Road to Beijing Travels Through Oregon

The USA Track and Field Olympic trials begin at Hayward Field on Friday in Eugene, Ore., with fewer clouds hovering than in the past. Most, if not all, of the recent issues have revolved around steroid use and the stripping of medals from athletes who competed as far back as the 2000 Games in Sydney. The 10-day event, held in Nike country, has often surpassed the Olympics for both pure drama and athletic performance.Unlike previous years — where there’s been a household name or rivalry that the USATF and NBC can concoct a marketing campaign around — this year’s event lacks a Marion Jones, a Gail Devers, a Michael Johnson, or a Carl Lewis. In short, the answer to who will find their way to a Wheaties box remains elusive. The only real drama hanging over the event appeared and disappeared in the last few days, when Justin Gatlin, who won the gold medal in the 100-meter at Athens, had his appeal to overturn his doping ban lifted — then rescinded a day later.America’s dominance in the Olympics always begins with the sprints. Tyson Gay, winner of three events at last year’s world championships, ran an American-best this year of 9.85 seconds to make him the favorite in the 100 (he’ll also try the double in the 200, as will most of the elite sprinters.) On his heels will be recent FSU graduate Walter Dix, who won eight NCAA titles; Wallace Spearmon, the 200-meter specialist, and Clemson junior Travis Padgett. Padgett is a dark horse: He ran a 9.96 a few weeks ago, the second fastest time by an American this year. Shawn Crawford, the gold medalist in the 200 at Athens, should also not be overlooked.On the women’s side, the one “it girl” in Eugene is Allyson Felix: She captured silver in the 200 at the Athens Olympics and ran her personal best at 100 (10.93 seconds) just a few weeks ago. Torri Edwards has resurrected her career after a 2005 doping violation. Lauren Williams, the surprise silver medalist in the 100 at Athens, always performs when the stage is huge. Under the radar screen is Marshevet Hooker, the former Texas star who owns the third-fastest time in the 100 this year. All four sprint events are loaded: Thankfully for the athletes, even a sixth-place finish can result in an Olympic berth on a relay team.Aside from the 100, other track finals on tap this weekend include the 400-meter hurdles, the 800-meter, and the men’s 5,000-meter. Harlem resident Kevin Young, who in 1992 at Barcelona set the world record in the 400 hurdles (still the longest-standing record in track), offered his opinion to The New York Sun on his event.“The 400 hurdles is the toughest event in track,” he said. “You’re running full speed for a quarter mile while jumping over hurdles every 12 steps. This weekend, I like Kerron Clement with Bershawn Jackson running well enough for the upset. Also, I’d keep my eye on a young cat, Jeshua Anderson, who just won the NCAA meet as a freshman at Washington State.”American men have been notoriously weak on the international level at 800 for many years. Khadevis Robinson is the prohibitive favorite, but the pick here is Lopez Lomong. Born in Sudan, he was living in a refuge camp in Kenya seven years ago and escaped to Northern Arizona University, where he won citizenship and NCAA titles in both the 800 and 1,500 events in 2007. Two-time 800-meter Olympian Hazel Clark has had a mediocre 2008 season. The buzz is on Alice Schmidt, the UNC graduate who has run just once this year but has the fastest time of anyone in the event. Track experts, though, are hyperventilating over Channel Price, the high-school star from Easton, Pa., whose splits in workouts have prompted speculation over whether this will be the meet where a star is born.The 5,000-meter final on Monday evening should be Bernard Lagat’s show. A two-time Olympic medalist in the 1,500 for Kenya, Lagat was granted American citizenship in 2006. Last year at the world championships in Osaka, he became the first American to win both the 1,500 and 5,000. This humble professional deserves all the accolades bestowed upon him, and he could conceivably repeat his 2007 double win in Beijing.The most notable field event finals this weekend are in the men’s long jump, pole vault, and shot put. The long jump has taken a long leap backward in recent years. Norm Tate, a 1968 Olympian at Mexico City, told the Sun that his personal best of 27.1 feet (8.23 meters) in 1971 would have qualified him for the Olympic team four years ago. Defending Olympic champion Dwight Phillips will resurface after a sparse 2008 campaign. The pole vault should be dominated by Brad Walker, the 2007 world champion who had last year’s highest vault at 19.625 ft. The mammoths of the shot put feature the old guard of Adam Nelson, the two-time Olympic silver medalist, against 2007 world champion Reese Hoffa, a Georgia native who trains out of the New York Athletic Club. Finally, the event that blends the finesse of track with the brutal body demands of the field, the decathlon, wraps up the first half of trials on Monday. The decathlon once conjured great American heroes such as Jim Thorpe, Rafer Johnson, Bill Toomey, and — before his reality-show embarrassments — Bruce Jenner. Brian Clay, the Olympic silver medalist at Athens, should cruise through the field here after a few injury-plagued summers.Track and field in America, perhaps in a way similar to boxing, has lost much of its popularity. America’s a NASCAR nation and, sadly, most Americans prefer watching two machines flying at 200 miles per hour, in lieu of cheering two human beings leaving their blood and guts on the track surface. Some want to blame the steroid binge; America used that as an excuse when the Eastern Europeans started catching up with us in the mid-1970s. Track and field doesn’t have a casual fan base: Either you’re obsessed with the sport (and times and distances and heights), or you’ll tune in to watch the Olympics every four years. When stars such as Marion Jones are in jail, it’s easy to blame the athletes. But, in American track, it goes a bit deeper.We are weeks away from the Olympics, and the USATF still does not have a chief executive officer. The previous boss, Craig Masback, was a third-place miler who ran a fourth-rate organization and, after New York’s failed Olympic bid, he jumped ship. Guess where? To the real power in track and field: Nike. If you can pull yourself away from the Mets and Yankees this weekend, or Wimbledon on July 4, the U.S. Olympic Trials will still provide — thank you, Jim McKay — both the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat.ejswrite@gmail.com

Road to Beijing Travels Through Oregon

Road to Beijing Travels Through Oregon

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