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| Kiprop defends his 1500m title in dominating fashion |
What: 2013 IAAF World Championships, day nine
Where: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia
When: 18 August 2013
As a men’s track athlete, the most interesting events to me
at this year’s World Championships were, unsurprisingly, the men’s track
events. As a fan of sport, most of the finals were good races. But as a fan of
sporting drama, this year’s Worlds was one of the weakest in recent memory.
Consider this: In the eight flat men’s races (100, 200, 400,
800, 1500, 5000, 10000 and marathon), seven were won by a past World or Olympic
champion. The only race in which we had a new champion was the 800, and that
was because the overwhelming favorite, 2012 Olympic and 2011 World champion
David Rudisha, was not in Moscow due to injury.
If you add in the hurdle races and relays, it becomes
slightly more dramatic. David Oliver and Jehue Gordon were new titlists in the
110 and 400 hurdles, respectively, with Gordon’s .01 second victory over
Michael Tinsley making the 400 hurdles one of the most exciting races of the
championships. But Ezekiel Kemboi expectedly won a fourth straight global
steeplechase title, Jamaica won its fifth straight 4x100 title and the US won
the 4x400, again. Though they were upset by the Bahamas at the Olympics last
year, the United States has now won seven of the last eight 4x400 global titles
and were the heavy favorites in Moscow.
I appreciate greatness as much as the next guy, but in some
races – particularly the men’s long distance races, where the outcome was clear
as soon as the pace started to dawdle – the results were pretty anticlimactic.
I looked back at every World Championships/Olympics starting with Sydney 2000
(that’s 11 total) and looked for how many first-time gold medalists (meaning
that the winner of the event had never won a previous Olympic or World outdoor
title) there were each time in the men’s running events. There are 11 running
events, and in 2013, there were only 3 new gold medalists. The average over
that period? 5.91. So there were almost half as many new gold medalists as
usual. When you add in that there were only 3 new gold medalists at London 2012
and that 7 of the 11 winners on the women’s side were also former champions, two
things become clear. First, we have some real all-time greats competing on the
track at the moment. Second, and consequently, the outcomes over the past
couple years have been more anticlimactic than usual.
Here are two more of my post-Worlds thoughts:
1. Usain Bolt just completed one of the most
dominating six-year stretches in history for any athlete, in any sport
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
GOLD
That’s what Usain Bolt has accomplished in the 14
global track finals he’s finished since 2008. 14 races, 14 golds. His only
blemish was a DQ in the 100m final at Worlds in 2011, and video evidence
suggests that he may not have been the one to trigger that false start. He’s also set 8 world records in that timespan across the 100m, 200m and 4x100m
relay.
But it’s not just that Bolt has been dominant, or
even that he’s been the best of all time in the sprints. It is the manner in
which he has done it. Bolt hasn’t set an individual record since 2009, but that’s
only because the records he set at 100 and 200 meters were completely
mind-blowing, much faster than anyone conceived possible. Before Bolt’s first
world record, a 9.72 second clocking in the 100m in May 2008, the world record
was Asafa Powell’s 9.74 from 2007. If you want the world record for someone who
hasn’t since failed a drug test (and Bolt hasn’t), it was Maurice Greene’s 9.79
from 1999. Within 15 months, the 100 record would be down to 9.58 seconds. Before
the 2008 Olympics, many considered Michael Johnson’s 200 world record of 19.32
from 1996 one of the most unbreakable marks on the board. Tyson Gay’s 19.62 in
2007 was the closest anyone had come to touching that time, and if you know
sprints, you know that .30 seconds is not close. Bolt ran 19.30 at the
Olympics; at next year’s worlds, he ran 19.19 into a headwind. Bolt didn’t just break world records; he made us
completely reconsider what was possible in athletics, the same way Babe Ruth
did in baseball in the 1920s.
I’m not going to try and make cross-sport
comparisons because those can be argued many different ways. Michael Phelps was
incredibly dominant from 2003 to 2008. Ditto Roger Federer in the same
timeframe. Or Michael Jordan from 1988 to 1993. Just know that any argument
about the greatest athlete of all time has to include Bolt now. And if he can
keep this up for a few more years, I will be able to make a very compelling
case that he’s better than all of them.
2. The United States’ middle-distance runners are
better now than at any time in recent memory
I don’t have enough knowledge of the history of the sport to
argue that the US middle-distance squad of the past few years is the best in
the nation’s history, but it’s certainly the strongest it’s been since the
Africans became major players on the world scene in the ’70s.
The US medaled in all four middle-distance races (men’s and
women’s 800 and 1500). Kenya medaled in three. No other nation medaled in more
than one. Kenya is still the country to beat (it had two golds and a bronze to
the US’s three silvers and a bronze, and two of its 800 medalists from London
were out injured), but the US is firmly ensconced in the second spot.
It’s something that’s been building for a while now. Leonel
Manzano won the US’s only mid-d medal at last year’s Olympics in the men’s
1500, but Americans just missed out on medals in the men’s 800 (4th
and 5th), men’s 1500 (4th) and women’s 800 (5th).
2011 was just as successful, with Jenny Simpson’s gold and Matt Centrowitz’s
bronze in the 1500 accompanied by a 4th in the women’s 800 by Alysia
Montano and a 5th in the men’s 800 by Nick Symmonds. Check out the
list below of which nations have the most medals over the last three global
championships (Moscow 2013, London 2012, Daegu 2011), as well as the American
mid-d medals from 2013.
Most medals, men’s and women’s middle distance events,
2011-2013
Kenya, 9 (5 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze)
United States, 7 (1 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
Russia, 5 (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
South Africa, 3 (2 silver, 1 bronze)
Turkey, 2 (1 gold, 1 silver)
10 other nations, 1
US mid-d medals at 2013 World Championships
Men’s 800: Nick Symmonds, silver
Men’s 1500: Matt Centrowitz, silver
Women’s 800: Brenda Martinez, bronze
Women’s 1500: Jenny Simpson, silver
That’s a very successful haul for the United States.
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