The Fastest Nation

It’s quite usual for us to get to know that some American athlete wins another world or Olympic title in sprint event. Last time it was news from Helsinki World Championships, where the Americans had clear superiority over others in individual sprint disciplines. They won more titles than all other nations taken together. Of course, that’s not every time that it happens, but the advantage of American athletes which is due to their high level is obvious. While athletes from other countries come to sport elite and go away, Americans always stay in. Moreover, it’s impossible to imagine the sprint elite without Americans. They dominate short-distance running championships now. They have been dominating for all history of modern athletics since the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

To prove this point of view I’m giving the so-called rating of all nations’ Olympic performance athletes of which ever took prices at the modern Olympic Games. A nation gets 3 points for every gold medal, silver is 2 points and bronze is 1 point. For example, at the 2004 Olympics the Americans won all medals in men’s 200 meters dash. In women’s 200 meters dash a Jamaican won gold, an American got silver and a Bahamian got bronze. Thus Americans get 8 points, Jamaicans - 2 point, Bahamians – 1 point. Summing up points for all years we get following statistics:

100 meters:
USA – 120
Germany – 22
Great Britain – 20
Canada – 14
Australia – 13
Other countries – 69

200 meters:
USA – 117
Germany – 18
Jamaica – 16
Australia – 14
Great Britain – 12
Other countries - 63

400 meters:
USA – 97
Germany – 22
Great Britain 20
Jamaica – 13
Australia – 12
Other countries – 52

In every event Americans are far ahead of others. However, even if we take into consideration such a huge advantage, it might be still wrong to say that other countries’ athletes are much worse trained. During the twentieth century there were stars among British, Canadian, Caribbean and other sprinters whose achievements have become part of sports history. Many of them are Olympic and world champions. There also world record holders among them. Now we talk about Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell and Tonique Williams-Darling. We also remember Linford Christie, Donovan Bailey, Marita Koch and Marie-Jose Perec from the past.

However, the point is that they are the only representatives of their nations. They come into sports, show outstanding performance and go away followed by no compatriots matching their level. But only the USA athletes show high-level performance constantly. It’s quite hard to find reasons for it taking into account that the level of training process is also high in many other countries. Actually it is not the training process itself that differs the States from other countries. It is rather sports system organization which selects, raises and motivates athletes.

Prevalent approach to athletics

There are two models of sports system organization in the world.

The first one is the system of state financing developed in most countries. State Sports Department exercises supervision over Sports Federations which provide athletes with good conditions for trainings, medicine care, opportunities for preparations and so on. The State takes care of athletes from the beginning of their career and they feel comfortable in such conditions.

Many of them come into athletics and train like for fun, considering running from this point of view: “I have an opportunity for training. First I will train for fun and will see if I am good in running. If I’m good, I will pay more attention to trainings. If I’m not, I will just enjoy the achieved level. My country will take care of me and will give me an opportunity to afford such “pleasure” trainings.” For some of them sprint is a hobby. Some of them achieve good results at the local level performing time of 10.4-10.2 seconds in 100-meters dash, and think that it is good enough. Those who are highly motivated progress further and sometimes take prizes at international level. But most of such sprinters don’t even reach a 10-second barrier let alone 9.8-9.7 second time which is necessary for major competitions.

So there are no good selection process and no high competing environment in such a system.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association

One more model is when business interferes with sports and government doesn’t take part in the process simply providing the athletes with conditions. Such model is developed in the USA. Besides professional sports, there is a unique system of university sports organization which gives birth to a huge amount of world-famous stars in athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association sports are fantastically popular and widely covered on television and in press. Even world-known bookmakers provide lines for bets on NCAA leagues. No country in the world can boast of such situation. College teams receive huge money from their team sponsors and are interested in achieving high results attracting well-trained athletes. It means that skilled athletes receive scholarships which cover expenses on study and living. For many of them such way is the only chance to enter a university. Thus athletes who competed for a university team are highly motivated in achieving good results. They don’t just train, they secure stability of their lives. Very often at NCAA championships college athletes achieve higher results than professional athletes of other countries.

There is one more positive aspect of the USA model. Several sport events are extremely popular in the United States. These are football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track and field and some others. Almost all universities have their own teams for participating in these sports. If an athlete at the beginning of his career chooses some event, and some time later it turns out that he is much better in some other event, he can simply change an event within the same university. There are many such examples among Olympic champions at sprint events. Marion Jones who was member of her university basketball team, later became the fastest woman in the world. Famous sprinter Ato Boldon started his career playing soccer. Jim Hines used to be a baseball player in his early years. Eddie Tolan won Michigan state football championships as a high school boy. Much more examples could be mentioned.

Such conditions give an opportunity to find out really talented athletes, and hard competition compels them to develop their skills very fast. Yesterday’s NCAA champions become top world athletes today. Now it is John Capel, Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, Jeremy Wariner and Lauryn Williams. In future there will be new stars and the National Collegiate Athletic Association model will never fail.

It’s worth mentioning that Caribbean athletes are good too. But note that many of them studied in American universities.


One might ask why American athletes are not so good at long distance running as they are at sprint events. The answer is simple – they like action. It’s much more interesting for them to watch a 100-meter race during 10 seconds than wait for the end of a 10-kilometers race for a half of an hour. They are crazy about eye-catching shows. And what could be more eye-catching than short-distance running? It’s not just a part of running or athletics, it’s another kind of sport, where limits of human body performance come out. That’s why they just go and grab world and Olympic titles in sprint and left the rest of events for the others.

American Distance Running Legends

When people prioritize sports in the United States the top three are usually football, basketball and baseball. These sports receive a lot of media attention making the athletes superstars and heroes to many kids. Sports such as distance running don’t receive attention and it’s heroes are not known as well.

Distance running in the United States has had many athletes that have achieved legendary greatness. One such person is Jim Ryun from Kansas. While in high school he was the first prep miler to break four minutes in the mile. He also won three State mile run titles and set the high school record for the mile of 3:55.3, which stood for 36 years.

When Jim finished high school he continued to set records on the track. He held five world records during his career and was named the youngest Sportsman of the Year in 1966. Jim Ryun was also a three-time U.S. Olympian in the 1500 meters and earned the silver medal in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. Jim Ryun has been a four term congressman since retiring from the sport.

Billy Mills is another hero in our sport. Billy is a native Indian who came from an impoverished background and defied many odds to be successful. He is best well known for one of the greatest moments in Olympic history. At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan a virtually unknown American athlete stunned the world by winning the Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 meter race.

With a lap to go Billy Mills was one of three runners that were competing for the Olympic gold medal, when he was pushed out to lane three. Billy kept his composure and work his way back up methodically to the other known runners. In the final 100 meters he sprinted past the other two runners to win the gold medal. After retiring from the sport, Billy Mills became a successful life insurance salesman and also is a professional motivational speaker.

Our next sports hero is Bill Rodgers. Bill Rodgers is known as the most celebrated men’s distance runner of all time. Bill was a four-time winner of the Boston and New York City marathon. Track and field News ranked Rodgers #1 in the world in the marathon in 1975, 1977 and 1979. He was also a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic marathon team.

Bill Rodgers has won many awards including Tiffany’s Man of the Year (1989), the New York Runners Club Abebe Biklla Award (1989), and the Ct. sports writers Alliance Gold Key award (1994). Rodgers still holds five American records and one current world record. Bill Rodgers currently is a spokesperson for Etonic shoe company and is the owner of the Bill Rodgers Running Center. He still runs and has many speaking engagements he attends.

One of the most popular and greatest running legends of American distance running is Steve Prefontaine. Pre was born in Coos Bay, Oregon and attended Marshfield High School. He was undefeated in Track and Cross Country his junior and senior year. As a senior at Marshfield he broke the American record for the two mile run. His outstanding performances got the attention of Bill Bowerman a legendary coach at the University of Oregon.

Steve Prefontaine attended the University of Oregon in 1969 and became an instant celebrity. He would fill the University’s Hayward Field to capacity with fans that would cheer for him when he entered the stadium. Pre won seven NCAA titles : three in cross country and four on the track. He held eight collegiate records and his 3 mile and 6 mile records are still standing. Prefontaine also broke his own and other American records 14 different times.

After college Steve Prefontaine continued to train and was in the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich, Germany. During that race he was content to stay with the pack of runners for the first two miles. With a mile to go he took the lead and start picking up the pace. With 600 meters to run Pre was passed by Finland’s Lasse Viren. Prefontaine gave it everything he had to stay with Viren, but fell short of the gold medal and finished fourth.

Steve Prefontaine was the epitome of toughness. His confident personality and gutsy performances was what people were attracted to. Steve Prefontaine was killed in a car accident on May 30, 1975. It shocked the distance running community world wide. He was 24 years old and was cut down in the prime of his running life. Prefontaine till this day has an impact on distance running. Many high school and collegiate runners have quotes from Pre on the back of their shirts. There is also a track meet in his honor every year at Hayward Field called the Prefontaine Classic.