Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

"The greatest memory for me of the 1984 Olympics was not the individual honors, but standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our team gold medal." Despite being the number 1 gymnast in the world that year, winning 3 individual Olympic medals and being the first American gymnast to score a perfect 10.0, Mitch Gaylord highlights the Olympic team gold as the pinnacle of his historic 1984 season. Gymnastics is unique to many other sports in that it has a strong emphasis on both individual and team competition. For elite gymnasts in the US, many train together all… more »

This past weekend, I had an excellent opportunity to participate in the inaugural Brooks ID Camp. This camp was unlike any other that I have ever attended. The camp took place at a mountain resort just outside Seattle, next to Mt. Rainier. While there were certainly some elite athletes in attendance, that wasn't the purpose. Instead, Brooks pooled together 65 people in the running community that 'inspire daily”. These people included athletes, coaches, race directors, doctors and physical therapists from all over the US. It was a great mix of ages and personalities. While a wide variety of topics were… more »

What a difference one year makes. After the 2007 season wrapped up, I had a conversation with a friend about the strengths and weaknesses of the US track and field team. Obviously sprints, hurdles, relays, and field are all strong suits for the red, white and blue. Distance had been coming along as Lagat grabbed 5k gold in Osaka (with Tegenkamp 4th), Kara Goucher nabbed 10k bronze, we had 2 marathon medalists at the previous Olympics in Athens (and a new crop of marathoners were looking promising). Men's middle distance had everyone hopeful for the '08 Olympics with Lagat's 1,500… more »

Aside from conveniently being the name of the Saucony casual product line, I have been thinking about how running culture is an actual phenomenon. I was thinking about this as I was embarking on my quest for abs in the gym the other day. I noticed a group of dudes who showed up pretty regularly and lifted pretty hard. One of them was there every day, mostly training high school kids, but he must have been a body builder of some kind himself. Between the time he obviously spent lifting and the time he spent training the kids, he must… more »