Coaching Athletics by Fortius Media

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Winter 2013, Vol. 8 No. 8

Featuring Ed Torres 9 2013 Caps Decade of Turnaround for American middle distance running 12 In praise of Jerry Schumacher

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By Roy Stevenson

Sponsored by Skechers Performance Division skechersperformance.com • Facebook: @SkechersPerformance • Twitter: @skechersGO Instagram: @SkechersPerformance

Whenever the world’s elite marathoners toe the start line alongside popular U.S. runner Meb Keflezighi, they know they’re in for an honest race. In fact, the Skechers Performance sponsored Keflizighi brings new meaning to the word ‘consistent’, with a remarkably homogenous series of marathon times. Consider Meb’s seasons best times since he took up the 26-miler in 2002: 2:12:35 (2002); 2:10:03 (2003); 2:09:53 (2004); 2:09:56 (2005); 2:09:56 (2006); 2:15:09 (2007); 2:09:29 (2009); 2:09:15 (2010); 2:09:13 (2011); 2:09:08 (2012). There are Kenyans who’d give up their racing flats for this staggering string of times! Some distance runners are known for their fast times and their inability to win or place in the “big show”, but Meb proves you can do both and do them well. His performances—starting with Athens Olympic Silver and NYC runner-up in 2004—and followed by none-too-shabby 3rd (NYC, 2005); 3rd (Boston, 2006); 1st (NYC & US Champs, 2009); 5th (Boston, 2010) and 6th (NYC, 2010); 6th (NYC, (2011); 1st (Olympic Trials, 2012) and 4th (London Olympic Games, 2012) indicate that Meb is always a force to be reckoned with. Not bad performances for one of a family of eleven children, who emigrated to the USA from Eritrea to escape war and pursue an education. Now living in San Diego, California, Meb has returned to his hometown but still plans on going back to Mammoth, California for altitude training. Meb continues to cruise through workouts that would cripple most young runners and looks to continue to "Run To Win" to his last race....whenever that may be. Skechers Performance Division signed another endorsement contract in 2012 with Meb. Relatively new to the running shoe mar-

ket, Skechers Performance is primarily known for their innovative and unusual curved sole that encourages mid-foot strike, versus the standard heel strike. Meb’s NYC victory in 2009 made him the first American to win in 27 years (he was sworn in as a US Citizen in 1998) and now that he has a taste for winning the NYC marathon, he’s eager to repeat his victory. With 2012 Olympic Champion and 2013 World Champion, Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich, committed to running this year’s NYC Marathon, plus super-stars like Boston and NYC record holder Geoffrey Mutai, Chicago runner-up Wesley Korir, and American Ryan Hall, Meb’s going to have to work hard to outpace these guys. One consistent rule about marathons is that anything can go wrong at any time, even to the favorites. This year, Meb, who had fallen very hard in early August training run, and missed five weeks of training, had a tough race. “This year, the race was not about me, it was about the sport,” noted a tearful Meb Keflezighi just after his race on November 3, 2013. Meb has fallen very hard in early August, missing five weeks of training. Meb showed what he was made of this year, staying with the leaders through the halfway. “When they took off, I just could not keep up the pace, but I was not going to quit. I had to finish this year.” And finish he did, in twenty-third position, after experiencing some of what most marathoners feel in marathons, both good and bad. “I know that there is another personal best in my legs," Meb noted right after the race. Anyone who watches Meb, knows that he will line up once again, and run his best, in his SKECHERS GoRun 2s.

et run.n Photo

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quarterly

COACHING AT H L E T I C S I met Jerry Schumacher when he was the cross country and distance track coach at the University of Wisconsin. Jerry was, and is, a devoted coach, who takes the time to explain his thoughts and and recommendations for improvement to his athletes. Schumacher's athletes are as devoted to him as he is to them. I would see Schumacher at the Stanford Invitational each year and at many other meets. In 1999, during a series of clinics that we sponsored with the late Arthur Lydiard, I spent an evening with Schumacher and our mutual friend, Joe Hanson. Conversing ove a couple of beers with Lydiard, Schumacher and Hanson made for a memorable evening. Schumacher's life changed dramatically when he became a coach for the Nike Elite Oregon Track Club. He resigned from his job as a coach at the UW and moved to Portland to train some of the best American distance runners. He now coaches athletes in the elite Nike Oregon Track Club: from AR holder Evan Jager in the steeplechase, to Osaka fourth-placer Matt Tegenkamp, to former AR 10,000m record holder Chris Solinsky. In 2012, Jerry added the outstanding long-distance runners Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan. Schumacher is one of the most positive people I know. His enthusiasm is infectious. He does not, however, tell his athletes how to do things. He gives them information and develops programs, and his athletes have to make decisions— they have to commit. is year Jager took ﬁfth in the World Championships steeplechase, the best performance by an American steeplechaser in nearly two decades. Jager ran a 13:02 in Brussels in a longer distance, the 5,000 meters. en, Jerry and I caught up, as we always do, at an event. is time, it was the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, as his athlete, Matt Tegenkamp was running his debut marathon. We look forward to seeing Jerry Schumacher and his athletes in 2014, and know that, as they train for 2014, the roads and the track will see some fine performances from the Nike OTC.

Larry Eder

Vol. 8 No. 8 Alex Larsen

Publisher’s Note

Group Publisher Larry Eder larry@runningnetwork.com 920.563.5551, ext. 112 Group Editor Christine Johnson christinej.ssm@gmail.com 608.239.3787 Advertising Larry Eder larry@runningnetwork.com 608.239.3785 Writers/Contributors David Monti Mark Winitz Photographers IAAF Photorun.NET Alex Larsen Layout/Design, Art Production Alex Larsen

Coaching Athletics Quarterly is produced, published and owned by Shooting Star Media, Inc., PO Box 801, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538-0801. Publisher assumes no liability for matter printed, and assumes no liability or responsibility for content of paid advertising and reserves the right to reject paid advertising. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Publisher.

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Copyright ©2014 by Shooting Star Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form without written permission of the Publisher. Coaching Athletics Quarterly is not related to or endorsed by any other entity or corporation with a similar name and is solely owned by Shooting Star Media, Inc.

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Editor Larry Eder

Phone 608.239.3785 Publisher recommends, as with all fitness and health issues, you consult with your physician before instituting any changes in your fitness program.

Fax 920.563.7298

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U S A T F Prepares for New Heigh s

By Mark Winitz

DYNAMIC OLYMPIAD

Edwardo Torres (who also goes by Ed) was elected to a four-year term as chair of USA Track & Field’s Men’s Long Distance Running Committee in 2012, succeeding Glenn Latimer. Torres had previously served as an athlete representative on the USATF Men’s LDR Executive Committee since 2008. Torres grew up in Illinois and is the twin brother of Jorge Torres, a 2008 U.S. Olympian at 10,000 meters. Edwardo had an outstanding athletic career at the University of Colorado where he was a six-time All-American (cross country and track) and helped the Buffaloes win their first NCAA team title in 2002. He represented the U.S. on three senior men’s squads at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships (2003, 2008, 2009) and on the U.S. marathon squad at the 2009 IAAF World Track & Field Championships in Berlin. Now retired from racing, Torres owns personal records of 13:57.91 (5000m), 28:17.87 (10,000m) and 2:17:54 (marathon). Edwardo and Jorge own and operate PR Medal Engravers, based in Chicago and Boulder, which supplies on-site medal engraving services for running events and triathlons. We interviewed Edwardo on two occasions for this article: in mid-December 2012 (just after he was elected as USATF’s MLDR chair) and again last May. Mark Winitz: What are your top three goals and priorities for LDR during the next four years? Edwardo Torres: Glenn [Latimer] did a heck of a job for the sport of long distance running. I just want to keep the ball rolling over

the next four years. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done, but if we can get one or two key [programs and initiatives] into play, it will be a great help. One of my priorities is to get U.S. men on the Olympic marathon podium in 2016 in Rio. I think the key to that for any athlete is having excellent coaching and the financial resources to live on while pursuing the demands of the marathon. What can USATF do to facilitate these things? We can only try to make the connection for the athletes and agents and educate them: Let them know what it means to take the big money up front [from a sponsor] and [to get] performance cuts if you don’t perform. A lot of these athletes don’t realize that it’s a cutthroat business out there. Money just doesn’t come to them like water flowing in a river. So we need to make sure our athletes know what their agents should be asking of sponsors to protect themselves over a long-term commitment, not for just a one- or two-year deal. Let’s face it, distance runners get hurt. You might have to take a year off, and that’s usually when you get the ax from your sponsor. So we can help agents and athletes with the basics of negotiating a long-term relationship with a sponsor, as opposed to a one-chance-and-you’re-done type deal. If we offered, say, a class at the annual meeting for rookie distance runners just out of college about how to negotiate a sponsor contract, I think they might attend. Maybe they might want to wait and attend the class before signing a contract. This is relevant education for athletes in many disciplines, not just distance runners. These are selfemployed people, and they need to know

PhotoRun.net

Edwardo Torres Discusses USATF’s Men’s Long Distance Running

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how to run their own business. Will this, alone, get our athletes on the Olympic marathon podium? No. It’s a challenging task. But if I can implement just one significant thing in this respect before my four-year term as men’s LDR chair is over, I’ll be happy. MW: Give me two other significant things you’d like to accomplish, priority areas. ET: I want to get more of our top performers from the past involved in mentoring our young, talented athletes. This may be through coaching, educating athletes about the challenges of getting to the top and how to tackle them, etc. I aim to encourage our top alumni to give some of our current athletes a call occasionally and give them a little advice. Help them make the correct decisions. My third goal is to offer more competitive opportunities for distance runners. I’d like to have more U.S. road championships so athletes have a variety to pick and choose from. In particular, I’d like to add a 4- to 7mile distance race to the USA Running Circuit/Championship series in the late summer time frame. This would give athletes gearing up for a fall marathon a break in their marathon training and a low-pressure race where they could possibly make a little extra [prize] money. Also, it would offer a road racing opportunity for our 5K and 10K athletes who are finishing up their track seasons and are still in good shape. Also, we want to start looking for new championship locations. In particular, I’d like to see a championship on the West Coast. Many of our best athletes train there. Let’s give them some championship opportunities closer to home. MW: How about our USA Distance [training] Centers? Have you set priorities there for the next four years? ET: There are a lot of good, young athletes right now who have the same kind of potential as Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein and Meb Keflezighi. They have the fire and the tools to become world-class athletes. We need to provide them with a structure: competitive clubs to train with and favorable training locales. There’s no reason that we can’t continue to have marathoners go under 2:10 and win medals at major championships. We have guys like Jason Hartmann getting fourth at the Boston Marathon [Ed: Two years in a row, 2012 and 2013]. This is just a taste of what we’ll be seeing over the next 10CA

eight years. We want to continue to support training groups that will provide us with Olympic athletes. We’d like to see our LDR championship events partner with us to help support these training groups. Training by yourself every day is impossible. I was part of a training group [Boulder Performance Group] that helped my brother make the 2008 Olympic team. It’s important to have a structure around you, athletes who put in a good effort every day regardless of how they feel. MW: Of course, you and Jorge had the benefit of training under the guidance of [former marathon world record holder] Steve Jones. How can we better involve coaches in USATF affairs and work with them to help identify our stars of the future and work with them? ET: That’s a good question. It’s an area I want to investigate. Running under Steve, we had a great respect for his running accomplishments. We listened closely to him. The big thing I learned from Steve is that it takes a very dedicated commitment to become a top athlete. The only way you can do that is by surrounding yourself with strong leaders who have strong developmental skills and a supportive training environment. But coaches are only one part of the matrix. Proper physical therapy, for example, is also very important. We need to find a way for athletes who have the abilities to perform well for the U.S. in big races to easily access these kinds of services. MW: What are your three biggest challenges in respect to USATF LDR during the next four years and how will you address them? ET: I mentioned a goal of having our top alumni distance runners from the past serve as mentors for our young up-and-comers. Getting these alumni involved in USATF affairs is a challenge in itself. Many of them have moved on with their lives. Another challenge is getting race directors to commit to hosting USA road championships. The requirements in our championship contracts can get quite pricy on their end—prize money, drug testing, hosting elites, that kind of thing. If we can bring in previous and current race directors who have hosted championships and have them share the benefits of hosting a championship, we might be able to offset some

of these barriers. For example, have them share he [feeling of] local community pride, teamwork and sense of accomplishment that come with hosting a U.S. championship. Right now, I’m focusing on these two challenges. Of course, others will probably be brought to my attention as I get my feet wet in the men’s LDR chair position. MW: Based on your experience as an elite athlete, and working as a volunteer on USATF’s Men’s LDR Executive Committee, where has USATF been lacking in respect to LDR in the past, and what can we do about these areas? ET: I think in the past there’s been this belief among many USATF factions that we could get a large percentage of our business done at our annual meetings of the organization. Max Siegel [USATF CEO] and Stephanie Hightower [USATF president] have figured out that you can’t just have an annual meeting and expect everything to be corrected there. In fact, last April the LDR Committee chairs and Jon Drummond [USATF Athlete’s Advisory Committee chair] were brought to USATF’s national office in Indianapolis where we met with the organization’s hired administrators. It was a good forum for us to tackle various issues—to hear about the high administration’s projects on the table for the next four years and talk about how we can work together on them. And now I have a clearer knowledge about who specifically to contact in the national office about specific concerns or questions. MW: From your point of view, what are the biggest strengths of long distance running in the U.S.? How can USATF capitalize on these strengths to improve the sport as a whole? ET: Obviously the volume of distance races, and the number of participants in these

races, is huge. Our strength is the huge number of runners who love the sport. Our job as an athletic federation is to reach out to these masses in ways that promote the sport, its physical benefits and the sense of accomplishment and confidence that people get from running. In particular, our elite athletes are perfect for communicating these benefits. For example, when recreational runners meet and interact with elite runners at race expos [Ed: Or USATF-organized forums], it often inspires [recreational runners] to set their own goals and achieve them. This, in turn, inspires others and helps keep our sport vital and growing. MW: What additional things can USATF be doing that we’re not doing now to help young, talented long distance runners bridge from collegiate athletes to the professional ranks? ET: In college, athletes have the benefit of a coach and a team to help motivate them. The coach tells the whole team to go out and do 10 miles, and they do it. You get into the routine. When you’re out there by yourself, it’s largely self motivation. You need to fire up yourself. No one can teach that. It needs to come from within. The only thing USATF can do is to help the athlete be less stressed out by the essential things on a professional runner’s plate—things like effectively dealing with the business end of the sport, which I’ve already touched upon. We can give them guidance about where to find a good coach if they aren’t planning on staying with their current coach. We also have an excellent network of LDR training centers that athletes can hook into if they have the talent. In fact, good athletes just out of college are now being recruited by these groups, which wasn’t the case a few years ago.

MARK WINITZ is a longtime writer for American Track & Field. He sits on USATF’s national Men’s Long Distance Running executive committee and the Law & Legislation committee. He also sits on Pacific Association/USATF’s board of athletics and is a certified USATF master level official/referee.

Tom O’Connor

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2013

CAPS Decade-Long Turnaround for USA Middle Distance Running By David Monti

December 31 – Att the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris, the United States put in a dismal performance in the middle distance events. With the Stade de France packed to capacity for nearly every session (the French were hoping to get the 2012 Olympics), not a single American athlete—male or female—made the finals of the 800m or 1500m. Indeed, the best performance was a sixth place in the 800m semifinals by David Krummenacker. Moreover, only a handful of USA athletes ran fast times that year by global standards. During the outdoor season, only six American women managed to break 4:10 in the 1500m, according to the statistics website Tilastopaja.org, and a paltry six USA men broke 3:40 for the same distance. Not a single American runner was ranked in the top-10 by Track & Field News that year for either 800m or 1500m. It was a dark time for American running. “I do remember,” said 2011 world 1500m champion Jenny Simpson during a telephone interview. “Juli [Benson, her coach at the time] sat me down. We pulled up YouTube and were watching old world championships footage. It was not lost on me that there were no Americans, no Americans in the race, never mind contending for medals.” 10 YEARS LATER, A TOTAL TURNAROUND During the last 10 years, a remarkable comeback has taken place for American middle distance running. e United States is again one of the best middle distance nations on earth. At last summer’s IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Team USA won four medals in the 800m and 1500m (Nick Symmonds, 800m, silver; Simpson, 1500m, silver; Matthew Centrowitz, 1500m, silver; Brenda Martinez, 800m, bronze), the first time any nation has achieved four medals in those disciplines in a single world championships. e Americans advanced eight athletes to the four finals, and 12 athletes in the semifinals. e entire USA women’s 800m team made the final. But the world championships performances represented only the tip of a very large and growing iceberg. In terms of depth of performances, team USA was #1 in 2013 in the middle distances. A whopping 41 American men broke 3:40 during the 2013 outdoor season, seven times the number in 2003, and the most of any country in the world this year (Kenya was second with 27). In the same discipline, 23 American 12CA

women broke 4:10 this season, the same as the next two countries combined (Russia, 12 and Kenya, 11). In the 800m, American men were #2 in the world with 20 athletes sub-1:47 (Kenya was #1 with 30), and American women were #1 in sub-2:02 800m performers with 17, just edging Russia by one athlete. A CHANGED MINDSET While there were several contributing factors to the turnaround, a changed mindset was perhaps the first to come into play. American athletes began to see that they could be successful again, especially given that drug testing had now become much more widespread. “People were cheating and getting away with it, so you’re not going to devote your life to it,” observed former world #1-ranked miler and television commentator Marty Liquori in a telephone interview with Race Results Weekly. “When you see people getting caught, you see a level playing field and you work a little harder.” Frank Gagliano, the veteran coach who now trains athletes at the NJ-NY Track Club agreed. “It’s not equal, but it’s nearly equal,” he said in a telephone interview. Alan Webb, America’s best homegrown miler since Steve Scott, can be credited with beginning the renaissance. In 2001, Webb broke Jim Ryun’s longstanding USA high school mile record, running 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Classic (he also ran a high school record 3:59.86 indoors earlier that year). After a brief and unsuccessful NCAA career at the University of Michigan, Webb was the lone global player in American 1500m running before Bernard Lagat began to run for the United States in 2005. Webb broke 3:33 during both the 2004 and 2005 seasons, then clocked 3:30.54 in 2007 in Paris, the same year he broke Scott’s American record in the mile, clocking 3:46.91. ose performances got the attention of a then-obscure NCAA Division III half-miler named Nick Symmonds who competed for Willamette University in Salem, OR. “e first is seeing other Americans perform so well at a high level,” observed Symmonds. He continued in an email: “I think the first example of this is what Alan Webb was able to do in the mid to 2000s. I still remember watching him run 3:30 for the win at the Paris GP in 2007 and thinking that he and I were built kind of similarly, and that if he could take on the world’s best, then so could I.”

is year’s medal haul came after other significant accomplishments in the late aughts. In 2009, Shannon Rowbury and Bernard Lagat won bronze medals at the World Championships in the 1500m. In 2011, Morgan Uceny won the IAAF Diamond League 1500m title, Simpson won the world 1500m title, and Centrowitz won the World Championships bronze medal at the same distance. In 2012, the American middle distance crew had a strong Olympics: Leo Manzano won the Olympic 1500m silver medal, while Centrowitz finished fourth; Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in an 800m final, where David Rudisha broke the world record; Alysia Montano finished fifth in the 800m; and Rowbury finished sixth in the 1500m. (Galen Rupp, who ran 3:34.75 for the 1500m during the 2012 season, got the silver medal at 10,000m). TRAINING GROUPS TOOK HOLD Webb was coached by his high school coach, Scott Raczko, and trained on his own in Reston, Va. But national success would remain elusive until the formation of well-funded training groups led by highly qualified coaches. Nike played a central role in funding the groups that remain dominant today. ese include two training groups based at their Beaverton, OR headquarters: the Oregon Project, coached by three-time New York City Marathon champion Alberto Salazar, and a second group coached by former University of Wisconsin coach Jerry Schumacher. Symmonds belongs to the third important Nike group, the Oregon Track Club Elite, an integrated track team with a middledistance focus, which is based in Eugene, OR. “I can say with confidence that I could not have been able to accomplish all that I have without the Oregon Track Club Elite and the wisdom of Mark Rowland,” Symmonds said, naming his Oregon Track Club Elite coach. “I have a feeling Matt Centrowitz would say the same thing about the Oregon Project and coach Salazar.” Other groups with more of a longer distance focus also sprang up, with funding help from the New York Road Runners (NYRR), the organizers of the TCS New York City Marathon. NYRR president and CEO Mary Wittenberg found a way to fund USA training groups by selling special, high-priced marathon entries. Her organization provided regular funding to groups like the Mammoth

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Track Club (Mammoth Lakes, CA), New Jersey-New York Track Club (New Brunswick, NJ), Team USA Minnesota (Minneapolis, Bay Area Track Club (San Francisco), Team USA Arizona (Flagstaff, AZ), ZapFitness (Blowing Rock, NC), and the Austin Track Club (Austin, TX). Another important group, the HansonsBrooks Original Distance Project (Rochester Hills, MH), was funded by independent running store owners, Kevin and Keith Hanson, and the Brooks running shoe and apparel company. Over time, the USA had its own kind of club system with a mix of for-profit and not-forprofit financial support. “I’ve been thinking about this for years,” coach Gagliano said in a telephone interview. “e club system has blossomed. All the clubs in the country, every one are developing athletes, men and women, giving post-collegiate athletes a chance to continue their careers. ey didn’t leave the sport after college. e post-college system is fantastic now.” Joe Vigil, who coached Brenda Martinez to her bronze medal performance at last summer’s World Championships, agreed. He also cited the Olympic marathon medals by Meb Keflezighi (silver) and Deena Drossin (bronze) in 2004 as helping to light the fire under American runners. Both athletes were part of the Mammoth Track Club, the first of the New York Road Runners–funded groups, where coaching came from Vigil, Bob Larsen and Terrence Mahon. “With the success of Deena and Meb medaling, other athletes came to the realization that it was possible,” Vigil wrote in an email to Race Results Weekly. “Consequently, their confidence levels rose and they began to believe that it was possible. ey found out that East Africans could be beat.” Simpson agreed, saying that Drossin—now Kastor—was a major inspiration for her. “When I was in high school I had someone like Deena; I got to watch her.” She added: “I think she gave me the first tiny little peek [at] what commitment level was required to be at that level. I think this was important for young distance runners to succeed at this sport.” MORE NATIONAL COMPETITIONS, IMPROVED NCAA COACHING ALSO HELPED e establishment of special middle and long distance meets where athletes could run in good climates and achieve fast times has also played a role, coaches said. In particular, the distance meets at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) in Walnut, CA, Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, and Occidental College in Los Angeles had a big impact. “In the United States, I felt that when Mt. SAC began to run their meets in the 90s and 2000s, I think that was a tremendous thing that got us jump-started,” observed coach Gagliano. “Another thing is when Vin ]Lananna, the former Stanford coach] went to Stanford and had

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those meets, those Stanford meets in the evening,” he continued, “at really helped the men and women in this country see how fast they could run. ey were jammed, people all around the track.” Indeed, the USATF High Performance Meet at Occidental College last May in Los Angeles saw 18 men break 1:50 for 800m, and 32 men break 3:40 for 1500m in a single day across multiple heats. Collegiate coaches, training both collegiate and post-collegiate athletes, also played a key role. Coaches like Andy and Marica Powell (University of Oregon), James Li (University of Arizona), Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs (University of Colorado) and Ray Treacy (Providence College) have made a big impact but in the NCAA ranks, but also by continuing to coach athletes after they left the university system, and allowing post-collegiate athletes to use university facilities. ose coaches are also better trained than their predecessors, according to Vigil. “e USATF coaching education programs are reaching a greater number of coaches and bringing [them] together together on a professional level,” observed Vigil. ey are learning proper physiological, psychological and periodization concepts to apply to their athletes. is Podium Education Project (PEP) has been invaluable.” HARD TO MEASURE, BUT WIDESPREAD DRUG TESTING MADE AN IMPACT e exact role of drug testing on the rise of American athletes is hard to know with any certainty. However, for an athlete like Symmonds, who did not compete at the global level in the early 2000s, the playing field feels level enough that the potential use of performance-enhancing drugs by his rivals [is] neither a distraction nor a disincentive for him to train hard. “For me personally, I’ve never really worried about it,” Symmonds said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s fairly level. When I stepped on the track for the final at Worlds this year, I was 90% confident that everyone in the race was clean.” Simpson said she was a bit more skeptical, but pointed out that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had made significant progress in catching drug cheats, especially with the introduction of the biological passport program, which tracks changes in blood chemistry over time. She said that she couldn’t “help but let it be a little bit personal” when those who break the rules are brazen enough to take to the track and challenge her. “I don’t think that 100% of my races will be against clean people,” she said. She continued, “My job is to wake up every day optimistic and train hard for the races I signed up for this year. It’s WADA’s job to catch the cheaters. e only thing I can do is have faith that they are getting better at it every year. at isn’t my job.”

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