> The goal for these athletes is not to make the Olympics, but excel > at them. If there was an ideal time to have a less than stellar > performance at an international race, this would be the year.
If the goal for these athletes is to "excel" at the Olympics, then they need to be looking at sub 3:45 or sub 1:20. Curt Clausen is the only one of these athletes who is even close. Obviously I wouldn't rule out the possibility of one of the others making enough improvement to get to that range, particularly one of the young guys. But I have to say that running U.S. championship races in September during the most critical phase of training and being sick, injured, or flat for the most important competition of the year is not something that most coaches in any other edurance event would recommend. I don't know that much about the specific needs of the racewalk, but I know a lot about endurance training and over the past decade there has been a major shift to where many world class marathoners don't race at all or race only once in the two months before a major marathon. Certainly if they are feeling injured or sick during this phase, they don't race. I'm sure that the coaches know what they are doing, but this is the first question I'd ask myself in looking at the relatively poor showing by the U.S. team (plus the absence of two top walkers). You can't point fingers at anyone specific, but if 80% of our top athletes are sick or injured at the big race, then there is a problem. One other note - Coach Jake mentioned respect. Another part of "athletics" that gets no respect is ultrarunning. Yet the annual world 100K teams are the most successful U.S. endurance teams of the past 10 years, with several individual medals and half a dozen team medals. One of the reasons is because they have limitations on the races that team members may run in the two months before the championships. - Ed Parrot
