Archived Homepage For December 27, 2021

Long Distance News

Sifan Hassan Named Dutch Sportswoman Of The Year; Says She Wants To Try The Marathon She plans to make her marathon debut in 2023.
The Charlotte Observer: "He Started High School Knowing Nothing About Running. He'll Finish As A 100-Mile Champ." Owen Thornton showed up to the first day of XC practice without even knowing it involved running, but by sophomore year had run his first marathon and won his first 100 miler as a senior.
MB: Big news in France. Florian Carvalho (3:33, 13:27, 27:55, 1:01, 2:10) has covid

LRC SafeSport Hands Alberto Salazar Lifetime Ban for Sexual Misconduct. What Does That Mean?

Many are a little bewildered that Salazar has been banned for "sexual misconduct" when none of the most serious public allegations against him are really sexual in nature, but under the SafeSport code someone can be banned for life for “sexual misconduct” even if they did nothing sexual in nature.
*Runner's World *WSJ *NY Times
*MB: Alberto Salazar BANNED For Life for "Sexual Misconduct"

LRC VIP Salazar is BANNED FOR LIFE Podcast

Are you driving on Xmas? Listen to this week's SC bonus podcast.

RIP

Shunichi Kobayashi: The man who opened Japan’s doors to Kenyan athletes dies at 79

The man who showed up in Kenya with a backpack but was instrumental in both Olympic silver medallist Douglas Wakiihuri and gold medallist Sammy Wanjiru going to Japan. Did you know that from 1988 through 2008, every Japanese Olympic marathon medallist spent time in Japan?
*2010 article by Brett Larner: How Kenyan runners became an important part of the Japanese system
*2012 New York: How Shunichi Kobayashi helped Sammy Wanjiru end up in Japan This is a great read on the tragic end of Wanjiru.

More From Kenya

Paula Radcliffe and her daughter Isla, who beat cancer earlier this year, run in Shoes4Africa relay race in Kenya to raise funds for children's cancer hospital They are hoping to raise enough to build a 152-bed children’s cancer hospital to be known as “The Shoe4Africa Juli Anne Perry Children’s Cancer Hospital.” More in Radcliffe's daughter's cancer battle here.
Paula Radcliffe thinks holding a Worlds in Kenya is a good idea - “That opportunity has to come sooner rather than later.”

Irish News

Interesting read: Meet Pierce O’Callaghan - a rare Irishman that is high up at World Athletics He's the head of competition management and in charge of setting up a calendar. World Athletics has recently set the last weekend as June as the weekend for everyone's nationals.
*MB: True / False. The farthest seat from lane 8 in Hayward Field is still closer than the closest seat at the London Olympics.

LRC A Closer Look at the Shakeup at NAZ Elite

Four NAZ Elite men's athletes -- Scott Fauble, Scott Smith, Rory Linkletter, and Sid Vaughn -- left the team within the last week. We took a look at what's going on in Flagstaff. "

Quote Of The Day

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Administrative News of Note

4 Links That Passed our vetting Process

Only six humans have won the 100m dash in back-to-back Olympic Games. The first was Wyomia Tyus - the original athlete activist hiding in plain sight A great read on a US star in 1964 and 68 from the UK's The Guardian.
Florence Griffith Joyner: The life and tragic death of the fastest woman of all time On what would be her 62nd birthday, GiveMeSport Women takes a look at the life and death of Flo Jo.
After overcoming an eating disorder, Angelina Perez (UF signee) was thrilled to be the Eastbay runner-up. You can check our her instagram at _runningonplants_.
Still looking for New Year's plans? Martin Fritz Huber: A New Year’s race will cure your seasonal malaise - The case for marking the passage of time by running your ass off

Listen to The Best Running Podcast on the Planet While You Drive To The Inlaws

HOKA NAZ Elite men break up, how fast will women go in 2022?, who will make the 2024 Olympics + should high schoolers be running 100 miles per week?

Announcements of Note

Ex Hoka Athletes Scott Fauble (2;09 pb) and Rory Linkletter (2:12 pb) announce their new coaches Linkletter will be coached by weighlifter Ryan Hall and Fauble will be coached by Joe Bosshard.
Japan's legendary Kayoko Fukushi announces she's retiring in January The 4-time Olympian, who used to hold NRs at both 5000 (14:53) and 13.1 (67:26), won WC marathon bronze in 2013 and also had an epic marathon debut when she blew up and ran 2:40 in Osaka in 2008.
“This Will Be My Best Year”: Noah Lyles makes bold claim on twitter about 2022 as 2021 comes to an end
Tokyo 2020 organizes estimate the Olympics cost way less than forecasted - just $13.6 billion, when last year they estimated $15.4 billion What a bargain. That comes out to measly $846,877 for each of the 16,059 athletes.

XC And The Olympics

LRC Seb Coe Is Right: Cross Country Needs to Be in the Olympics -- the Winter Olympics

If the IOC is serious about its claim the Olympics is about "diversity and unity", then adding traditional cross country to the Winter Olympics is a no-brainer as it will give an entire continent a reason to tune in as for the first time ever an African would win a Winter Olympic medal. Adding it to the summer Olympics as 4 x 2.5k relay would be a mistake.

MB: Seb Coe is right. Adding XC to the Winter Olympics would be AMAZING... But adding it to the summer as a relay would be a mistake

LRC World Athletics President Seb Coe Speaks to LetsRun About XC in the Olympics, Oregon22's Legacy, & World Athletics' DSD Policy

Coe said that he wants XC in the Olympics -- preferably the Winter Olympics, but the Summer Olympics if necessary -- and discussed whether World Athletics would seek to update its DSD policy after the success of Christine Mboma and Francine Niyonsaba in 2021.

Upcoming Indoor - Get Excited For Millrose (Assuming It Happens)

Star-Studded Men's 3k Announced For Millrose Games With Cole Hocker, Conner Mantz, Wesley Kiptoo, Cooper Teare And Drew Hunter

Also Edward Cheserek, Yared Nuguse, Eric Jenkins and Joe Klecker.

Olympic 100m Champ Marcell Jacobs To Return To Racing On February 4 In The 60m At The ISATF Indoor Meet In Berlin This will be Jacobs first race since Tokyo 2020.
Olympic HJ Champ Maria Lasitskene May Miss German Indoor Meet Because She Was Vaccinated With The "Russian Vaccine" The Russian vaccine isn't recognized in Germany, but taking another vaccine after she's already been vaccinated could be risky.

Women's Distance News

Colleen Quigley Taking A More Scientific And Tech-Infused Approach To Her Training Quigley has been using something called a Whoop strap, which apparently measures her effort and recovery. She makes a good point when she says, "Runners are so obsessed with splits and times and paces, and we don't ever really, truly measure effort. If you ran a 5:30 tempo on the track, versus running 5:30 tempo pace on a gravel trail with hills, you get the same credit for both of those activities, even though one would have been much harder."
Olympic 800m Silver Medalist Keely Hodgkinson Says She Wants "More Bling" And "Under-23 Records" In 2022: "This year's a blank page again. I'll look back on 2021 when I'm retired but I have to focus now on the new year to go again." Interesting tidbit, she attended the world premiere of the new James Bond movie, "No Time To Die."
Olympic Marathon Champ Peres Jepchirchir Reviews Her 2021 Jepchirchir says she didn't do any heat training ahead of Tokyo because the one time she tried running during the hot midday sun in Kenya it affected her too much, so she just went back to AM runs.

NCAA News

Recommended Read: Dyestat Profile On Villanova's NCAA XC 9th Placer Haftu Strintzos Who Rose From Poverty In The Tigray Region Of Ethiopia Strintzos wasn't even aware of running as a young orphan in Ethiopia and his family wanted him to quit school to become a full-time herder, but being adopted by a woman from Australia put him on the road to athletic and academic success.
Some Bowerman Award Stats Athing Mu became the youngest winner of The Bowerman at 19 years, 23 days – 252 days younger than Sha’Carri Richardson was when she won in 2019.

World Athletics Not Distancing Itself From China At All In 2022

There Will Be A New Diamond League Meet In Shenzhen, China In 2022 Shenzhen was supposed to be on the 2021 schedule, but was canceled due to COVID.
China Dominates The World Athletics Road Race Calendar For 2022 Of the near-200 events on the road race calendar, more than 60 are in China.
Seb Coe Defends New Diamond League Meet In China - "It is still better to have open dialogue and sporting relationships than pulling up the drawbridge."
*Seb Coe: "It's really important the Diamond League has a foothold in all our big athletics nations."
Schedule Released For Which Events Will Be At Each Diamond League Meet in 2022

More 2021 In Review

Toni Reavis Does A Stat Breakdown On Elite Marathoning In 2021 After the number of sub-2:10s in the world plummeted in 2020 due to COVID (from 293 in 2019 to 163), the numbers were back up with 249 sub-2:10s in 2021. 93 of them were from Kenya, 55 from Ethiopia, and 48 from Japan. USA only had one (Galen Rupp).
T&F News' World Men's Top 10 Voting Behind Ryan Crouser, Karsten Warholm and Mondo Duplantis were 2-3 in their vote tally. Jakob Ingebrigtsen was the top distance runner in 6th.
T&F News' World Women's Top 10 Voting Yulimar Rojas just barely lost out to Elaine Thompson-Herah in the voting while Sifan Hassan was 3rd. Athing Mu was 6th.
World Athletics 2021 Review: Race Walks

Olympic News

Track And Field Maintained Its Position As The #1 Olympic Sport At The Tokyo Games Cycling, swimming and gymnastics have challenged track in recent years, but stats from Tokyo show track got more viewing hours and articles written about it.
Iran Denounces Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing 2022 And Prepares To Send Government Officials
A US Salt Lake City Bid For The 2030 Winter Olympics Looking More Likely
Belgium Joins Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing 2022; Latvia Will Not
Athletics Australia Appoints Peter Bromley Permanent Chief Executive

US Distance News

Interesting Read: Ryan Hall Says His Body Feels Better And He Has "10 Times" More Energy Now As A Weightlifter Than When He Was A Runner Talking about the end of his running career, Hall says, My body was just done -- I couldn't even finish an easy, 30-minute run at that point." *Discuss
Molly Seidel Has Started A YouTube Channel Her first video gives a behind-the-scenes look at her trip to the New York City Marathon.

Sprint / Field News

Olympic 100m Champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs Says He'll Run Some 200m Races In 2022 According to Tilastopaja, he's only raced one 200m in the last six years when he ran a PB of 20.61 in 2018.
GB Sprinter Danny Talbot Retires At 30-Years-Old During his career Talbot won World and European 4x100m gold as well as two European 200m bronze medals.
World Athletics Podcast With Five Heptathlon Legends Including Jessica Ennis-Hill And Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Best of the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast

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LRC SafeSport Hands Alberto Salazar Lifetime Ban for Sexual Misconduct. What Does That Mean?

LRC VIP Salazar is BANNED FOR LIFE Podcast

Shunichi Kobayashi: The man who opened Japan’s doors to Kenyan athletes dies at 79

LRC A Closer Look at the Shakeup at NAZ Elite

HOKA NAZ Elite men break up, how fast will women go in 2022?, who will make the 2024 Olympics + should high schoolers be running 100 miles per week?

LRC Seb Coe Is Right: Cross Country Needs to Be in the Olympics -- the Winter Olympics

LRC World Athletics President Seb Coe Speaks to LetsRun About XC in the Olympics, Oregon22's Legacy, & World Athletics' DSD Policy

Star-Studded Men's 3k Announced For Millrose Games With Cole Hocker, Conner Mantz, Wesley Kiptoo, Cooper Teare And Drew Hunter

American Record Pod: Yared Nuguse and Wood Kincaid Open Up

Webb, Ritz, and Hall

Madeline Manning Mims

Frank Shorter

LRC American Marathon Record Podcast: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor

LRC Emily Sisson - The Next US Marathon Superstar?

LRC Woody Kincaid - On His American Record and Leaving Bowerman

LRC New Balance Boston's Mark Coogan

LRC Brooks Beasts' Danny Mackey

LRC OAC's Dathan Ritzenhein

The Rise of Syracuse: How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

26:59: The Story of Chris Solinsky's American Record and Upset of Galen Rupp

The Summer of Webb: An Inside Look at Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season

Dreams Become Reality: Jake Wightman Stuns Jakob Ingebrigtsen to Win World 1500m Title

Wejo Speaks: Why I Sucked in College

Escorting Paula - How LRC Co-Founder Weldon Johnson Paced Radcliffe To Her 1st World Record

American Strong: How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

LRC's Robert and Weldon Johnson Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”

You have been subscribed.

LRC SafeSport Hands Alberto Salazar Lifetime Ban for Sexual Misconduct. What Does That Mean?

﻿LRC VIP Salazar is BANNED FOR LIFE Podcast

Shunichi Kobayashi: The man who opened Japan’s doors to Kenyan athletes dies at 79

LRC A Closer Look at the Shakeup at NAZ Elite

HOKA NAZ Elite men break up, how fast will women go in 2022?, who will make the 2024 Olympics + should high schoolers be running 100 miles per week?

LRC Seb Coe Is Right: Cross Country Needs to Be in the Olympics -- the Winter Olympics

LRC World Athletics President Seb Coe Speaks to LetsRun About XC in the Olympics, Oregon22's Legacy, & World Athletics' DSD Policy

﻿Star-Studded Men's 3k Announced For Millrose Games With Cole Hocker, Conner Mantz, Wesley Kiptoo, Cooper Teare And Drew Hunter

American Record Pod: Yared Nuguse and Wood Kincaid Open Up

Webb, Ritz, and Hall

Madeline Manning Mims

Frank Shorter

LRC American Marathon Record Podcast: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor

LRC Emily Sisson - The Next US Marathon Superstar?

LRC Woody Kincaid - On His American Record and Leaving Bowerman

LRC New Balance Boston's Mark Coogan

LRC Brooks Beasts' Danny Mackey

LRC OAC's Dathan Ritzenhein

The Rise of Syracuse: How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

26:59: The Story of Chris Solinsky's American Record and Upset of Galen Rupp

The Summer of Webb: An Inside Look at Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season

Dreams Become Reality: Jake Wightman Stuns Jakob Ingebrigtsen to Win World 1500m Title

Wejo Speaks: Why I Sucked in College

Escorting Paula - How LRC Co-Founder Weldon Johnson Paced Radcliffe To Her 1st World Record

American Strong: How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

LRC's Robert and Weldon Johnson Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”

You have been subscribed.

LRC VIP Salazar is BANNED FOR LIFE Podcast

Star-Studded Men's 3k Announced For Millrose Games With Cole Hocker, Conner Mantz, Wesley Kiptoo, Cooper Teare And Drew Hunter