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Conway · Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:53 am Post subject:

With all this talk about hard working athletes and lazy athletes .. Training hard or not training hard .. My curiosity is aroused and so I ask the question:

Who do you think has the best trained athletes ???

Once upon a time it would have been real easy to say East Germany (of course we now know how they were trained) .. Small country .. Lots of international medals .. World records ... Etc ..

who would you say it is now ?? And why ??

Dan · Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:23 pm Post subject:

I've gotta go with Ethiopia. The depth of participation and national organization don't seem nearly on par with Kenya, yet the top individuals are miles and miles beyond anyone else in the world, both in terms of fitness, racing savvy, and technical drilling.

Dan

Distance_Guru · Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 10:19 am Post subject:

I'll take the easy way out, the American sprinters, hurdlers and long jumpers! They dominate the track and they have for years. With the exception of a very small number of athletes that train in the US and run for other countries we own the sprints, hurdles and the LJ. I want no part of the lazy sprinter debate but for their events the US sprinters, hurdlers and horizontal jumpers are exceptionally well trained.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Hammer · Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 11:09 am Post subject:

I am going to have to defend my "lazy sprinters" quote here....

Elite sprinters are not lazy
College sprinters are not lazy
Good HS sprinters are not lazy

Some potential Distance (potential by means of the size of their body, if they are not dedicated they will never be great at any sport) runners chose to sprint in Middle School because they are Lazy.

A smaller pool of athletes can lead to subpar performance. A larger pool will eventually lead to better perfomance.

If a school has 10 kids running distance it is easier to become #1 man than at a school that has 100 kids running distance, reguardless of the ability of the coach.

Hammer · Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 11:21 am Post subject:

The best trained ATHLETES in the world right now might be Norweigen XC skiers and Bi-athletes.

Runners: I hate to agree with people but you can't argue with US sprint dominance. (and i wanted to argue)

Conway · Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 2:21 pm Post subject:

I was thinking along hte lines of the Spaniards .. Very deep in the middle distnaces and very high quality ... And aside from that you don't even think about them having any kind of track program ... But I would say that they are the primary competition for the Africans !!!

Distance_Guru · Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:13 pm Post subject:

What about the marathoners from Japan and Korea? They're always seems to be at least one runner from each of these countries near the top of every major marathon. Marathoning really seems to be on the rise in east Asia, and with their success in the last couple of Olympic games and a victory at Boston in 2001 I wonder if Asia might some day in the near future replace Africa as the continent with the best marathoners. Although I have been surprised by the fact that their success in the marathon has not transfered on to the track.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2002 3:59 pm Post subject:

The Asian distance runners have done well for a number of years now. That's a good choice. I thought about mentioning the Spaniards, but it seems they mostly excel in just two events -- the mile and the marathon (good visibility choices if you can only choose two Smile

).

Dan

Conway · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 8:33 am Post subject:

Asia is a very good choice ... The Asians are sneeking up on the rest of the world in a variety of events .. I expect the Asian continenet to be a major force in the 2008 Olympics if not 2004 ..

As for the Spaniards I picked them because they are only visible in 2 events ... But boy are they visible in those events ... It's like they targeted where they wanted to do well and have focused their training and resources there !!!

Micah Ward · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 2:55 am Post subject:

Russian ultramarathoners and Ann Trason. Gee guys, bet you didn't expect that Wink

Coming from a different angle, best trained non competing ATHLETES...US Navy SEALS.

Dan · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 1:06 pm Post subject:

I don't know anything about the athleticism of Navy Seals, but the vast majority of ROTC types I saw running in college wouldn't have lasted a week on the track...

Dan

Micah Ward · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 3:04 pm Post subject:

Comparing an ROTC student to a SEAL would be like comparing me to El G.

Having seen SEALS up close and being familiar with their training I would say they are some of the most superbly conditioned individuals in the world this side of world class athletes. They tend to be conditioned like triathletes. Non stop running, swimming, calisthenics and obstacle courses can really develop all around fitness to an impressive level.

tjh · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 7:35 pm Post subject:

I was in Boston to watch the Marathon (my coach was running)... there was this old Russian guy running ahead of a couple Ethiopians/Kenyans. It was dang impressive.

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