American athletes, especially distance runners, are at a big disadvantage against the rest of the world. We're expected to live by all the rules, like not being able to coach, but still train and make our own living.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My guess is many top athletes, distance runners included, use performance-enhancing drugs, enough so that the problem must be tackled.
Since I achieved something, running has exploded in my country. For me sometimes it is difficult even to know who the athletes are who are competing at the highest level. There are thousands.
We are just not made up to be middle distance runners.
We may train or peek for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.
If you look at the sponsors who were in the sport 15 years ago compared to now there are a lot fewer. Why? Because those runners who took drugs tainted the sport. They tainted all of us in it.
If an athlete takes a shortcut - literally, for example, by running a street that shortens the marathon route by a quarter mile - he or she doesn't have an insurmountable advantage. But it's an unfair advantage, and in a field of equally matched athletes, it's more than enough to make a difference.
America's competitive advantage lies in its human talent. All of us should be doing everything we can to cultivate and develop our work force.
My background playing soccer gave me a natural advantage over many of the American-born players.
We are training as hard as all athletes in other countries.
People forget that track and field is one of the hardest sports because we compete against all the world. There are many sports when you are up against only 15 or 20 countries.