Of Michael Phelps and A-Rod

A photo of Michael Phelps taking a bong hit was published recently. The leaking of a supposedly secret test result revealed that Alex Rodriguez had used performance enhancing drugs (PED's) in 2003.
Upon publication of the photo, Phelps immediately acknowledged his improper behavior. A-Rod acknowledged his used of the PED's after the test results were leaked. Rodriguez had stated in prior interviews that he'd never used PED's. While there are some similarities, there are some very profound differences.
Marijuana is a banned drug, and may be classed as performance enhancing because it can reduce pain, but its performance enhancing effects, if any, are only in the immediate aftermath of its ingestion.
Steroids are used to build muscle, and have long-term effects on performance due to the added muscle, ability to absorb more training, etc. Simply put, the only reason to take steroids is to increase performance.
Significantly, Phelps might have denied that it was him in the photo. (I don't know if there was anything uniquely recognizable about him in the photo.) He chose instead to acknowledge his misbehavior, and suffer the consequences. I believe he had two endorsement contracts pulled as a result.
A-Rod had lied in the past about his use of steroids. It seems he only came clean when it was clear that the evidence was solid and was out in public. It's not as if A-Rod didn't know about the inherent impropriety of steroid use, even if they were not specifically prohibited by Major League Baseball. He chose to use a drug that had no use aside from enhancing performance, and then chose to lie about it.
As I see it, both made bad choices, but Phelps chose to be a stand-up guy and acknowledge his error immediately, and his bad choice was not made in the interest in giving him a performance edge. A-Rod deceived the public by using drugs specifically to improve his performance and he compounded his crime by lying about it. While neither man's behavior is laudable, Phelps immediately tried to do the right thing, while A-Rod persisted in doing wrong. The really unfortunate thing is that Phelps likely has to face proportionately greater consequences than A-Rod.
(in the interest of full disclosure, I should reveal that I am and have always been a Red Sox fan, though I have great respect for the New York Yankees as a team. Similarly, as a long-time runner, I have great love for the Olympic Games, especially in the traditional summer sports. Still, I think these facts had virtually no impact on this essay.)

A Class Act and Some Idiocy

LoLo Jones was all over the reports from Beijing when she hit hurdle number nine and had the race pass her by as she struggled to stay on her feet. She didn't whine or complain, just asked, "Why here?" To me, that was a real class act, she moves up a couple of natches in my book.

Now the idiocy - the USA sends two 4x100 teams to the Olympics, how do both the men's and women's teams drop their batons? I coach kids, and the most important thing I try to teach them is "get the stick around." You can run relatively slowly and beat every team that drops the baton. These people are supposed to be our best; how do they make a stupid mistake like this? There is one way to make sure this doesn't happen...practice! Not only that, but after the men dropped, why didn't the women take a lesson from it? To me, it's inexcusable.

Michael Phelps - Not the Greatest Olympic Athlete Ever!

No disrespect to Mr. Phelps, certainly he is one of the finest swimmers ever, perhaps the finest, but we must examine this fairly. Mr. Phelps, on winning his tenth gold surpassed several athletes tied for the honor with nine, one of whom was Paavo Nurmi (another was Mark Spitz), but it's Nurmi whom I'll use to argue this point.
Swimming is different from running, most significantly because it is raced in multiple strokes and at a great many distances, whereas there is only one way to run. What would Phelps' medal haul look like if he could only race freestyle? Or what would Nurmi's look like if he raced a run, trot, and canter? Simply put, the yardsticks are VERY different.
Nurmi won his 9 golds across three Olympiads, capturing three golds in Amsterdam (1920), five in Paris (1924) and one in ?? (1928), he also won several silvers. None of his medals were earned at distances less than 1500 meters. I will make the claim that running, because it involves impact loading, presents considerably more abuser to the body, and the ability to absorb that abuse and come back for more is more difficult than in swimming, lacking impact loading AND of generally shorter duration than running. (Time, distance as well, but I think time is the right measure here...swimming paces are inherently slower, so measuring by distance would be unfair.)
I would argue that the double double of Lasse Viren and that Emil Zatopek's 1952 distance running triple, golds in the 5000 meters, 10,000 meters, and marathon exceed what Phelps has done, but simply put, the yardsticks are different. (BTW, when checking details, I stumbled on Britain's James Cracknell saying much the same here.)Swimming has all these variants, and I believe more distances as well, so earning a swimming medal may well be easier than earning a running medal. Also, anyone without access to a reasonable body of water (think much of Africa) lacks the opportunity to hone their skills to an Olympian level.

Our Men's Olympic Marathon Team

The Men's Olympic Marathon Trials were held on Saturday in New York City. The race was won by twenty-five year-old Ryan Hall who made winning the trials look easy. I had one person say that his 2:09:02 finish would have been faster had he not spent much of the last three miles waving to the crowd. Hall's move came somewhere between 16 and 21, for when he passed me at about mile 21, he'd broken free of the lead pack and seemed to be running comfortably.

Dathan "Ritz" Ritzenhein, who's 24, placed second, clocking a 2:11:07.

Brian Sell of the Hanson's - Brooks Distance Project placed third in 2:11:40, giving Keith and Kevin Hanson their first Olympian (I think). Sell had a TON of crowd support, being seen as a "regular Joe" making good.

Fourth place was captured by Khalid Khannouchi, a 35 year-old Morroccan born U.S. citizen in 2:12:34. His fourth makes him the first alternate, so if one of the others suffers an injury or elects to run another race and NOT race the marathon, Khannouchi will get to race for an Olympic medal.
Unfortunately, this great race will likely be most remembered for the untimely death of Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died around the 5 1/2 mile mark. Most of the racers were unaware of Shay's death until after the race.

Olympic Trials Marathon

It happens this AM, and I'll be watching.

Two of Nine

On Thursday, I went into New York City. My primary destination was the Forbes Gallery. I was headed there because I was aware that I could see some Olympic Gold Medals.
The National Jewelry Institute had put together an exhibit of Olympic Gold Medals, the oldest dated from 1908, 99 years ago; the newest from 2006. As a distance guy, the medals that meant the most were the distance medals. In the one hundred eleven years since the inception of the modern Olympics, the United States has won (if my count is right) only nine gold medals in distance running. By my count, the medals that we've won are: marathon, four, 1904 - Thomas Hicks, 1908 - Johnny Hayes*, 1972 - Frank Shorter, and 1984 - Joan Benoit; 10,000 meters, one, 1964 - Billy Mills; 5000 meters, one, 1964 - Bob Schul*; 3000 meters steeplechase, one, 1952 - Horace Ashenfelter; I recall that we one a gold in the 2500 meter steeple, but don't recall who won it, and I think there was one more (I have some homework to complete this post) and, I thnk one other. (The two medals marked with asterisks are on display.)
As a middle aged guy, I also enjoyed seeing the four gold medals won by the ageless Al Oerter in the discus (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968). And recall his efforts to return to high level competition back in the 1980's. This man, who recently passed away, was both an amazing competitior and his competition in middle age and later gives those of us who are seeing more salt than pepper in our hair, hope.
Regardless, several of the most important icons in American distance running are being displayed this fall in New York City. Yet, I suspect most runners who come into the city to run the New York City Marathon will have no idea that this exhibit is going on.
I was permitted, by special permission, to take photographs of the Johnny Hayes medal, and will link to where I post them.