MONACO — The headline in The Times (the one in London) a few days ago proclaimed, “Lord Coe’s plan will lead to slow death of athletics, says Olympic champion Christian Taylor.”
Uh-huh.
Track and field is not dying, not even a slow and unremarkable death, because the triple jump will not be featured on television. You can take that to the bank.
This story, like so many others recently, underscores a trend, particularly as it relates to track and field, that would be particularly distressing if it wasn’t so transparent. The American and British media in particular in recent weeks have been filled with story upon story summoning the spirit of Chicken Little.
Some perspective, please, because some uncomfortable truths need to be said, and to the best of my knowledge I am the only American who has, in sequence, been to the Doha world championships, the WADA World Conference on Doping in Sport and, now the World Athletics meetings, where I have done a lot of listening.
Christian Taylor, right, and IAAF (now World Athletics) president Seb Coe in 2018 at a meet in the Czech Republic along with Colombian triple jump star Caterine Ibarguen // Getty Images
So, and in no particular order:
— Track and field does not have a union. Olympic sport does not have a union. There. I said it. The odds of there ever being a union are slim to none.
People, words matter.
The Times may want to call what Taylor has organized, or not, a “union” but that does not make it a union, an entity that collectively bargains for work rights. That is not going to happen. Under what circumstance are 10,000 athletes from athletes all over the world, from different political structures, ever going to find such common ground? The idea of a “union” doesn’t even exist in many countries. Why would it exist in Olympic sport?
— Taylor, who met here with Coe, says he wants change? Cool. All good. Seriously. All good. How about this for starters? World Athletics, formerly known as the IAAF, just announced the launch — in 2020 — of what it is calling a “Continental Tour,” beyond the Diamond League. The “gold” level starts with 10 meets, the first in Tokyo on May 10. It is patently obvious that not one of those 10 meets (nine locations have been finalized already) is in the United States.
Suggestion: change starts at home. This is on Taylor and Willie Banks, the newly elected World Athletics council member.
— At a news conference here, World Athletics president Seb Coe and Russia task force head Rune Andersen made plain the severity and the seriousness of the situation with the Russian track and field federation, announcing that the reinstatement process was being suspended in the wake of obstruction revelations involving the case of high jumper Danil Lysenko.
In accord with moves taken by WADA in response to the suspected manipulation of data from the Moscow lab, it would appear that Round Two of “Olympic Athletes from Russia” is on the horizon for Tokyo 2020.
— Here is the thing, though. For as controversial, awkward, bad, unbelievable (pick your word) as the Russian situation is, and it is, the real talk away from the microphones is that the gold medal for cheating goes — once again — to the United States.
Don’t believe it? Believe it.
This is the fallout from the Alberto Salazar matter, and in particular publication of the Salazar emails with Mark Parker, the then-Nike chief executive who has since resigned his position.
For many, the Salazar matter proves a preconception: America is built on capitalism, and Americans cheat in the most capitalistic way possible. You doubt? Oh. Hello, Lance Armstrong. Sponsored in his glory years by who, please?
— Americans like to preach to the rest of the world about how the rest of the world needs to get its act together when it comes to doping. And then comes something like the Salazar matter. As a matter of timing, life working in mysterious ways, it came along just before the World Conference — where it was noted that representatives of the various U.S.-based major professional sports leagues (football, baseball, basketball, etc.) were not in attendance, and so why should the rest of the world pay attention, at all, to American rhetoric?
— Two key notes about the Salazar matter, and here the point is not to make Salazar, who was always driven (and driven is being gentle) out to be Mother Teresa, but the mainstream media has obviously declared it to be pile-on season when it comes to Salazar, so let’s take a step back:
Not one of the counts that stuck against Salazar relates to an athlete he was coaching. Not one.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency asked for a lifetime ban. He got four years.
— Since that four-year ban was announced, Mary Cain, Amy Yoder Begley, Kara Goucher, Lauren Fleshman and others have come forward with allegations against Salazar. There is no question — zero — that these allegations are serious, and deserve legitimate, forceful inquiry.
It can prove challenging for many people to have a reasoned, reasonable conversation in the public space about the variety of issues tied to these allegations. Just for starters, because so much more needs to be asked: Where are the voices from similarly prominent male runners, and particularly those who were in the Oregon Project? What questions need to be asked of other senior Nike executives, particularly John Capriotti? For years he has overseen most everything track and field.
Big picture:
What is the impact going forward to Nike’s support for the sport in the United States? Probably little to and through the world championships in Eugene, in 2021. After that?
What happens to the sport in the United States if either by choice or force it loses its lifeline in Nike?
That’s what Christian Taylor should really be worried about — not losing the triple jump in the broadcast window in the Diamond League.