Eugene, Oregon aka Track Town, USA and the storied oval of Hayward Field will be host to the 2008 USA Track and Field Trials beginning today. The 2008 Beijing hopefuls will strive to hear the crescendo of encouragement and the applause of admiration bestowed upon them for a race run well and/or a field event effort worthy of kudos from the track and field savvy crowd assembled in the famed grandstand of the track that Pre and Bill built.
After a 28 year hiatus, the track and field trials have returned to a neo-nostalgically improved Hayward Field. In a recent article, for the New York Times, John Brant wrote, “Hayward Field, often referred to as the Carnegie Hall of American track and field, has undergone an $8 million facelift, with expanded seating (now 16,000, up from 10,500), new lighting, and a high-tech scoreboard. Though the ubiquitous Nike swoosh is emblazoned on the upper right-hand corner of the scoreboard, next to the words “Historic Hayward Field,” the stadium doesn’t seem to have sacrificed too much of its intimate retro charm. BLOGNOTE: My old boss at the Swoosh aka Nike, Tinker Hatfield the designer of the sneaks donned by MJ, helped with a great deal of the design efforts that will be on national display this weekend.

The Favs for the trials: JeremyWarinerAllysonFelixKhadevisRobinsonSanyaRichardsAlanWebbAlysiaJohnson
BernardLagatTreniereClementAbdiAbdirahmanLaurenFleshmanTerrenceTrammell
KaraGoucherKerronClementJenniferBarringerDwightPhillipsLolJonesJesseWilliams
TiffanyRossWilliamsBradWalkerAmyAcuffReeseHoffaEricaMcCainBreauxGreer
JennStuczynskiA.G.KrugerKristinHeastonTomPappasSuzyPowell-RossJoshuaMcAdams
BrittneyRileyAarikWilsonDanaPoundsMichaelRobertsonJacquelynJohnson.

The above list of “favorites” is shared in a seamless sentence to symbolize the intention sought by the team officials by the end of the trials – the USA will be able to assemble a “true” team that will compete with the intention of only presenting their personal best in the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing. Like the first Olympians these athletes will aspire to display their Arête. According to Greek Olympic lore, there is no higher honor than this effort by a male or female competitor – Arête.

Such flowery words about passion and commitment may sound a bit like a romance novel filled with fanciful notions and unrealistic scenarios and relationships but, I think the idea of Arête is what the Olympic spirit embodies. Like so many romance tales, the idea of the Olympic spirit is a truly beautiful notion filled with wonderful ideas but, it’s also highly unlikely to be practiced in its truest intention (feel free to review all the track and field stories of cheating, doping, and scandal that filled the media so far this year!)

Last week I ran across an article in the New York Times that made me feel like the Olympic spirit isn’t completely dead and could possibly be resuscitated with the assistance of moments like the one in New Bern, NC. A best-selling romance novel author has created an unexpected relationship between him and his love of track and field and the fleet-of-foot but socio-economically challenged young people in his community. This is a beautiful and real example of how shared passion, purpose and commitment can be a powerful catalyst in someone’s life.

The author, Nicholas Sparks, built a $1 million facility for the New Bern Bears (NC) and his unconditional act has formed a power team that has won the last five out of six state track indoor and outdoor titles. Sparks is a former runner and he is a father of a son who is an aspiring runner. His son happened to befriend some classmates that needed some direction in life and track has some really easy directions to follow – run fast, go straight and turn left! Sparks’ son and his classmates took directions well and the result has been an opportunity that may not have been presented to some of the at-risk students on the team. If not for that BIG, loving investment, the thought of college life would never have been entertained or courted by students who had the belief that higher education was out of the question.

I can remember my track days in junior high and high school and I gotta tell you that to this day, reading this story and knowing that the trials are this week, made my stomach knot up just like it always did before a race. I could instantly conjure up an familiar image of staring at my starting blocks, see the chalk lines and hearing the crunching of cinders under my track shoes and hearing the idiosyncrasies of the other runners “readying” their mind and body for the starter’s gun. All of these memories are indelibly etched into the pit of my stomach. I would always wretch forward, and bend over ever-so-slightly with just the thought of racing. I have so much empathy for track athletes that I still can feel my belly tighten as I watch an athlete prepare for his or her moment in a track and/or field event. BLOGNOTE: those subtle physiological changes that I experienced in my track days are so deeply embedded in me that I can feel a bit of that old anxiousness stirring as I write this post!

All athletes can surely understand what I’m talking about – right?! Enjoy the read in the NYT and hopefully you will be inspired by the power of sport once again!
BLOGNOTE: Bill Bowerman’s definition of an athlete is – if you have a body, you ARE an athlete!


Be sure to tune-in to the trials starting June 27th and ending July 6th.