Matt Tegenkamp 8th 5k 2009 IAAF World Championships : Speakers & Interviews

I lived in Europe a couple of years while in the military and Teg is right on with Eurosport. They are fair across the board with all countries and the distance coverage is second to none.

I agree bro. Great to hear Tegs throw out some support for the hardworking flotrack family. Great job guys. We all appreciate it. That Universal sports website was pretty much perfect. Who were those announcers? The difference in quality of commentating and intelligence between those guys and the the american announcers during NBC's coverage of the Olympics is staggering.

is this mac fleet profile fake lol?

Love this guy.

Good to hear Matt taking NBC to task. This year, at least we could watch the Berlin feed from Universal Sports and get the interviews from Flocast.

I work way harder than Matt. I deserve to be a household name!

Great job Teg! Finals were Awesome!!!

Do you think in the future there are any tactics that could be used to help Lagat out?

very well spoken guy, he really wants US distance runnning to be at the forefront for the future athletes

Are you serious? Teg did run a good race; put himself in great position with 200 to go. The legs did not let him run fast at the end, but the slowing down and speeding up does that. Do you really think that any of the Americans should have taken the lead and run away from Bekele??? Where did you get your expertise on running at that level?

He's the tallest Umpa Lumpa ever.

NBC showed one day of distance events sunday which is bull us distance runners train day in and day out and these coverages had no respect for them rather focus on sprinters and field events who dont work half has hard i for one am pissed and i hope for a change in these coverages

Great job matt! You, Chris, Bernard, and Evan made us proud out there in your race! I aslop agree with the NBC topic. Distance events should be covered and people need to see all the hard immersing work of distance running pay off.

When Teg retires, he should most definitely become a commentator for track and field!

Teg is completely correct. NBC and Versus have had awful coverage with awful post-race interviews. The Universal coverage out of Britain has been much better and focused not just on American medalists. The same was true for the Olympics in Beijing last year when NBC would not even air preliminary rounds of distance events. When it comes down to it, the poor NBC (and CNN Sports Illustrated etc...) coverage is the reason that track is less popular stateside than nearly every other sport. It isn't because people don't want to see it, but rather that, even if one wants to, it is a difficult thing to find.

dear Excuses,
you are a tool.

We still have to make strides for better commentating. The first step would be to not hire commentators based on name or "connections" but by credibility. Tom Hammond and Larry Rawson and Carol Lewis have to go. Get somoene, ANYONE else.

Teg is finally calling it like it is, and it sounds like he gave some flak to NBC. Ryan, sounded like you either didn't understand him or didn't want to go there, but Teg is 100% correct, NBC, learn from europsport, it is the best coverage. I hope Teg becomes the spokesman for distance athletes telling NBC that they have it all wrong. Flotrack, you guys can speak up as well, don't be so timid.

What a baller! Bekele was uncomfortable in front huh? How do you know he was? He still led the race instead of sitting on the back and wait for the kick. (the kick that u said u managed to develop recently and that u can kick with anybody).
After winning a tough and fast 10k and qualifying in 5000m. Why don't you just show respect man, With the salary you get per year, all the facilities with nike, the coach, massage therapist, the staff behind you, I even heard nike provided a psychologist in sport in Berlin, too much excuses, what a joke!

If only Nike, would have provided the same money they give to americans, the same privileges, then it won't be just domination of east africans, u would see super and super fast races that u could enjoy watching home on your TV with NBC!
Did you know that IAAF is accusing Kenya and Ethiopia to have killed world cross country. Each country has the right to bring up to 6athletes, so they dominate so much that european tv media are no longer interested in covering the meets each year. Now the event is going to be held once every two years. In my world, we call that racism!
Are we going to postpone the basketball in olympic games because we know US can win whenever they want! Are we going to postpone the 100m now that we know Usain Bolt is dominating the event or the sprints coz we feel like jamaicans and americans are dominating?!
Americans are talented, they are good runners as good as the africans. The only difference is maybe they're working harder and harder to get out of poverty. Coz it's all about money. if u would to know that a 50 grand race win would change your whole life forever then maybe you would work and train harder than you do now.
But Tegenkamp, I am sure he is making more than that kind of money each year without having to work that hard.

Teg has been an outspoken embassador for the sport for a while now and has a passion for the sport that goes beyond competing. Im sure after he is done running professionally, he will remain involved in the sport for a long time. Here is a video from over a year ago where he touches on some similar things.

http://www.kimbia.net/2008/06/24/teg-talks-marketing-the-sport/

I agree my buddy Tegenkamp track & field is not all about sprinting event there are people that want to see the distance events and covering the distance like NBC didsays to there country men and distance fans we don't care about track as much as we should. It is not all about Bolt because distance running has made bigger strides than sprinting events did in this Wolrd Track & Field Championships. World Championships this years was distance event/running year and not sprinting event/running year.

NBC did one of the overall worst jobs of covering the event I have ever seen. They use commentators who dont have a clue what they are talking about and make themselves look foolish. When foreign broadcasting stations show more interest in our distance runners than our own NBC does, there is a serious problem. I realize that Bolt did some great things in Berlin this year but.... IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT THE SPRINTS!!! Our distance runners ran great and they deserve more respect than they got.

I'm officially a new fan for Teg. To vocalize his (valid) frustrations with American media in an era where folks hang onto PC jargon is very honorable. Go get em!

Regarding NBC versus Eurosport: Matt, I totally agree. NBC focuses on the negative, on hype, doesn't show respect for U.S. athletes placing well, ignores foreign athletes and dumbs everything down. I watched both Universal and NBC: the universal and Eurosport feeds were excellent on the distance events and the absolutely were taking note of the clear renaissance that is taking place in U.S. distance running for both men and women.

Matt, congratulations to you, Lagat and Salinsky on getting 3 U.S. men in the final and fighting all the way. You guys are showing you are there with the best of the world. You are putting U.S. distance running back on the map, big time. Well done.

Eurosport is awesome. All season long I've watched the circuit on Universal sports and they are awesome. They know everyone in the race and (including the Americans) talk about everyone equally. I watched the 5k solinski finished third in and the one Teg ran a 13:07 and the commentators were stoked to talk about the Americans. They even went as far as to say last week that the U.S. is having a reniasanc (?) in distance running and are deeper then ever. I think they just want somebody to compete with the Africans and will cover anyone who does. Universal sports is Awesome!

Do you work for NBC? I nor any of my distance friends have 1 good thing to say about their coverage or that of VS. It was horrible and as a fan it made me feel like turning of the TV at times.

Let FloTrak cover it!!

shouldnt of side tracked him mark he was on a role, move over logan TEG for prez

Lewis Johnson doing color for the women's marathon? you must be kidding. Teg's right, Eurosport is far more engaging and informed.

i gotta be honest, i wasn't disappointed with NBC's coverage at all. looking back at all of the events that they were trying to cover in a two hour time slot, there wasn't much more they could do in terms of the event-to-event coverage. and as far as "not focusing on American athletes," i didn't feel this way and wasn't upset about it at all. it never really crossed my mind, actually. their commentating proved that they are fans of good track & field competition and i'm just happy we got to watch any of the footage at all

NBC sucks.

Matt you are right on about the coverage. Keep on doing your thing.

Definitely not.

whiner - NBC did a good job

NBC actually showed more distance races than ever before. The problem is they had NO IDEA what was going on. Lord have mercy, bring Frank Shorter back to commentate if you have to, but get SOMEBODY with some expertise. When Dwight Stones has the most insightful comments during a distance race, you know there's a problem. Great job Matt and way to tell it like it is!

Matt, I am still proud of you, Chris, and Bernard. You guys looked great and really worked hard. I agree. I feel that we are slowly working our way up to distance running... Great Job today overall...

Pre would be proud of your comments Matt!

great job

completely agree with the NBC comments. Flotrack is doing a great thing for American track, field, and cross country. i think some of our national stations should take notice...

One of my favorite guys: Matt Tegenkamp. A class act, can't wait for this guy to medal.

Some of you guys are saying that by making it slow, they handed the race to Bekele. This is not true at all. Slow is the only possible way to beat Bekele. The amazing part is that he can also win it in a slow race. Do you really think anyone would be able to out kick Bekele if it was going at 12:50 pace?

Bekele is the greatest ever.

What was different about the 2007 competition that allowed Tegenkamp to finish 4th when he was "light years" behind where he is now? I struggle with that thought when I hear everyone talk about how far US distance has advanced in the last two years. Great accomplishments as of late, but I don't know that the big jump that we have been led to expect will ever come. Perhaps it will take a guy like Derrick or Fernandez.

Bekele was uncomfortable in front? Yeah he must be very uncomfortable, with another gold medal.

Seriously, Bekele played everyone like a fiddle. he dictated the pace, speeding up and slowing down, that accellerated with an accordian effect through the field.
Teg has no conception of what happened, and thinks he ran a good race.

Great effort, Matt ! I concur on your feelings with NBC to show more distance racing and focus on the Americans.

He is so true about NBC needing to show more distance. Let's be honest, who is actually watching this stuff? Sprinters? no for the most part they are football players who happen to sprint nad could care less for now. No distance running nerds like myself are the ones watching this and so the distance races need to be a priority and they also need to show the mens marathon too that was crap.

Great job Matt!

thinking the same thing. im not worried about the kick i have a world class kick, haha stfu

What happened to, "I can kick with anyone in the world, I wish Bernard was here to race." He said that at US champs this year. Today the race was handed to him for a perefect "kickers" race. He was in pefect postion out of trouble entire race so he has no excuse and he got dropped by 3 seconds on the last lap. That is a huge margin to lose by in a "kickers" race by a "kicker"

BTW Bernard also doubled the 1500 with only 2 day recovery

Matt's a great guy and I agree with much of what he says but unlike some of the commenters were, I wouldn't get too adulatory about the British announcers. They're less intrusive than the U.S. ones, but they routinely misidentify athletes.

In reality:
USA - 8th, 12th
Kenya - 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 9th, 13th

Personally I wanted to punch Tom Hammond and Carol Lewis in the face when they said

Tom:. ..."and it's an American Record! ( then he says Mottram's time)
Carol: (About to talk about Mottram): Well...
Tom(interrupting and with barely any enthusiasm): "and Matt Tegankamp of Madison, Wisconsin has set the American Record.
Carol: Well Mottram is SO tall...
I respect Mottram as a great athlete, but c'mon NBC! Lets just practically ignore a 4 second demolition of the old record by Matt!

They could prep better but I bet they know Lagat ... because he's competitive on the international level.

Yeah, the British announcers even mentioned Evan Jager in the semi-finals of the 5k. American announcers don't even know the names of their own athletes.

Also, one of my personal favorite NBC quotes of Worlds:
After Bolt's 100: "That is the fastest that anyone has ever run on this planet or any other that we know of!" ...What?!

I say, that people comment on NBC's article covering the final day: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32427227/ns/sports-other_sports/

Great interview. This needs to be sent to some NBC execs and tell them to get on the ball.

NBC's coverage was a travesty--the British announcers at Universal Sports were great, and they certainly knew the American runners and gave them their due.

I'm so glad to hear this FROM an elite athlete. I definitely remember that 2 mile he's talking about. They wouldn't shut up about Mottram, and they realized well after the race, after having not focused one camera on Tegenkamp that he had broken (actually, crushed) the American record.

Great run though today Matt. I, along with tons of other fans, knew you'd be up there today. So good to see. We appreciate it.

its nice to see that not only the fans of distance running are upset by NBC's terrible coverage of the sport. the fact that athletes like Matt really want a change is definately going to help bring that about.

USA--2nd, 8th, 12th
Kenya--5th, 9th, 13th

Amen