Jeremy Wariner ... an observation !!

aoa321

I could be wrong but I don't think this is a point that you are likely to see discussed in the mainstream sports press, the BBC or anywhere else that is broadcasting to a general audience. Despite that, I think most athletics fans will at this stage have noticed and remarked to themselves that there's something slightly different about Jeremy Wariner ... he is American, he is a sprinter ... and he's white !!

Now maybe I've been living under a rock but as far as I can recall, by far the vast majority of US sprinters in the recent past have been black athletes. Now along comes a guy who looks like his achievements could end up being right up there with the all-time US greats, and he and the current US 400m champion (I don't know his name) are both white ... what's going on?

I don't expect Steve Cramm and Colin Jackson to start having a chat over the airwaves about how unusual this situation is, this would be politically incorrect in the extreme - but I bet they're both thinking it !!

Am I totally out of order with this observation? I certainly don't mean to cause offence (I am not going to reveal my own cultural background). Do any of you agree with me that it is quite unusal? Do any of you remember any other prominent/successful white sprinters who have represented the US in recent years?

While I'm at it, I've noticed another thing about Wariner - he's skinny, for a sprinter he's extremely skinny !!

Domer

Kevin Little...
1997 World Indoor 200 champion
1989, 1993, 1999 World Indoor 200 bronze medalist

Apart from him, cant think of any other great US cuacasian sprinters.

Was Alberto "white lightening" Juantorino (excuse the spelling) in 1976 white, albeit cuban. Also Alan Wells.

aoa321

Kevin Little, I forgot about him.

If I was on a psyciatrists couch and she was doing one of those word association exercises and she said "Alan Wells, Olympic Gold Medal", my automatic, instinctive reply would be "Moscow, No Americans" ... it's awful on the guy but that's the way I remember it (that and the way he leaned at the finish to claim the title)

I'm a bit of a sceptic ... I always thought Alan Well's physique looked a bit ... unnatural, artificial ... if you know what I mean !! I suppose that's scurilous but that's my reaction.

Pherekydes

aoa321 wrote:

"Alan Wells, Olympic Gold Medal", my automatic, instinctive reply would be "Moscow, No Americans"...(that and the way he leaned at the finish to claim the title)

I'm a bit of a sceptic ... I always thought Alan Well's physique looked a bit ... unnatural, artificial ... if you know what I mean.

He beat the Americans after Moscow.

He leaned at the finish?! WTF? Is it cheating to lean? Have a look at the finish, they're all leaning. Probably those dirty, cheating coaches teaching them to do it.

Have a look at his physique, too, while you're at it:

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_athletics/WELLS_Allan_198007_GH_T.jpg

Compare it with him in '76:

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_athletics/WELLS_Allan_19760703_EL_L.jpg

Not exactly scrawny back then, either.

aoa321

Those are great images. With the amount of top sportsmen who are caught taking drugs these days I have started to look with a jaundiced eye on many performance sports and to be honest I now suffer from the "who's on what?" syndrome.

That's not an excuse, and without some facts to back myself up I was out of order with the aspertions I cast in Wells' direction, I stand corrected.

Slow coach wrote:

He beat the Americans after Moscow

He may well have, but I'm sure Wells himself would have preferred to have beaten the best of the Americans to win his gold medal. I think it's fair comment to say that the absence on the Americans does stick in the memory of many of the public, whether or not it affected the result.

Slow coach wrote:

He leaned at the finish?! WTF? Is it cheating to lean?

No it's not. I never meant to imply it was, nor do I feel that I did imply that it was cheating. I simply stated that one of the more vivid sporting memories from my childhood was the iconic image of Wells and the rest of the field leaning desperately at the finish of the 100m. I have not seen the image that you linked to in years, it may be the exact photograph that I remember from my Tiger Christmas annual, and thinking about it now, it's kind of sad that even such great memories have been tainted by the number of "champions" in athletics as well as other sports who have been revealed as cheats.

ecksor

aoa321 wrote:

Those are great images. With the amount of top sportsmen who are caught taking drugs these days I have started to look with a jaundiced eye on many performance sports and to be honest I now suffer from the "who's on what?" syndrome.

Well, be sure to pay extra close attention to the forum charter before posting in that case.

Despite that, I think most athletics fans will at this stage have noticed and remarked to themselves that there's something slightly different about Jeremy Wariner ... he is American, he is a sprinter ... and he's white !!

Nobody has established any basis for saying that any given ethnicity is naturally better at any of the athletics disciplines as far as I know. Certainly we can point at trends that show that certain areas of the world perform better at certain disciplines at the elite level, but the elite level is by definition too small a sample space to make any scientific judgement, as well as being uncontrolled. For example, when I started sprinting the Irish men's 100m record was slower than the women's world record. Do I naturally conclude that Irish men used to be slower than the average world woman? No, it's a completely fallacious line of reasoning, just as it's fallacious to conclude that Irish men have become naturally more talented over the last 10 years in the 400m despite the huge leap forward in both performances and depth.

Do you think that Russians are genetically superior at playing chess?

Athletes are fundamentally individuals. Elite performers are a mix of favourable genetics, their cultural influences, their opportunities and motivation. You can have all the genetic advantages you want and still get fat propping up a bar stool if the other factors are bad (look around Ireland if you want to see a lot of this in action).

Linford

aoa321 wrote:

Kevin Little, I forgot about him.

If I was on a psyciatrists couch and she was doing one of those word association exercises and she said "Alan Wells, Olympic Gold Medal", my automatic, instinctive reply would be "Moscow, No Americans" ... it's awful on the guy but that's the way I remember it (that and the way he leaned at the finish to claim the title)

I'm a bit of a sceptic ... I always thought Alan Well's physique looked a bit ... unnatural, artificial ... if you know what I mean !! I suppose that's scurilous but that's my reaction.

I agree with what the other posters say about the great Alan Wells, the most underated 100m Olympic champion, he was top sprinter in the world in 1980/81 and beat everyone. Ironically he was beaten in the 200m by Pietro Nemmi (sp?) by almost as little as he beat the cuban, and I don't think anyone can argue that the Italian wasn't one of the top 200m guys in the world at the time, he did after all set the 19.72 WR in 1979, which was only beaten in 1996 by Michael Johnson (twice) and correct me if I am wrong, Frankie Fredericks is the only other sprinter to run faster than 19.72.

Alan Wells never did weights, all his bulk was from press ups, exercises with a medicine ball and using the speed ball (boxing thing).

thirtyfoot

Linford wrote:

and correct me if I am wrong, Frankie Fredericks is the only other sprinter to run faster than 19.72.

Xman and Tyson Gay have both beaten that this season

Check it out on the Lausanne 200 link below

http://folk.uio.no/perel/

aoa321

moi wrote:

That's not an excuse, and without some facts to back myself up I was out of order with the aspertions I cast in Wells' direction, I stand corrected.

I intended this phrase to be an acknowledgement of the fact that I brought my prejudices to an earlier post without fully testing them.

The affection expressed towards Allan Wells has in fact made me realise that through the serial exposition of many "champions" in many sports, I am the one who loses out - because I am the one who questions the integrity of a man who served as a boyhood hero.

I realised that I may have offended some posters here by expressing a view that I had not fully examined, and I feel I have acknowledged that.

ecksor wrote:

Well, be sure to pay extra close attention to the forum charter before posting in that case

... so if you want to harp on about it that's your own business !!

Linford

Tingle wrote:

Xman and Tyson Gay have both beaten that this season

Check it out on the Lausanne 200 link below

http://folk.uio.no/perel/

Cheers for that - heard about that race but never saw it or realised it was so fast.

stepperupper

Wariner is 1/4 native american (red indian). He's not a pure bread if you get me. But the reason he's so good is his training. obviously he has huge natural talent but that's been nurtured in every way possible. Clyde Harte..... best coach in the world.