That’s certainly not a phrase heard chanted at many sporting competitions; but with it being an Olympic year, it’s certainly still relevant. I know that fact first hand; all spring I had envisioned me crossing the finish line at Eugene in the top 3. What an experience it would be to get to do a victory lap around Hayward Field with a small American flag, knowing I would get to represent my country in London. Unfortunately that dream didn’t become a reality as I just wasn’t strong enough to cover the move made by Rupp, Teg, and Ritz over the last mile and a half. I went into that race knowing to go to London I would have to be in the top 3 and run under the Olympic A standard of 27:45. After the race I took solace in the fact that at least I had accomplished one of those tasks.
Pointing out that fact is part of the comforting a couple of my friends had for me, knowing I’d be disappointed in not reaching my ultimate goal. “Well you know, if you were from any other country besides Kenya and Ethiopia, you’d be going to the Olympics” is what they’d say. And at first my only thought would be “who cares, I’m an American, I love my country, and wouldn’t want to race in any other singlet in the Olympics.” And I certainly still feel that way today, but as the disappointment from the trials has softened; I’ve started to think about what that means for US men’s distance running.
Everyone visiting this website knows that Kenya and Ethiopia are the unquestioned best countries in distance running, but I believe over the last 6 years or so; the US has become easily the third best country in men’s distance running. Here are some facts to back up that thought:
- Team USA and Kenya are the only teams with 3 men in each distance event (Ethiopia not fielding a full 800 team)
- For the 10k, Team USA, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea were the only countries with 3 men competing. That means these were the only countries with at least 3 men under the A standard; after the trials the US had 10
- At least 6 guys had achieved the A standard in the 800, 1500, steeple, and 5k
Those points mainly point out the depth Americans have at the professional level; but there are several other signs of how much we’ve gotten better in the last 6 years at every level.
- American records (or not a record, but fastest ever time in the case of the marathon) have been broken at the steeple, half-marathon, marathon, and multiple times in the 5k and 10k
- There are NCAA runners breaking 4 in the mile and NOT going to the National Championship Meet
- There were 16 high school boys under 9 minutes in the 3200m and 33 total under 9:10 IN ONE MEET! When I was in high school if you ran 9:0x in the two mile you were an absolute stud known around the country, now you may not even be in the top 30!
Those points show that American distance running has also gotten a lot better at the very top, the collegiate level, and high school level. All of this progress has been made in a relatively short amount of time. My coach, Greg McMillan, says one of the main motivations for him to start a post-collegiate group was the disappointment of the US only sending one man to the 2000 Olympic marathon. Well, thankfully we have come a long way as a distance running country since then, especially in the last 6 years.
And who knows ,if we keep progressing at all levels in both depth and top tier strength, maybe 4 to 8 years from now we’ll be able to chant the familiar “We’re number 1!”