Running News

I am really enjoying the daily news on the Runner's World website. I lose a big chunk of my time in the morning read it. Here are a few items that caught my eye today.

Sanya Richards Asserts Justin Gatlin "Hurt Our Sport"

Richards, the new American 400-meter recordholder and the 2006 IAAF Female Athlete Of The Year, notes "new faces like me, Justin, Bershawn Jackson and Lauryn Williams were all standing up against drugs. And then for Justin to go and fail us - it hurt out sport." Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist, tested positive for testosterone this spring; Richards states "I definitely think the U.S. public have been disillusioned by what happened to Justin." Richards is one of the mainstays of the USATF's "Be A Champion" program, an outreach to American youth. "Hopefully we won't have any more of those mishaps in the future," she says of the Gatlin debacle, "and people will start to realize that there are more clean athletes who work hard than there are athletes who cheat."

Dick Pound's Book Part Of Campaign Against "The Sociopaths Of Sport"

Pound, the zealous and often blunt and controversal president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, calls performance-enhancing drug users "cheaters who respect neither their fellow competitors nor the games they're playing." The Canadian has now authored "Inside Dope: How Drugs Are The Biggest Threat To Sport, Why You Should Care, and What Can Be Dne About Them." Listen to Pound's interview on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" at the link below; you'll wonder why more of these drug-using miscreants haven't dropped dead already.

With 49ers Talking Of Move to Santa Clara, San Francisco Drops 2016 Olympic Bid

San Francisco's Olympic bid was in large part contingent on a new stadium the NFL 49ers were thinking of building at Candlestick Point, which would have been expanded to 80,000 seats for track and field and opening and closing ceremonies. The 49ers then announced they were pursuing a stadium project in San Francisco. While the team now says it may continue discussions with two cities, Scott Givens, the managing director of San Francisco's bid, realizes "the damage has been done, and the damage can't be pulled back," especially regarding the San Francisco bidders' standing with the U.S. Olympic Committee. Chicago and Los Angeles remain contenders for the 2016 Games, though the USOC might ultimately choose not to submit any bid at all.