{"id":76687,"date":"2021-11-24T18:48:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T02:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?post_type=article&p=76687"},"modified":"2021-11-24T18:48:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T02:48:28","slug":"from-the-editor-what-am-i-thankful-for-12-21","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-what-am-i-thankful-for-12-21\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM THE EDITOR \u2014 What Am I Thankful For?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"IT\u2019S THANKSGIVING EVE as I write this. In a year where I\u2019m exceedingly happy for the world as a whole in the sense that we seem to have discovered the way out of the worst of the C19 mess, I have plenty of track specificities to be thankful for:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that the Olympic Games \u2014 and as a precursor, the Olympic Trials \u2014 against all odds managed to be raving successes, even without a full boat of spectators.<\/p>\n

Similarly, I\u2019m thankful at the return of my favorite annual domestic meets, the Prefontaine Classic and the NCAA Championships.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be even happier next year when the Millrose Games returns indoors and the U.S. spring season once again sees the huge relay meets \u2014 Drake, Mt. SAC, Penn & Texas \u2014 in full flower. And more thrilled when every one of the 50 gets to once again stage a full-blown State HS Meet.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m particularly thankful that some eager entrepreneurial types stepped up in \u201921 with the staging of new circuits of U.S. meets: Journey To Gold, Pro Track Series & the American Track League. May Santa stuff their collective stockings with the wherewithal to give it a go again in \u201922.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that in trying times, athletes, just as they always do, found ways to continue to entertain us in trying times.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that I am now faced with the dilemma of voting for our Athletes Of The Year, who will be featured in the next issue.<\/p>\n

How do I separate Ryan Crouser from Karsten Warholm on the men\u2019s side of the AOY ledger? Do a pair of 400H World Records outweigh an absolute shot WR after an indoor one, backed up by an avalanche of barrier-busting puts?<\/p>\n

Yet sorting out the men\u2019s side is going to be easy-peasy compared to the women.<\/p>\n

Sydney McLaughlin had a pair of 400H WRs and Yulimar Rojas claimed the TJ best, but the can\u2019t-be-ignored candidates don\u2019t stop there. How about Sifan Hassan, with 2 Olympic golds (5000\/10,000) and a bronze (1500)? Plus a broken-later 10K WR. And attention must be paid to sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah with a pair of Tokyo golds, the 100 won with the fastest wind\/altitude-adjusted time ever.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m thankful for the continuing emergence of high school talent, particularly the out-of-nowhere Hobbs Kessler, who claimed the national 1500 record. Where do they hide these kids?<\/p>\n

I was also thankful to see the breakout campaigns for two other teenagers, miler Cole Hocker (admittedly a half-year teen) and Athing Mu.<\/p>\n

Mondo Duplantis was only 21 during the season, and even though he produced \u201conly\u201d a single 20-footer this year, I\u2019m thankful that he remains one of the best ambassadors of the sport, his ongoing mastery of one of the most technical of events thrilling crowds the world-round.<\/p>\n

About as far from a kid as you can get on the international scene is Allyson Felix, and I\u2019m thankful that she made her Olympic swan song a medal-winning one.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that the new version of Hayward Field, the subject of so much hoopla during its years of construction, turned out to be everything that one could have hoped for. Here\u2019s hoping that when normalcy returns we\u2019ll discover that the number of seats is just right for staging smaller meets as well as expanded-room affairs like next year\u2019s World Championships.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that after years of foisting the \u201cstudent-athlete\u201d concept on us the NCAA saw that it was going to be on the wrong side of history and ditched a big chunk of its outmoded amateurism stance. I\u2019ll be even more thankful if\/when it\u2019s confirmed that tracksters can actually win money (even if its held in escrow until after the athlete is done with school) at the WC or on the DL Circuit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thankful that WA is well on its way to fulfilling one of Seb Coe\u2019s long-held goals, calendar reform. While I can\u2019t agree with all of its positions (see my April column, Why Does WA Undervalue NCAA Competition?<\/a><\/em>), it\u2019s nice to see so many meets now slotted into logical places in the hierarchy, and for major-meet conflicts to lessen.<\/p>\n

Most of all, of course, I\u2019m thankful that I\u2019m still here at T&FN<\/em>, now completing year No. 52 at my dream job. And I\u2019m thankful that so many of you continue to enjoy our product.<\/p>\n

Pass the turkey! \u25fb\ufe0e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT\u2019S THANKSGIVING EVE as I write this. In a year where I\u2019m exceedingly happy for the world as a whole… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13524,"menu_order":1903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[935],"issuem_issue_categories":[52,31],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-76687","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-december-2021","issuem_issue_categories-departments","issuem_issue_categories-from-the-editor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFROM THE EDITOR \u2014 What Am I Thankful For? - Track & Field News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-what-am-i-thankful-for-12-21\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FROM THE EDITOR \u2014 What Am I Thankful For? - Track & Field News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IT\u2019S THANKSGIVING EVE as I write this. 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