Did you watch the Olympic Trials last night?
The news of Shelby Houlihan’s four-year ban from the sport threatened to overshadow the competition itself (and the will she/won’t she try to race anyway fiasco nearly did), but the show must go on!
I know I am old because I am nine days older than one of the oldest world records, but now it is only one day old and belongs to Ryan Crouser! The 28-year-old Oregon native (and Texas Longhorns alum) launched the shot put 23.37m (76’8.25”) to demolish Randy Barnes’ record of 23.12m.
The Barnes record has some shady history as he tested positive for anabolic steroids just two and a half months after he set the mark in May of 1990. He was suspended for 27 months, and later received a lifetime ban for a separate offense.
Many fans on social media cheered Crouser’s mark as reclaiming the “dirty record.” (Track and Field News doesn’t even include this record in their book keeping).
#TokyoOlympics@NBCOlympics
WORLD RECORD. BY EIGHT INCHES. @RCrouserThrows didn't just set the world record in the shot put, he OBLITERATED IT. @usatf | #TrackFieldTrials21 x #TokyoOlympics
2:16 AM · Jun 19, 2021
641 Reposts · 2.35K Likes
Woody Kincaid, 28, and Grant Fisher, 24, started the Bowerman Track Club redemption tour off nicely by by going 1-2 in the men’s 10k. Kincaid split 53.47 for the last lap, a full second faster than Fisher, who has a great kick! Joe Klecker, 24, of On Running took the third spot in a near-dead heat with Fisher in 27:54.90 to become the second Olympian in his family after his mother Janis, who won the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon and placed 21st at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.
This race definitely felt like a changing of the guard and it’s almost certainly a different top three headed to Tokyo than if the race had been staged a year ago. 35-year-old Ben True looked great in the latter stages of the race, but couldn’t match the closing speed of the younger guys and had to settle for fourth — always a heartbreaking spot. 36-year-old Lopez Lomong, the darling of these championships with his double 5k/10k victory in 2019, dropped out due to presumed injury less than halfway through the race, while marathoner Galen Rupp, 35, had a strong showing for sixth.
Sally Bergesen@oiselle_sally
Blood sport
3:05 AM · Jun 19, 2021
9 Reposts · 132 Likes
Abbey Cooper decided to get the Olympic standard for 5K the hardest way possible, going solo in 80-degree heat and cranking out a 15:07**. She said she didn’t have any intention of going for the 15:10 Olympic standard until 45 minutes before the race, when her coach/agent Chris Layne suggested she might want to try since the forecast for Monday’s final looks to be in the upper 90s. This is not an easy feat to pull off and Cooper deserves some major kudos for getting it done. This is the same athlete who went viral at the 2016 Rio Olympics for tearing her ACL and meniscus in a collision during the 5k and won lots of sportsmanship awards for helping the other runner home. Abbey C. is truly a better human than most of us can ever dream of being.
After her 100m prelim, Sha’Carri Richardson said she thinks it could take a world record to win the Olympics.
Rachel Schneider debuted a new Hoka One One kit after making the decision to drop her Under Armour contract this week, presumably in order to race in the Nike Dragonfly spikes. I wonder what those negotiations were like.
Austin hometown hero Sarah Lancaster easily advanced to the semi-final round of the 1500m.
Born to run? Olympic hopeful Sarah Lancaster made her mark at Texas in tennis, basketball, Austin American-Statesman
Everything Is Clicking at the Right Time for Josette Norris, Runner’s World
At 19, NCAA Star Athing Mu Says She’s “Made for This,” Women’s Running
Tara Welling on Racing Through Pregnancy and Post-Pro Running Career, Women’s Running
How Yared Nuguse Became the Fastest 1500m Runner in Collegiate History, Podium Runner
I appeared on BBC World for a news hit on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s No. 2 all-time 10.63 100m
I will hopefully be channeling some Abbey C. energy on my long run this morning and I hope you do the same.
#TokyoOlympics@NBCOlympics
What a MOMENT for Abbey Cooper! In 2016, she tore her ACL in a collision during her 5000m heat at the Rio Olympics. Today, she WON her qualifying heat and met the Olympic standard in the event! @usatf | #TrackFieldTrials21 x #TokyoOlympics 📺 NBCSN
1:24 AM · Jun 19, 2021
126 Reposts · 818 Likes
** Olympic standard is 15:10
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