I was a major contributor to the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Olympic_Marathon_Course, While writing the article I collaborated with a US-based editor who produced some US references –(mentioned in the article). These US references were written for real runners by real runners and they used metric throughout.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Trusten Sent: 11 August 2012 00:33 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:51844] Fwd: Re: An Opportunity Lost From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]> Date: August 10, 2012 16:28:26 CDT To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [USMA:51843] Re: An Opportunity Lost Exactly. It would be shortsighted preparing metric promos for just one audience or one medium. Paul Trusten, Reg. Pharmacist Vice President U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Midland, Texas USA www.metric.org +1(432)528-7724 [email protected] On Aug 10, 2012, at 16:06, "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> wrote: Paul, I would like to suggest a slightly wider scope than just NBC and the Olympics. The primary problem was the field events of track & field, and road races (especially the marathon). However, I think we should widen it to all cases (and venues) where the sport is already metricated, but this fact is obscured from the audience. As a minimum, USMA should address this with USATF, NCAA, NBC, and AP. *In collegiate track & field, NCAA is the ruling body. Except for high school, where field events are measured in feet and inches, USATF is the ruling body in non-collegiate track and field. Both require measurement of field events in metric. Then they emphasize reporting to the audience and the media in feet and inches. They need to understand that to tie into Olympics and other international competition, their American audiences need to understand field results in metric and that they need to be part of the education process. They need to require that metric results be presented to the audience and media. They may need to report dual for a while and then examine when the feet and inches can be dropped. *NBC reports some collegiate track and field, USATF trials and championships every year, as well as a professional set of meets called Diamond League. They need to report field events in all of these venues in metric, not just at the Olympics every four years. *Finally, most newspaper coverage of field events is written to AP guidelines, and AP generally hates metric. We need to emphasize to them that the metric results are the real results, the feet & inches are just approximation. The athlete's real performance is the real story, and by their guidelines, the metric should be left in. Very similar remarks apply to marathons and any other road races where the rules of the sport require measuring the course in metric. I propose we start with only long road races and the field events of track & field. However, we could potentially expand to any other sport where the rules are in metric, but the metric is obscured from the public. I propose we NOT put any early effort into sports where the rules are in Customary, such as American football; that just won't go anywhere, until the country is a LOT more metric. --- On Fri, 8/10/12, Paul Trusten <[email protected]> wrote: From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:51842] Re: An Opportunity Lost To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, August 10, 2012, 3:34 PM On the contrary: the Coach (you) just instructed his team on an excellent strategy for the next play! Thank you. I'll get it ready. Paul Trusten, Reg. Pharmacist Vice President U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Midland, Texas USA www.metric.org +1(432)528-7724 [email protected] <http://us.mc1849.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]> On Aug 10, 2012, at 11:25, [email protected] <http://us.mc1849.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]> wrote: > With all this discussion about metric in the Olympics, it occurs to me that > the USMA dropped the ball. We should have contacted NBC well in advance to > offer assistance and to see whether NBC might give little "metric tutorials" > during the events. What an opportunity to reach the American audience and > demonstrate, live in action, how metric works better! This could have done > more for the metric movement than any other single thing, given the huge > audience. The solution, as always, is to educate. > >
