In a message dated 10/24/00 10:06:19 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< The US male sprinters scored Olympic sweeps of all three medals in:
100m - 1904 and 1912
200m - 1904, 1952, and 1984
400m - 1904, 1968, and 1988
The World Champs US sweeps are:
100m - 1983 and 1991.
The US women have never scored a sprint sweep.
Kurt Bray >>
I believe these numbers speak for themselves. For all intents and purposes
we have never swept the 100m. And we have swept the 200 once. Someone help
me with my 70's history, but I believe in the seventies we won the 100m one
time, in the 80's we won the race once, in the 90's we won the race none, and
did not medal in 96. Where is this dominance we were all believing in? The
Olympic dominance was based purely on gold. An American wins gold and we
were perceived to have dominanted.
Folks the world is improving, but if you look careful the competition has
always been there. This year was not an aberration, it was the norm. The
200 was slightly off tilt, but not much. American sprinting is the same it
has always been. We can still send 4th place finishers to Europe and win
races, take our best to the major and take gold, and get the stick around the
track and win the relay. That is our legacy, and I saw nothing in Sydney or
Chile to shake that trend.
On the women's side, this year was a matter of injury. We lost Inger and
Gail from the relay, and the women have always lived on the backs of our top
1 or 2 women.
DGS
The G.O.A.T.