Run-Down Forums

[Conway]

You know, I always felt sorry for Ben .. He never got the respect he deserved .. And he was always so bitter .. If you remember he used to have a bad stuttering problem that he had ot over come .. So that held him back for a bit .. So he had ot get past that to even be able to conduct interviews !! So he does that and becomes the best sprinter in the world (even before the 87 Worlds or 88 Olys) .. But Carl continued to be the favorite .. Then when he finally proves without doubt that he was THE BEST, he gets banned .. And not just banned but banned stripped and eveything else .. And I'm sorry but I just can't help but believe that if he had been American (say Lewis or even Calvin Smith foe example) that much less would have happened to him and he would have had acareer the length of Lewis' or Mitchell's for example .. Yet the governing body of the sport is always talking about "level" playing fields ..

Oooo I better get off this soap box and get back to work !!!!

[Conway]

Dang .. How'd I end up being Anonymous again

[Dan]

Ben was apparently incredibly shy when he first started running. The stuttering, Jamaican accent, foreigner on the US-centric sprint scene, and maybe being a black athlete in a mostly white country, all must have contributed to that being hard to overcome. If he had been a US citizen, I very much doubt the Dubin Inquiry would have taken place...

Dan

[Conway]

No the inquiry wouldn't have taken place .. Ben would have served maybe 2 years .. And the sprint scene would probably have taken a very different turn .. And by that I think that what HSI began in the mid 90s would have occured sooner .. The 91 Worlds would have been won below 9.80 .. Coaching / training would have had to change in order to keep up with Ben .. I wonder what the development of Ato and Mo would have been like ?? Given that the target would have been set differently .. It is quite possible that we would be talking about attempts at breaking the 9.70 barrier right now ..

[Dan]

Do you think the Santa Monica TC would have been the one to raise the bar in the early 90's, or would someone else have come along to fill the void?

Dan

[Conway]

I think it would have been HSI .. John Smith was already in the business of creating gold medallists .. At that time he was working with Steve Lewis and Danny Everett and Ato Boldon was on his way to UCLA .. So I still think it would have started there .. SMTC's philosophy on sprinting was just not conducive to getting to this level on a regular basis .. I mean look at Carl Lewis's professed workouts .. He never practiced fast enough or hard enough to get there ... They ran to be relaxed and win the "slow down" battle at the end of the race .. Ben brought explosion back to sprinting .. And the HSI mentality is also based on explosion .. And John Smith seems to be somewhat adaptable .. And in ordr to keep up with Ben should he have been allowed to continue would have taken a great deal of adaptation .. And Boldon would have been the first experiment .. Simply because of being in the right place a the right time ..

[Dan]

Didn't Ato graduate in '96? If memory serves me right, it wasn't until '95 that he was posting world class times. At least, I didn't see any of them... However, the UCLA sprint dyansties you described earlier would have been perfect candidates to be taken to that level by John Smith.

Dan

[Conway]

Ato was 96 I believe .. But those before him at UCLA were q-milers .. Ato was the first true sprinter for quite some time (since Marsh and Thomas in the late 80s) .. Ato ws the first to come along with the power necessary to try to emulate a Ben Johnson .. And if I remember right I think Drummond had just arrived in town around the same time as he had been at Texas schools previously .. Cason maybe as he was with Seagrave ... But I think Cason maxed his potential in Stuttgart .. John Smith recruited teh right type .. Perhaps he was already thinking along that path !!!!!

[Dan]

[Conway]

Oh I definitely think he looks for a certain type ... When you look at their list of sprinters, or better yet at up close and personals when they show them at practice they are all approximately the same height and build .. Even their second tier guys ... Not that there is anything wrong with that .. Shows smarts on Smith's part ... He knows what he is good at and who he can help/improve .. At least he knows his limits .. How many tall lean sprinters have you seen with HSI ??? JJ Johnson for example would not work in that system in my opinion .. But would have worked well in the SMTC system ... Will be curious to see how he does working with Dennis mitchell who is somewhere in between but much closer to HSI style sprinting ..

The one thing that I will give Tellez credit for is that he was able to work with any athlete and get them to improve ... SMTC had a variety of sprinters .. But they were all able to fit into the system ..

And same for Bud Winters back at San Jose Stae in the 60's (Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, John Carlos, Ronnie Ray Smith) ...

[Dan]

The only somewhat tall sprinters in the HSI group I can think of are the hurdlers, and they (I think there's more than just Wade) aren't especially tall for hurdlers. The HSI women don't seem to fit the height/weight mould quite as much as the men, although that may just be distorted a bit by the inclusion of Arron. Looking at the HSI web site, all the guys are listed at the near exact same height and weight, although I think their height has been bumped up an inch or two...

I always thought Tellez had to be more than one coach. An enigma that works with every event and every type of athlete, yet is rarely heard from or about. Now it turns out he's got a son doing half the coaching, so maybe I wasn't crazy after all.

Dan

[Conway]

Ahh ... But i am sure the son is a clone .. Threfore it is still Tellez doing the coaching .. And i agree, he has gotton far less outward respect than i think he has been due ...