September 2016 Contents
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September 2016 Track and Field Contents Writers of P. 1 President’s Message America P. 3 TAFWA Notes (Founded June 7, 1973) P. 5 Men’s Shot Put Rio Olympics P. 8 Philip Barker: Eighty Years of Olympic TV, and now an Olympic Channel PRESIDENT P. 12 The Calculus of Enjoying Almaz Ayana’s World Record Jack Pfeifer 216 Ft. Washington Ave., P. 15 California Senate Passes Resolution on East German Doping NY, NY 10032 P. 15 Moscow Court Seizes Russian Doping Whistle-Blower’s Assets Office/home: 917-579- P. 16 Nina Ponomareva, Soviet Olympian Who Set Off a Diplomatic Crisis 5392. Email: P. 18 The Sports Linchpin [email protected] P. 20 NBC is Stuck in 20th Century with Olympic Coverage, Faces Uncertain Future VICE PRESIDENT P. 21 Neil Wilson: Only the Athletes Can Feel Proud of These Olympics Doug Binder P. 23 Who Will Be On the Rio Podium in 10 Years? Email: P. 24 D’Agostino and Hamblin Receive Fair Play Awards from CIFP [email protected]. Phone: 503-913-4191 P. 25 Isinbayeva Quits, Saying Pole Vault Winner Will Not Earn ‘Proper Gold’ P. 25 Russia’s Isinbayeva Earns IOC Spot Despite Opposition TREASURER P. 26 Sebastian Coe Seeks to Rebuild Trust in Track and Field Tom Casacky P. 28 The Olympics Are the End of a Track From Poverty P.O. Box 4288 Napa, CA 94558 P. 30 GB Athletes Have ‘Doubts’ Over Result of Women’s 1500m Rio Race Phone: 818-321-3234 P. 31 Bolt Says Tight Schedule Slowed Down 100-meter Sprinters Email: [email protected] P. 32 Yuliya Stepanova ‘Certain’ There were Athletes Doping at Rio Games P. 34 The Height of Achievement SECRETARY Jon Hendershott P. 37 Empty Seats Detracted From Full Quality Athletics in Olympic Stadium Email: P. 38 The Soviet Doping Plan: Document Reveals Illicit Approach to ‘84 Olympics [email protected] P. 42 Cross Country: Kennedy Coach Celebrates 65th Birthday with 65 Laps Phone: 669-231-4177 P. 43 What Are the ‘Worst’ Olympic Sports? FAST P. 46 By ‘Packaging’ the Olympics, NBC Insults Viewers, and the Athletes Themselves Dave Johnson P. 47 San Jose State University Reinstating Men’s Track and FIeld Program Email: P. 48 Attention Boys and Girls of America: Let’s do the Hop, Skip and Jump [email protected] P. 49 Van Niekirk’s 43.03 Ranks Highest on Games’ Top 25 List Phone: 215-898-6145 P. 51 Partial Fixtures List WEBMASTER Michael McLaughlin Email: [email protected] President’s Message - September 2016 Phone: 815-529-8454 Rio and Beyond NEWSLETTER EDITOR While many of our members were in Brazil for another Summer Olympics – work- Shawn Price ing, eating, on the beach – some of us were home, in the States and elsewhere, being Email: [email protected] consumers. Phone: 979-661-0731 There were the newspapers and magazines, the websites and Twitter and Instagram and Facebook on and on, but mostly there was television. NBC, which of course paid a fortune for the rights and probably lost money on the deal – the parent company, Comcast, can afford it – did however take the televising of these Games to a new level. There was the usual packaged prime-time show every evening, dinner is over, the family gathered around the 216-inch flat screen TV to cheer on the Americans in swimming and diving, golf, tennis, gymnastics, equestrian, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, women’s field hockey, and endless hours of beach volleyball. And Usain Bolt winning another 100 meters. Bolt was two tokens, the other-nation hero and the track guy. But if you had the time and interest, there were many other avenues for absorbing these Games onscreen. For one thing, NBC used all of its affiliate stations (platforms, they probably call them) for much more intensive broadcasting of particular sports. These included MSNBC, NBCSN, CNBC, USA and the Golf Channel. NBCSN became the go-to channel for track and field. They used separate crews for the daytime and evening windows, and the NBCSN track group was able to get away with not being overly nationalistic. They also did not preach down to their audience by assuming that many of them were already fans of the sport, thus did not have to be told how far 10,000 meters is, or that the triple jump used to be called the hop, step and jump, or that pole vaulters get three tries at every height. This was an immediate relief. Did they show the distance finals without interruption? No. But while the prime-time shows might only show the beginning and end of a distance race, NBCSN showed a majority. (Nevertheless, to break away constantly for another high jump or triple jump could be aggravating, especially during a championship final.) But for this, there was still another option – nbcolympics.com, online. To receive this, you needed to already be a cable subscriber, similar to the espn3.com model – that’s insulting – but once on, it was a marvel. On this site, there were additional options. For example, if you wanted to see a track race without any interruption whatsoever, there was a button for Track Only. The downside was that there was no audio. Ditto field events. Want to see every decathlon javelin throw, every single one? You could do this. No audio, but … who’s complain- ing? These webcasts could also be viewed again and again, if you missed something, or wanted to see it once more, or twice more, or slow motion of the final 400. NBC came in for a lot of criticism for its handling of these Games – some such critiques appear in this issue of the Newsletter – but they always do. As a consumer, I would say that they offered a much broader, deeper menu of coverage than ever before. Three cheers for that. Newsletter frequency We will skip October. Next Newsletter should arrive first week of November. TAFWA Awards Several of our 2017 awards will be presented at next year’s Winter Banquet, Feb. 9 in New York. As a result, the deadline for nominations for these awards will be Dec. 31. Those are: James O. Dunaway Journalism Award H.D. Thoreau Broadcasting Award Bud Greenspan Film & Video Award We will remind you in November of the criteria for these awards. Nominations can be sent to jack.pfeifer@ gmail.com. Nominations for our remaining awards will open Jan. 1, with presentation in Eugene in June at the NCAA Championships or, as appropriate, at the USATF Nationals in Sacramento. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - September 2016 2017 FAST Annual Needs Compilers Work has commenced on the 2017 FAST Annual, with a stellar roster of event experts compiling deep lists of 2016 performers and performances. This year, we’re proud to be joined by Track & Field News Editor Emeritus Jon Hendershott, working from his new base in Oregon. However, there’s always room for more volunteers. If you have a statistical interest in any event, or would like to try your hand at assembling one of the 2016 lists, write to Tom C. at [email protected]. Fame and fortune await you! TAFWA Membership Dues for 2017 It’s never too early to think about your TAFWA dues. For 2017, they will remain at $30, and will buy you a series of excellent newsletters, the 2017 FAST Annual, and privileged entry to special TAFWA social events at New York’s Millrose Games in February, the NCAA Championships in Eugene (our yearly breakfast with athletes and coaches), and hopefully at the USATF meet in Sacramento. Don’t miss out! You can send a check, payable to TAFWA, to PO Box 4288, Napa, CA 94558, or use PayPal, to the address [email protected]. World’s Greatest in Athletics This is a valuable and entertaining contribution to track and field lit- erature, both as a reference and as a stimulating source for discussion. Three respected international statisticians/historians — Richard Hymans, Peter Matthews and Jo- nas Hedman — have produced an 832-page volume that contains: a never-before-published top-10 world all-time ranking of men and women at all standard events with career details, best performances and annual progressions for the top selections (228 pages); 500-deep all-time lists to January 1, 2015, perhaps the most extensive and authoritative printed lists available anywhere (510 pages); and top-10 lists by decade from 1900 through 2010 (96 pages). There are more than 300 photos of athletes and competitions. This book was advertised in the January, 2016 TAFWA Newsletter; if you haven’t seen it or obtained a copy, you should. You can order via www.worldsgrea- testinathletics.com, or from Jonas Hedman at [email protected]. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - September 2016 Olympic 1,500m Gold Celebration Posing for a picture after the Rio Olympic Games at Coogan’s are (l to r) Walt Murphy, Dave Johnson, Jack Pfeifer and Peter Walsh, who posted the banner at the front of his restaurant, Coogan’s, in Upper Manhattan, prior to the historic victory in Rio by Matthew Centrowitz. Olympic Games Result Books Final result books from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are available on the www.rio2016.com website. The link for results from track and field: https://www.rio2016.com/en/athletics-schedule-and-results- download In addition to the results book in track and field, there are files available to download which include a placing table, records set and medalists by event. A direct link to the pdf of the track and field results book: https://smsprio2016-a.akamaihd.net/_sport/R/i/Rio_2016_ Athletics_Results_Book_V1.0.pdf TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - September 2016 Men’s Shot Put Rio Olympics By Mac Wilkins Men’s Shot Put August 18 Eight hours a day working for his masters in Finance Full Disclosure - I have known Ryan since he was 8 and have through May.