You totaly misunderstand what I said. I mean that there are greater numbers
of people competeing from Africa, making the talent pool to pull from much
larger, hence much greater numbers of athletes capable of winning/medaling on
an international scale. In that respect, today is much more competitive than
yesteryear. Please note, I did not say there were NO Africans competeing
then, which you seem to have read into my post for no reason I can imagine,
but rather I said the recent emergence of Africans on a large scale! They
were definately not prevalent on a large scale way back then, as they most
definately are today. And yes, I did forget to mention the Aussies and New
Zealanders who where excellent back then as well. I'm sorry for
misrepresenting myself so. I beg your forgivness. Anyway, no need to argue
what I have said, because they are the facts, and they are undisputed.
Dan (out running balls-to-the-wall somewhere, 2000)
In a message dated Tue, 17 Oct 2000 11:21:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
"Mcewen, Brian T" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<< How bout this for an explanation as to why doubles in the 5 and 10 are
rare
nowadays. With the emergence of the Africans (not just Kenyans, but
Ethiopians and Morrocans, etc.) on a large scale, there are much greater
numbers of athletes at the very top of the sport. Therefore, to win both
events is more difficult because there are more quality athletes to go
around. Basically, the sport is now global, whereas in the 1950's through
the '70's and early '80's, it was mainly a European and American sport.
Dan (out running somewhere, 2000)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>><><><><><><
Hmmmmm...
You mean that in the 1960's we had mostly Americans and Euros dominating the
5k, 10k and marathon at the Olympics?
I remember a pretty good marathoner, not from the USA or Europe ... his name
was Abebe Bikila, then there was Mamo Wolde (Ethiopia) also. Then there
were other track runners: Kipchoge Keino (Kenya), Naftali Temu, and
Mohammed Gammoudi (Tunisia). There was a 13:16/27:39 guy named Ron Clarke.
There were Lydiard's runners in the 1500m and 5000m.
In the 1970's/'80's:
There still were great distance runners from outside the US/Europe:
There was Gammoudi (again!), Kip Keino (again!), Ben Jipcho, Miruts Yifter,
Mohammed Kedir, Tolassa Kotu, Kebede Balcha, and then in the 1500m/5000m
there were these three guys from a tiny island: john Walker, Rod Dixon, and
Dick Quax.
You are correct the sport is NOW global ... just as it has been for a long
time.
There are more Kenyans occupying the tops of the seasonal lists NOW ... but
you cannot attribute that to the sport being somehow "closed" to non-Euro/US
athletes... it never has been.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 8:09 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: t-and-f: RE: Olympic Marathons
>>
