coaching athletics

PhotoRUN.net

Winter 2013, Vol. 8 No. 8

FeaturingEd Torres 9

2013 Caps Decade of Turnaround for Americanmiddle distance running 12

In praise of Jerry Schumacher

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��Whenever the world’s elite marathoners toe the start line alongsidepopular U.S. runner Meb Keflezighi, they know they’re in for an hon-est race. In fact, the Skechers Performance sponsored Keflizighibrings new meaning to the word ‘consistent’, with a remarkably ho-mogenous series of marathon times.

Consider Meb’s seasons best times since he took up the 26-miler in 2002: 2:12:35 (2002); 2:10:03 (2003); 2:09:53 (2004);2:09:56 (2005); 2:09:56 (2006); 2:15:09 (2007); 2:09:29 (2009);2:09:15 (2010); 2:09:13 (2011); 2:09:08 (2012). There are Kenyanswho’d give up their racing flats for this staggering string of times!

Some distance runners are known for their fast times andtheir inability to win or place in the “big show”, but Meb proves youcan do both and do them well. His performances—starting withAthens Olympic Silver and NYC runner-up in 2004—and followedby none-too-shabby 3rd (NYC, 2005); 3rd (Boston, 2006); 1st(NYC & US Champs, 2009); 5th (Boston, 2010) and 6th (NYC,2010); 6th (NYC, (2011); 1st (Olympic Trials, 2012) and 4th (Lon-don Olympic Games, 2012) indicate that Meb is always a forceto be reckoned with.

Not bad performances for one of a family of eleven children,who emigrated to the USA from Eritrea to escape war and pursuean education. Now living in San Diego, California, Meb has returnedto his hometown but still plans on going back to Mammoth, Californiafor altitude training. Meb continues to cruise through workouts thatwould cripple most young runners and looks to continue to "Run ToWin" to his last race....whenever that may be.

Skechers Performance Division signed another endorsementcontract in 2012 with Meb. Relatively new to the running shoe mar-

ket, Skechers Performance is primarily known for their innovativeand unusual curved sole that encourages mid-foot strike, versusthe standard heel strike.

Meb’s NYC victory in 2009 made him the first American towin in 27 years (he was sworn in as a US Citizen in 1998) andnow that he has a taste for winning the NYC marathon, he’s eagerto repeat his victory.

With 2012 Olympic Champion and 2013 World Champion,Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich, committed to running this year’s NYCMarathon, plus super-stars like Boston and NYC record holder Ge-offrey Mutai, Chicago runner-up Wesley Korir, and American RyanHall, Meb’s going to have to work hard to outpace these guys.

One consistent rule about marathons is that anything can gowrong at any time, even to the favorites. This year, Meb, who hadfallen very hard in early August training run, and missed five weeksof training, had a tough race.

“This year, the race was not about me, it was about the sport,”noted a tearful Meb Keflezighi just after his race on November 3,2013. Meb has fallen very hard in early August, missing five weeksof training. Meb showed what he was made of this year, staying withthe leaders through the halfway. “When they took off, I just could notkeep up the pace, but I was not going to quit. I had to finish this year.”And finish he did, in twenty-third position, after experiencing someof what most marathoners feel in marathons, both good and bad.

“I know that there is another personal best in my legs," Mebnoted right after the race. Anyone who watches Meb, knows thathe will line up once again, and run his best, in his SKECHERSGoRun 2s.

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rterly

I met Jerry Schumacher when he was the cross country and dis-tance track coach at the University of Wisconsin. Jerry was, andis, a devoted coach, who takes the time to explain his thoughtsand and recommendations for improvement to his athletes.Schumacher's athletes are as devoted to him as he is to them.

I would see Schumacher at the Stanford Invitational eachyear and at many other meets. In 1999, during a series of clinicsthat we sponsored with the late Arthur Lydiard, I spent anevening with Schumacher and our mutual friend, Joe Hanson.Conversing ove a couple of beers with Lydiard, Schumacher andHanson made for a memorable evening.

Schumacher's life changed dramatically when he becamea coach for the Nike Elite Oregon Track Club. He resigned fromhis job as a coach at the UW and moved to Portland to trainsome of the best American distance runners. He now coachesathletes in the elite Nike Oregon Track Club: from AR holderEvan Jager in the steeplechase, to Osaka fourth-placer MattTegenkamp, to former AR 10,000m record holder Chris Solin-sky. In 2012, Jerry added the outstanding long-distance runnersKara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan.

Schumacher is one of the most positive people I know.His enthusiasm is infectious. He does not, however, tell hisathletes how to do things. He gives them information and de-velops programs, and his athletes have to make decisions—they have to commit.

is year Jager took fifth in the World Championshipssteeplechase, the best performance by an American steeplechaserin nearly two decades. Jager ran a 13:02 in Brussels in a longerdistance, the 5,000 meters. en, Jerry and I caught up, as wealways do, at an event. is time, it was the Bank of AmericaChicago Marathon, as his athlete, Matt Tegenkamp was runninghis debut marathon.

We look forward to seeing Jerry Schumacher and hisathletes in 2014, and know that, as they train for 2014, theroads and the track will see some fine performances from theNike OTC.

Larry Eder

Publisher’s Note Vol. 8 No. 8

Group PublisherLarry Eder

[email protected], ext. 112

Group EditorChristine Johnson

[email protected]

AdvertisingLarry Eder

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Writers/ContributorsDavid MontiMark Winitz

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EditorLarry Eder

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Coaching Athletics Quarterly is produced, published and owned by Shoot-ing Star Media, Inc., PO Box 801, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538-0801.Publisher assumes no liability for matter printed, and assumes no liabilityor responsibility for content of paid advertising and reserves the right toreject paid advertising. Opinions expressed are those of the authors andnot necessarily those of the Publisher.

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U S A T FPrepares for

By Mark Winitz

NewHeigh stEdwardo Torres Discusses USATF’s Men’s

Long Distance Running

DYNAMIC OLYMPIAD

Edwardo Torres (who also goes by Ed) waselected to a four-year term as chair of USATrack & Field’s Men’s Long Distance Run-ning Committee in 2012, succeeding GlennLatimer. Torres had previously served as anathlete representative on the USATF Men’sLDR Executive Committee since 2008. Torresgrew up in Illinois and is the twin brother ofJorge Torres, a 2008 U.S. Olympian at10,000 meters.

Edwardo had an outstanding athleticcareer at the University of Colorado wherehe was a six-time All-American (cross countryand track) and helped the Buffaloes win theirfirst NCAA team title in 2002. He repre-sented the U.S. on three senior men’ssquads at the IAAF World Cross CountryChampionships (2003, 2008, 2009) and onthe U.S. marathon squad at the 2009 IAAFWorld Track & Field Championships inBerlin. Now retired from racing, Torres ownspersonal records of 13:57.91 (5000m),28:17.87 (10,000m) and 2:17:54 (marathon).

Edwardo and Jorge own and operatePR Medal Engravers, based in Chicago andBoulder, which supplies on-site medal en-graving services for running events andtriathlons.

We interviewed Edwardo on two occa-sions for this article: in mid-December 2012(just after he was elected as USATF’s MLDRchair) and again last May.

Mark Winitz: What are your top threegoals and priorities for LDR during thenext four years?Edwardo Torres: Glenn [Latimer] did a heckof a job for the sport of long distance run-ning. I just want to keep the ball rolling over

the next four years. There’s definitely a lot ofwork to be done, but if we can get one ortwo key [programs and initiatives] into play,it will be a great help.

One of my priorities is to get U.S. menon the Olympic marathon podium in 2016 inRio. I think the key to that for any athlete ishaving excellent coaching and the financialresources to live on while pursuing the de-mands of the marathon. What can USATF doto facilitate these things? We can only try tomake the connection for the athletes andagents and educate them: Let them knowwhat it means to take the big money upfront [from a sponsor] and [to get] perform-ance cuts if you don’t perform. A lot of theseathletes don’t realize that it’s a cutthroatbusiness out there. Money just doesn’t cometo them like water flowing in a river. So weneed to make sure our athletes know whattheir agents should be asking of sponsors toprotect themselves over a long-term com-mitment, not for just a one- or two-year deal.

Let’s face it, distance runners get hurt.You might have to take a year off, and that’susually when you get the ax from your spon-sor. So we can help agents and athletes withthe basics of negotiating a long-term rela-tionship with a sponsor, as opposed to aone-chance-and-you’re-done type deal. Ifwe offered, say, a class at the annual meet-ing for rookie distance runners just out ofcollege about how to negotiate a sponsorcontract, I think they might attend. Maybethey might want to wait and attend the classbefore signing a contract. This is relevant education for athletes in many disciplines,not just distance runners. These are self-employed people, and they need to know

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how to run their own business.Will this, alone, get our athletes on the

Olympic marathon podium? No. It’s a chal-lenging task. But if I can implement just onesignificant thing in this respect before myfour-year term as men’s LDR chair is over, I’llbe happy.

MW: Give me two other significant thingsyou’d like to accomplish, priority areas.ET: I want to get more of our top performersfrom the past involved in mentoring ouryoung, talented athletes. This may bethrough coaching, educating athletes aboutthe challenges of getting to the top and howto tackle them, etc. I aim to encourage ourtop alumni to give some of our current ath-letes a call occasionally and give them a littleadvice. Help them make the correct deci-sions.

My third goal is to offer more competi-tive opportunities for distance runners. I’dlike to have more U.S. road championshipsso athletes have a variety to pick and choosefrom. In particular, I’d like to add a 4- to 7-mile distance race to the USA Running Cir-cuit/Championship series in the late summertime frame. This would give athletes gearingup for a fall marathon a break in theirmarathon training and a low-pressure racewhere they could possibly make a little extra[prize] money. Also, it would offer a road rac-ing opportunity for our 5K and 10K athleteswho are finishing up their track seasons andare still in good shape.

Also, we want to start looking for newchampionship locations. In particular, I’d liketo see a championship on the West Coast.Many of our best athletes train there. Let’sgive them some championship opportuni-ties closer to home.

MW: How about our USA Distance [train-ing] Centers? Have you set prioritiesthere for the next four years?ET: There are a lot of good, young athletesright now who have the same kind of poten-tial as Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein and MebKeflezighi. They have the fire and the toolsto become world-class athletes. We need toprovide them with a structure: competitiveclubs to train with and favorable training lo-cales. There’s no reason that we can’t con-tinue to have marathoners go under 2:10and win medals at major championships. Wehave guys like Jason Hartmann gettingfourth at the Boston Marathon [Ed: Twoyears in a row, 2012 and 2013]. This is just ataste of what we’ll be seeing over the next

eight years.We want to continue to support training

groups that will provide us with Olympic ath-letes. We’d like to see our LDR champi-onship events partner with us to helpsupport these training groups. Training byyourself every day is impossible. I was partof a training group [Boulder PerformanceGroup] that helped my brother make the2008 Olympic team. It’s important to have astructure around you, athletes who put in agood effort every day regardless of howthey feel.

MW: Of course, you and Jorge had thebenefit of training under the guidance of[former marathon world record holder]Steve Jones. How can we better involvecoaches in USATF affairs and work withthem to help identify our stars of the fu-ture and work with them?ET: That’s a good question. It’s an area Iwant to investigate. Running under Steve,we had a great respect for his running ac-complishments. We listened closely to him.The big thing I learned from Steve is that ittakes a very dedicated commitment to be-come a top athlete. The only way you cando that is by surrounding yourself withstrong leaders who have strong develop-mental skills and a supportive training envi-ronment.

But coaches are only one part of thematrix. Proper physical therapy, for example,is also very important. We need to find away for athletes who have the abilities toperform well for the U.S. in big races to eas-ily access these kinds of services.

MW: What are your three biggest chal-lenges in respect to USATF LDR duringthe next four years and how will you ad-dress them?ET: I mentioned a goal of having our topalumni distance runners from the past serveas mentors for our young up-and-comers.Getting these alumni involved in USATF af-fairs is a challenge in itself. Many of themhave moved on with their lives.

Another challenge is getting race direc-tors to commit to hosting USA road cham-pionships. The requirements in ourchampionship contracts can get quite pricyon their end—prize money, drug testing,hosting elites, that kind of thing. If we canbring in previous and current race directorswho have hosted championships and havethem share the benefits of hosting a cham-pionship, we might be able to offset some

10CA

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Tom O

’Connor

of these barriers. For example, have themshare he [feeling of] local community pride,teamwork and sense of accomplishment thatcome with hosting a U.S. championship.

Right now, I’m focusing on these twochallenges. Of course, others will probablybe brought to my attention as I get my feetwet in the men’s LDR chair position.

MW: Based on your experience as an eliteathlete, and working as a volunteer onUSATF’s Men’s LDR Executive Commit-tee, where has USATF been lacking in re-spect to LDR in the past, and what can wedo about these areas?ET: I think in the past there’s been this beliefamong many USATF factions that we couldget a large percentage of our business doneat our annual meetings of the organization.Max Siegel [USATF CEO] and StephanieHightower [USATF president] have figuredout that you can’t just have an annual meet-ing and expect everything to be correctedthere. In fact, last April the LDR Committeechairs and Jon Drummond [USATF Athlete’sAdvisory Committee chair] were brought toUSATF’s national office in Indianapolis wherewe met with the organization’s hired admin-istrators. It was a good forum for us to tacklevarious issues—to hear about the high ad-ministration’s projects on the table for thenext four years and talk about how we canwork together on them. And now I have aclearer knowledge about who specifically tocontact in the national office about specificconcerns or questions.

MW: From your point of view, what arethe biggest strengths of long distancerunning in the U.S.? How can USATF cap-italize on these strengths to improve thesport as a whole?ET: Obviously the volume of distance races,and the number of participants in these

races, is huge. Our strength is the hugenumber of runners who love the sport. Ourjob as an athletic federation is to reach outto these masses in ways that promote thesport, its physical benefits and the sense ofaccomplishment and confidence that peo-ple get from running. In particular, our eliteathletes are perfect for communicatingthese benefits. For example, when recre-ational runners meet and interact with eliterunners at race expos [Ed: Or USATF-orga-nized forums], it often inspires [recreationalrunners] to set their own goals and achievethem. This, in turn, inspires others and helpskeep our sport vital and growing.

MW: What additional things can USATFbe doing that we’re not doing now tohelp young, talented long distance run-ners bridge from collegiate athletes tothe professional ranks?ET: In college, athletes have the benefit of acoach and a team to help motivate them.The coach tells the whole team to go outand do 10 miles, and they do it. You get intothe routine. When you’re out there by your-self, it’s largely self motivation. You need tofire up yourself. No one can teach that. Itneeds to come from within. The only thingUSATF can do is to help the athlete be lessstressed out by the essential things on a pro-fessional runner’s plate—things like effec-tively dealing with the business end of thesport, which I’ve already touched upon. Wecan give them guidance about where to finda good coach if they aren’t planning on stay-ing with their current coach. We also havean excellent network of LDR training centersthat athletes can hook into if they have thetalent. In fact, good athletes just out of col-lege are now being recruited by thesegroups, which wasn’t the case a few yearsago.

MARK WINITZ is a longtimewriter for American Track &Field. He sits on USATF’s national Men’s Long DistanceRunning executive committeeand the Law & Legislationcommittee. He also sits on Pacific Association/USATF’sboard of athletics and is a certified USATF master levelofficial/referee.

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Turnaround for

USA Middle Distance Running

December 31 – Att the 2003 IAAF WorldChampionships in Paris, the United States putin a dismal performance in the middle distanceevents. With the Stade de France packed to ca-pacity for nearly every session (the French werehoping to get the 2012 Olympics), not a singleAmerican athlete—male or female—made thefinals of the 800m or 1500m. Indeed, the bestperformance was a sixth place in the 800msemifinals by David Krummenacker.

Moreover, only a handful of USA athletesran fast times that year by global standards. Dur-ing the outdoor season, only six Americanwomen managed to break 4:10 in the 1500m,according to the statistics website Tilastopaja.org,and a paltry six USA men broke 3:40 for thesame distance. Not a single American runner wasranked in the top-10 by Track & Field News thatyear for either 800m or 1500m. It was a darktime for American running.

“I do remember,” said 2011 world 1500mchampion Jenny Simpson during a telephoneinterview. “Juli [Benson, her coach at the time]sat me down. We pulled up YouTube and werewatching old world championships footage. Itwas not lost on me that there were no Ameri-cans, no Americans in the race, never mind con-tending for medals.”

10 YEARS LATER,

A TOTAL TURNAROUND

During the last 10 years, a remarkable come-back has taken place for American middle dis-tance running. e United States is again oneof the best middle distance nations on earth. Atlast summer’s IAAF World Championships inMoscow, Team USA won four medals in the800m and 1500m (Nick Symmonds, 800m, sil-ver; Simpson, 1500m, silver; Matthew Cen-trowitz, 1500m, silver; Brenda Martinez, 800m,bronze), the first time any nation has achievedfour medals in those disciplines in a single worldchampionships. e Americans advanced eightathletes to the four finals, and 12 athletes in thesemifinals. e entire USA women’s 800m teammade the final.

But the world championships perform-ances represented only the tip of a very large andgrowing iceberg. In terms of depth of perform-ances, team USA was #1 in 2013 in the middledistances. A whopping 41 American men broke3:40 during the 2013 outdoor season, seventimes the number in 2003, and the most of anycountry in the world this year (Kenya was secondwith 27). In the same discipline, 23 American

women broke 4:10 this season, the same as thenext two countries combined (Russia, 12 andKenya, 11). In the 800m, American men were#2 in the world with 20 athletes sub-1:47(Kenya was #1 with 30), and American womenwere #1 in sub-2:02 800m performers with 17,just edging Russia by one athlete.

A CHANGED MINDSET

While there were several contributing factors tothe turnaround, a changed mindset was perhapsthe first to come into play. American athletesbegan to see that they could be successful again,especially given that drug testing had now be-come much more widespread.

“People were cheating and getting awaywith it, so you’re not going to devote your lifeto it,” observed former world #1-ranked milerand television commentator Marty Liquori in atelephone interview with Race Results Weekly.“When you see people getting caught, you seea level playing field and you work a little harder.”

Frank Gagliano, the veteran coach whonow trains athletes at the NJ-NY Track Clubagreed.

“It’s not equal, but it’s nearly equal,” hesaid in a telephone interview.

Alan Webb, America’s best homegrownmiler since Steve Scott, can be credited with be-ginning the renaissance. In 2001, Webb brokeJim Ryun’s longstanding USA high school milerecord, running 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Clas-sic (he also ran a high school record 3:59.86 in-doors earlier that year). After a brief andunsuccessful NCAA career at the University ofMichigan, Webb was the lone global player inAmerican 1500m running before Bernard Lagatbegan to run for the United States in 2005.Webb broke 3:33 during both the 2004 and2005 seasons, then clocked 3:30.54 in 2007 inParis, the same year he broke Scott’s Americanrecord in the mile, clocking 3:46.91. ose per-formances got the attention of a then-obscureNCAA Division III half-miler named NickSymmonds who competed for Willamette Uni-versity in Salem, OR.

“e first is seeing other Americans per-form so well at a high level,” observed Sym-monds. He continued in an email: “I think thefirst example of this is what Alan Webb was ableto do in the mid to 2000s. I still rememberwatching him run 3:30 for the win at the ParisGP in 2007 and thinking that he and I werebuilt kind of similarly, and that if he could takeon the world’s best, then so could I.”

is year’s medal haul came after other sig-nificant accomplishments in the late aughts. In2009, Shannon Rowbury and Bernard Lagatwon bronze medals at the World Champi-onships in the 1500m. In 2011, Morgan Ucenywon the IAAF Diamond League 1500m title,Simpson won the world 1500m title, and Cen-trowitz won the World Championships bronzemedal at the same distance. In 2012, the Amer-ican middle distance crew had a strongOlympics: Leo Manzano won the Olympic1500m silver medal, while Centrowitz finishedfourth; Duane Solomon and Nick Symmondsfinished fourth and fifth, respectively, in an800m final, where David Rudisha broke theworld record; Alysia Montano finished fifth inthe 800m; and Rowbury finished sixth in the1500m. (Galen Rupp, who ran 3:34.75 for the1500m during the 2012 season, got the silvermedal at 10,000m).

TRAINING GROUPS TOOK HOLD

Webb was coached by his high school coach,Scott Raczko, and trained on his own in Reston,Va. But national success would remain elusiveuntil the formation of well-funded traininggroups led by highly qualified coaches. Nikeplayed a central role in funding the groups thatremain dominant today. ese include twotraining groups based at their Beaverton, ORheadquarters: the Oregon Project, coached bythree-time New York City Marathon championAlberto Salazar, and a second group coached byformer University of Wisconsin coach JerrySchumacher. Symmonds belongs to the thirdimportant Nike group, the Oregon Track ClubElite, an integrated track team with a middle-distance focus, which is based in Eugene, OR.

“I can say with confidence that I couldnot have been able to accomplish all that Ihave without the Oregon Track Club Elite andthe wisdom of Mark Rowland,” Symmondssaid, naming his Oregon Track Club Elitecoach. “I have a feeling Matt Centrowitzwould say the same thing about the OregonProject and coach Salazar.”

Other groups with more of a longer dis-tance focus also sprang up, with funding helpfrom the New York Road Runners (NYRR),the organizers of the TCS New York CityMarathon. NYRR president and CEO MaryWittenberg found a way to fund USA traininggroups by selling special, high-pricedmarathon entries. Her organization providedregular funding to groups like the Mammoth

2013CAPS Decade-Long

By David Monti(c) 2013 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

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14CA

Track Club (Mammoth Lakes, CA), New Jer-sey-New York Track Club (New Brunswick,NJ), Team USA Minnesota (Minneapolis, BayArea Track Club (San Francisco), Team USAArizona (Flagstaff, AZ), ZapFitness (BlowingRock, NC), and the Austin Track Club (Austin,TX). Another important group, the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project (RochesterHills, MH), was funded by independent run-ning store owners, Kevin and Keith Hanson,and the Brooks running shoe and apparel com-pany. Over time, the USA had its own kind ofclub system with a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit financial support.

“I’ve been thinking about this for years,”coach Gagliano said in a telephone interview.“e club system has blossomed. All the clubs inthe country, every one are developing athletes,men and women, giving post-collegiate athletesa chance to continue their careers. ey didn’tleave the sport after college. e post-college sys-tem is fantastic now.”

Joe Vigil, who coached Brenda Martinez toher bronze medal performance at last summer’sWorld Championships, agreed. He also cited theOlympic marathon medals by Meb Keflezighi(silver) and Deena Drossin (bronze) in 2004 ashelping to light the fire under American runners.Both athletes were part of the Mammoth TrackClub, the first of the New York RoadRunners–funded groups, where coaching camefrom Vigil, Bob Larsen and Terrence Mahon.

“With the success of Deena and Mebmedaling, other athletes came to the realizationthat it was possible,” Vigil wrote in an email toRace Results Weekly. “Consequently, their confi-dence levels rose and they began to believe that itwas possible. ey found out that East Africanscould be beat.”

Simpson agreed, saying that Drossin—nowKastor—was a major inspiration for her.

“When I was in high school I had someonelike Deena; I got to watch her.” She added: “Ithink she gave me the first tiny little peek [at]what commitment level was required to be at thatlevel. I think this was important for young dis-tance runners to succeed at this sport.”

MORE NATIONAL COMPETITIONS,

IMPROVED NCAA COACHING ALSO

HELPED

e establishment of special middle and longdistance meets where athletes could run in goodclimates and achieve fast times has also playeda role, coaches said. In particular, the distancemeets at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC)in Walnut, CA, Stanford University in PaloAlto, CA, and Occidental College in Los An-geles had a big impact.

“In the United States, I felt that when Mt.SAC began to run their meets in the 90s and2000s, I think that was a tremendous thing thatgot us jump-started,” observed coach Gagliano.“Another thing is when Vin ]Lananna, the for-mer Stanford coach] went to Stanford and had

those meets, those Stanford meets in theevening,” he continued, “at really helped themen and women in this country see how fastthey could run. ey were jammed, people allaround the track.”

Indeed, the USATF High PerformanceMeet at Occidental College last May in Los An-geles saw 18 men break 1:50 for 800m, and 32men break 3:40 for 1500m in a single day acrossmultiple heats.

Collegiate coaches, training both collegiateand post-collegiate athletes, also played a key role.Coaches like Andy and Marica Powell (Universityof Oregon), James Li (University of Arizona),Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs (Univer-sity of Colorado) and Ray Treacy (ProvidenceCollege) have made a big impact but in theNCAA ranks, but also by continuing to coachathletes after they left the university system, andallowing post-collegiate athletes to use universityfacilities. ose coaches are also better trainedthan their predecessors, according to Vigil.

“e USATF coaching education programsare reaching a greater number of coaches andbringing [them] together together on a profes-sional level,” observed Vigil. ey are learningproper physiological, psychological and periodiza-tion concepts to apply to their athletes. isPodium Education Project (PEP) has been in-valuable.”

HARD TO MEASURE, BUT WIDE-

SPREAD DRUG TESTING MADE AN

IMPACT

e exact role of drug testing on the rise of Amer-ican athletes is hard to know with any certainty.However, for an athlete like Symmonds, who didnot compete at the global level in the early 2000s,the playing field feels level enough that the po-tential use of performance-enhancing drugs byhis rivals [is] neither a distraction nor a disincen-tive for him to train hard.

“For me personally, I’ve never really wor-ried about it,” Symmonds said in a telephoneinterview. “I think it’s fairly level. When Istepped on the track for the final at Worlds thisyear, I was 90% confident that everyone in therace was clean.”

Simpson said she was a bit more skeptical,but pointed out that the World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) had made significant progressin catching drug cheats, especially with the intro-duction of the biological passport program,which tracks changes in blood chemistry overtime. She said that she couldn’t “help but let it bea little bit personal” when those who break therules are brazen enough to take to the track andchallenge her.

“I don’t think that 100% of my races will beagainst clean people,” she said. She continued,“My job is to wake up every day optimistic andtrain hard for the races I signed up for this year.It’s WADA’s job to catch the cheaters. e onlything I can do is have faith that they are gettingbetter at it every year. at isn’t my job.”

CA-VOL8-8__Layout 1 1/7/14 8:58 AM

Welcome to the IAAF News Page!Exclusively for the Running Network LLC

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