Wyomia Tyus: The Famous Pre-Race Dance to Out-Psych Everyone

This is PART 1: The pre-race routine before getting into your starting blocks.
PART 2: The pre-race routine getting into your starting blocks.
Usain Bolt is famous for being super relaxed and dancing and playing to the crowd BEFORE he races.  In fact, we saw Asafa Powell change his demeanor at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin [...]

Chi Cheng – World’s Fastest Human

Unless you were living in Southern California during the late 60’s or early 70’s, you’ve probably never heard of the name Chi Cheng until last month.
The Women’s 100 yard WR is currently 10.0 or (10.10 FAT) held by Chi Cheng of Chinese Taipei back in 1970.  Chinese Taipei is also commonly known as Taiwan.
Shelly Ann [...]

Great Britain’s 400 meter Glory Days and Roger Black

When was the last time you had 4 Americans AND 3 British athletes in a 400 meters Olympic or World Championship Final? 
POP QUIZ:  Who was the lone non-American and non-Brit in that race?
How is 4 athletes possible?
Enter the “Michael Johnson Rule” of 1997.  When he strained his quad in the Donovan Bailey – Michael [...]

More on Pietro Mennea’s Detailed Training Workouts

Last week’s article on Pietro Mennea’s Detailed Training Workouts for 200 meters brought some good discussion on super high volume, medium intensity training methods.
In all fairness, I will present the final week of training prior to his 7 day taper period.
I will only focus on track workouts and times, which will give you [...]

Harry Winston Jerome: Person of National Historical Significance

Harry Jerome concurrently held or equaled 4 World Records from 1960-65  (60 yard, 100 yards, 100 meters, 4×100m).   He attended the University of Oregon on a track scholarship from 1960 to 1964 under the tenure of Bill Bowerman’s of NIKE fame.  He also won a bronze medal in the 100 meter sprint at the 1964 [...]

Pietro Mennea’s Detailed Training Workouts for 200 meters

Pietro Mennea’s 19.72 200 meter World Record was set at the 1979 World University Games in Mexico City.  The WR would later become the holy grail of the 200 meters until Michael Johnson broke it (twice) in 1996.
Today, that 19.72 sounds like molasses in January compared to 19.19.
Pietro Mennea also won the Bronze medal [...]

Remember when 9.79 was the Holy Grail of the 100m Sprint?

Like Victor Conte, Ben Johnson news won’t go away.  No matter how much of an anti-drug person you are (i.e. LetsRun.com) every time they make a media presence, they make noise.
And that noise may be irritating to you.
Who can forget Ben Johnson’s 9.79 in Seoul 1988?  I’ll bet a lot of you folks want to [...]

DNA, Identical Twins, and Intelligence – Ironic Sports Stories

Twins are a special case.
In my days working at the Forensic Lab, an anomaly or loophole can occur with the DNA results IF the crime was committed by a suspect with an identical twin.  That’s because they have the same DNA!  How can you link the evidence to the crime scene?
At the time (1995), the [...]

Lane 8 200m Revisited – Pietro Mennea 1980 Olympic Gold Medal

Pietro Mennea will be presenting his new book “L’ Oro di Mosca” (The Gold of Moscow) at the Scuola Pontificia Pio I X , located at Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro in Rome on Tuesday April 27, 2010 at 5:30pm.  Everyone is invited.
Lane 8 for the 200 meters
The next time you get Lane 8 [...]

Canada’s Harry Jerome: Person of National Historical Significance

There will be a ceremony naming Harry Jerome as a Person of National Historical Significance on Saturday May 15th at 9:00 AM at the Harry Jerome statue located on the Stanley Park Seawall (see photo below).  As well, they will also name the Canadian Landmark in his honour.
Other famous runners inducted are Terry Fox and [...]

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