The Fall and Rise

They’re saying my sport might be dead.

That’s right...reporters and commentators who’ve been watching track and field in this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China have said that Americans may be done dominating the oval as the have for so many years in events from sprints to jumps to long distances. The country that is home to sprinting greats Maurice Green and Marion Jones, and even long distance champions, like 1,500-meter runner Bernard Lagat, is no longer in control.

Who’s in the driver’s seat now? Jamaica, that’s who. In the past week, they’ve won both the men’s and women’s 100-meter dashes and on the men’s side, Jamaican Usain Bolt (what a cool name for a sprinter!) set the world record, bounding across the finish line in 9.69 seconds to break his own record, set earlier this year.

So what do Americans like me do? What do you do when you realize that your country is being outplayed in a sport that it considers its own on the world stage. Well, for this Olympics, there isn’t much we can do except hope to edge out a victory or two in the remaining events. But over the next four years, runners like me will be running even faster, training even longer and focusing even harder than usual on gold because we want to win in the sport that is ours.

How do you rebound from a loss or a series of downfalls? What do you think Team USA track should change to get back on the winner’s podium for next year?