In a very small corner of U.S. sports fandom, the biggest story last weekend was not the Super Bowl.
It was the performance of a high school runner named Drew Hunter in a mile race Saturday afternoon at the Armory in New York. Hunter clocked 3 minutes, 58.25 seconds, breaking Alan Webb’s 15-year-old U.S. high school indoor mile record by 1.41 seconds.
Read MoreTen random thoughts about things Olympic:
1. No one may be more nervous after Donald Trump’s decisive win in the New Hampshire primary than the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee (and, by extension the U.S. Olympic Committee.)
Can you imagine what having a U.S. president who defamed Mexicans and wants to keep Muslims from entering the country would do to L.A.’s chances in the September 2017 vote for host of the 2024 Summer Games?
Read MoreReports out of China saying that its former distance running sensation, Olympic champion Wang Junxia, had written a letter 21 years ago saying her coach forced her to dope brought me back to the future – and present.
Which is to say, nothing seems to have changed in track and field, as the busts in the past two years of Kenyan marathon champion Rita Jeptoo and Russian marathon champion Liliya Shobukhova and the international federation’s Russia-centered doping corruption scandal make clear.
Read MoreLindsey Vonn is having what may turn out to be the best World Cup season of her career.
And that is saying something for a woman who already has rewritten nearly all the World Cup records.
Read MoreGracie Gold should have an excellent chance at a world medal simply by skating her best in both programs. Ashley Wagner will likely need help (i.e. mistakes) by other skaters to get there, but she also is in contention.
Of course, I said the same thing in reverse last year (Wagner could do it on her own, Gold could do it with help), when the U.S. women’s medal drought at worlds reached nine years.
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Philip Hersh, formerly Olympic specialist for the Chicago Tribune, has covered 20 Olympic Games. He often uses sport as a way to write about the culture of a country or athlete. READ FULL BIO
