very small brains and when I see certain things happening on the track...I just don't think they required much thought. Get it? Good. OK now moving right along...


Now I just so happen to be scrolling through twitter yesterday and I saw this picture:

Initially this was my though: "Just what in the hell is DeeDee doing in the air looking like she is about to grace some sand with a landing?" It appears she had been running at what should have been somewhere near full speed down a runway actually participating in an actual Long Jump competition. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Then I thought, maybe it was a Photoshop picture. I just knew this wasn't DeeDee doing the Long Jump. However it was and I was wrong...

Now let me first preface what I am about to say...

I got much love for DeeDee because she is a wonderful cool down to Earth person...

...but Long Jumping is NOT what she should be doing!

Maybe its me but, wasn't she the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the 400m? Isn't she pushing 31 years old? Has she not been one of the best 400m runners on the planet since about 2004? I think I have the right person, don't I? So I also read an article and she said she was bored. Ummm...how are you bored? You just won your very "first" individual major championship medal. Bored...are you serious? Really? You've been hurt for a few years and not you seem to have got back healthy now. You were suppose to been putting it down this fall ready for the summer of 2013. You know the year after the Olympic games they have this thing called a World Championship where they will be awarding more medals and a possible 60K if you win? Not to mention, if you have an Olympic medal, you're suppose to be getting appearance fees every time you step on the track!

Naw, nope, no sir! You would rather run about 40 meters, jump and making booty cheek prints in the sandbox. Come on now...You haven't jumped since college and your PR in the Long Jump isn't even over 20 feet. Stop it right now! 31 is not the time to start changing things up, especially if that change isnt for the better. There is no place for 19 foot Long Jumps by a professional who is world class. You need to get back to doing what she has been one of the best in the world at for quite some time now and that's running around that oval making them two left turns. Dust off those long chocolate legs, put on your sprint spikes and  get in the blocks. Say it with me...LANES not RUNWAY! Like I said, I got much love for you, but DeeDee Trotter, you get Mole Of The Meet.

My 2013 T&F Wish List

Every year I sit and take a close look at what happen the previous year in T&F. I then go, "You know what...I wish this that and blah blah blah." I thought that I might share a few of my thoughts this year. I hope no one takes this personal and I want to say before I even finish that I am a fan of everyone that I am about to say something about so take positively.

Jeshua Anderson
Coming out of college this guy showed much talent and I thought he was about to take over. Not quite sure why it didnt happen that way but he is still early in the game. This young man is strong, fast and seems to have his stride pattern down to a science. If healthy and ready to run, he should be dangerous. I think he just needs a little more speed/turnover work. Be quicker over the hurdles. Get back to the grown.


Francena McCorory
One question...How long must this powerful sprinter run low 50 in the 400m before someone looks at her and works on "how she runs"? She reminds me of Lee Evans when I see her run. Yeah its fast, yeah she one of the best but I think this young lady could be "The Best". She has way too much wasted motion when she runs. I remember that sub 49 split she laid down at Penn Relays running down Allyson. This woman is R...A...W! No fear of anyone on the track. Fix the form and you fix a medalist.


Johnny Dutch
I first heard about Dutch when I moved to NC. He was making a name for himself in high school at the time. Then he went on to USC and had continued success. Made the Olympic team in 2008 and looked ready to take it to another level in 2010 at USA nationals. I didnt hear too much after that though. This guy has talent! One problem with him though...Why hasnt he learned that if he hurdles with his "LEFT" leg the majority of the race that he will run faster, easier and more consistent? Left leg around the first turn cuts down distance you have to travel.


T'erea Brown
She has been a beast in everything she chose to run since I can remember but to me, she has never seemed to understand the race. At least when I watch her run I dont see her understanding"rhythm". She takes her races out too hard and fast but then seems to sometimes struggle coming over the last 2-3 hurdles. Now she has very good technique being that she has run the 100H well, but I would like to see her back off the gas a little bit or maybe try to open up her stride with those long legs she was blessed with and maybe try 14 steps in between a few hurdles. I know a few females that are around 5'4 and take 15 steps. Think about that...


Queen Harrison
She is probably the best combo hurdler right now. Thing is...who cares about doing both if you not making a team in either? No one! I went to school with a few of her sisters so I heard good things about her years ago. She is another that has talent to do whatever she wants, but I havent met one hurdler that hasnt had to choose to be great in my life. I want her to choose one and leave the other alone. If/When she does, depending on what would choose (*cough* 400 hurdles *cough*) I think she would be contending for a medal.



Walter Dix
This is the guy who I thought was about to take over the sprints, well at least in the USA since Jamaica has a bunch of Supermen over there. He sure enough has the talent to contend with the best in the world . Matter fact, he has proved that already. He has medals and has been on teams. Changing coaches wasnt a surprise to me. When I saw the look on his face after Blake ran that 19.2, I said to myself, "Yeah he pissed." Going to John Smith seemed to be a good move and he was running well but then he got hurt. This year, I just hope he gets his drive phase down to or close to perfection and stays healthy. I believe he has 9.7 in him.

Ginne Crawford
Name me a hurdler that has been touched by Bobby Kersey that doesnt have a medal? Yup...she is the only one that I know of. I keep waiting for her to have that break out year but I havent seen it yet. I thought she was about to tear stuff up when she came out of college but she has only stay consistently "good". Can we get the 06-07 Ginnie back please? Power, speed, yeah she had both like many others did not. Maybe this year she can put things back together.

Mole Of The Meet - February 5th

Galen Rupp

Let me first give credit where it is due. Galen is one of the best US distance runners of all time and looks to be a force for some time. Coming off an Olympic medal performance this past summer in London, he stepped on the indoor track and was able to run 3:50 in the mile...quite an accomplishment. Congrats!

Now with that being said, just what on Earth made him hop in another race a week later? I know his body was like, "Hey uh, I'm kinda tired from that personal record we just set. Can we chill this week?" If his body wasn't saying that...It should have been. He just didn't look good running in Boston. Not to mention Hagos Gebrhiwet took off with a few laps left and Galen was stuck in whatever gear he was originally in. The time he ran was still impressive but the way he looked was horrid.

Not many people can or should be able to just keep running fast over and over again. Once you take your body somewhere its never been before it needs a break. Sometimes the body will take a rest if you don't rest it. Galen didn't take that break and ended up losing to someone he shouldn't have. Rest your body. Its going to be a long year. Thinking you could go out there and hit it again after all that... you get Mole Of The Meet.

Really? You dont say...

So Lance Armstrong Admits He Cheated...

Tell me something that I didn't already know. Maybe it's because I was a professional athlete in track and field for 10 years that I've pretty much heard and seen it all, this doesn't surprise me. In track, there has been plenty of athletes that have cheated and got caught. Most of the time, you hear the same story: I wasn't really cheating, the playing field wasn't level, other people were cheating too, its not cheating if everyone else is doing it. (This is the best one for me) Its only cheating if you get caught. HAHAHA! That one always makes me laugh.

I like Oprah a lot. I think she does a tremendous amount of good trying to help people out while interviewing them. However, what I do not like about her is the fact that she seems to worry about trying to help the guilty get their lives back on track. What about the people who were cheated? What about the silver medalist who finds out 8 years later that he or she should have won gold? What about that 4th place finisher at the Olympic games that should have had a medal? What about the person who missed making the Olympic team by one spot to someone that cheated? They should have been able to say, "I'm an Olympian" but will never be able to? The experience is forever gone and can never be relived. Is it possible to hear those peoples story? Seriously Oprah, if you want the world to feel sorry for someone, lets feel sorry for someone that truly deserves it.

OK...Now for more on Lance. You beat Cancer and that's great. I have lost 2 family members to Cancer that I wish were still here. You did a lot for Cancer research which I thought was great. Fact still remains though...You were able to do all these things because you cheated! Honestly, I don't see anything different in you and Nino Brown in New Jack City. Nino was a drug dealer breaking the law to make money, gave back to the community, but was doing more harm than good. You cheated to make money, gave money to research for Cancer and you have forever tarnished the sport of Cycling. Like I said, I see no difference in the comparison. 

Now let me connect some dots that some people probably dont want to, won't or can't. Just to make you go hmm...

Lance Armstrong was the "BEST" in the world and was paid millions for his performances. Who's to say that this doesn't happen more so in other sports. Let's go back to track. In the 2000 Olympic games it was proven that 4 of the 6 people who ran on the men's 4x400 that won gold that year had used performance enhancing drugs. Jerome Young, twin brothers Alvin & Calvin Harrison and my former coach Antonio Pettigrew. Lance Armstrong said he cheated and it was a level playing field, so he didn't feel bad. OK, so in 2000 who was the best in the 400m event? Who won the gold medal that year? Is it possible for one man to be the absolute best in the world without having to cheat, but four other individuals feeling they had to cheat just to keep up or try to keep up with the best in the world? Yeah, go ahead and ponder on that for a few... Michael *cough cough* Johnson.

I'm one of those athletes that have been cheated. I know I have been because I know what a cheater looks like, acts like and performs like. I don't need a failed test or a confession. I know what it feels like for someone that's not clean to run by you while you are slowly starting to fatigue. Its almost confusing yet unimaginable! 

So who do you feel sorry for? It's not a question to feel sorry for the clean athletes who missed out, that should be a given. Do you feel sorry for the people who are cheating and living the glamorous life? How about the people that have been cheated? What about the low self-esteem people who feel tired of losing to cheaters so they start cheating? Maybe even the people that are told from the beginning of their careers that cheating is what goes on so its what you need to do? Or do you feel sorry for the person who cheated, got caught and lost everything? 

Drug use in sports is across the board in all sports unfortunately. It's the way people make the kind of money that will allow them to never have another worry in life...that is, if you don't get caught. Do I totally blame the athletes, no. I put a lot of the blame on sponsors and coaches. Don't tell me Nike didn't know or at least have an idea as to what Lance Armstrong was doing. Here is a fact from me - I know how hard it is to fight for a few "thousand dollars" from Nike and you mean to tell me that Lance won some races and they gave him "millions" for it?! Yeah...OK. 

Open your eyes and ears people. Its the same recycled story once again. Characters in the story are the only thing that's changing. When you realize that, you will understand more clearly what some of these sports are really about - $