Italiano mercialago wrote:
To fair, Many know of the classic distance mountain events in Europe, it's just your USA who is behind the times. Actually the athletes who are dominant in the short classic makes more money. Gray is making a ton just as Mamu and another eritrean athlete also living in Germany. Also, to give perspective on the long distance event. It's quite a weak event, Jim almost lost to Puppi whom Gray and Mamu both have beaten all season by large margins in much shorter distance.
Jim beat Puppi by less than 1 min in a trail marathon but Gray has beaten Puppi by 2+ minutes in 12k and also 18k here in Italy. USA is becoming quite strong all of a sudden. Maybe Jim and Joe are working with Salazar since USA team is Nike now.
Wow, you know Jack s#! + about the scene. Puppi isn't raking it in, he's a high school science teacher, and all around awesome dude. I hope his Nike sponsorship is more than gear only, the guy is seriously talented.
Mamu lives in Austria in the summer with his manager, kinda dodgy IMHO.
And there is still a significant difference between World Cup and World Championships. It's really hard to get all the top athletes to take time off work, pay their travel, to do a race. I love doing World Cup races, but it is not nearly as competitive as a world champs. And although Salomon has pumped a lot of money into Golden Trail, it's just a sample of elites and not a true world champs.