You've Come A Long Way, Baby

The other day I Googled my friend, Matt Norminton, to try and find his marathon PB; along with finding his PB, I also found a very interesting article from 2007. The article is from canada.com and is called “Edmonton Marathoner Stuck in Limbo.” The article is mostly about how Matt has dual Canadian/UK citizenship and how he wanted to run for Canada internationally, but Canada made that hard. You see, back in 2007 Canada would take the standards that the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) set as the qualifying times for championship events, and make them harder.

In the article, Athletics Canada head coach at the time was quoted as saying “Our mandate is to take a competitive team. Basically we ask, what is the world level?” He went on to say, “There is no sense to bring people to an Olympic Games that won’t go through round 1. It’s useless. You’re going to destroy them.”

That last quote can’t be any farther from the truth. That totally goes against who athletes at this level of competition are. I can say with great certainty that if you bring someone to a World Championship or Olympic Games and they get their ass kicked; they are going to go home and train harder and with more determination than they ever have!

That’s who athletes are. We don’t crumble in the face of defeat; we rise up and bring ourselves to the next level.

You know what, even if they do crumble, at least you have given them the chance and found out their full potential.

I’d like to take a minute right now to highlight a few things Canada’s performance at the World Championships in Moscow, Russia this summer. This was the first year in a long time that Canada didn’t set the standards any harder than the IAAF standards, and allowed “B” standards to go.

Guess what happened? Highest medal count ever! We won as many medals in Moscow than we did in the previous four Championships combined.

Another thing that is ingrained in us as athletes is we’re going to compete! Put us on the stage, and we’ll perform. If you bring the people that qualify on a “B” standard, they’ll perform. The two best examples I can think of are Geoff Harris at the 2012 London Olympics and Kate Van Buskirk in Moscow this summer.

Geoff qualified for the Olympics on a “B” standard. Actually, he qualified on TWO “B” standards. Canada still had its “Rising Star” rule in 2012. To be a “Rising Star” you had to have never been to a World or Olympic Games before, no one else in your event could have run an “A” standard, you had to run a minimum of two “B” standards, and come top 3 at nationals. So as you can see, they made it really easy.

Geoff hit his first “B” standard relatively early in the season. If Canada went with the guidelines IAAF set out, he could have relaxed a little bit at this point and hope no one ran an “A” standard. Since we had “Rising Star,” he had to go chasing another “B” standard. He almost didn’t get his second “B”, but squeaked it in right near the end of the qualifying period. He then went on to win Nationals, and qualified for the Olympics.

Geoff was ranked 45^th out of 63 men going into the Olympics. Only 27 men make it through the heats and into the semi-final. That means he would need to beat 18 people, that on paper, he shouldn’t be able to beat. He was put on the stage, and he performed. He knew full well where he ranked and that the odds were stacked against him. He knew that only 2 people were ranked behind him in his heat of 9, and that he had to finish in the top three to automatically move on to the semi-finals. Geoff toed the line at the Olympics and ran a new personal best placing 2^nd in his heat and was on to the semis.

Kate is another great example. She had a huge break through year. She started the year with a personal best of 4:11.45; 2.45 seconds slower than the world “B” standard. She ran PB after PB throughout the year and finally ran 4:08.34 on her home turf in Toronto, two weeks before trials. Two women had already run “A” standards; under the old rules, she wouldn’t have been able to qualify for worlds at all. However, this year Athletics Canada decided to drop the “Rising Star”, adopt the rules the IAAF set out, and not make it any harder than it needed to be for athletes to qualify. So all she had to do was go to nationals and be top three and hope that the only two women who beat her were the two with “A” standards. Instead, she just won the meet and punched her ticket to worlds with no questions asked.

She went into Moscow ranked 34^th out of 37 women. The top 6 from each heat in the 1500m automatically qualify for the semi-final, and the next 6 fastest times. She was ranked 11^th of 13 in her heat. She finished 7^th, but still qualified through on time. In the semi-final she performed. She ran a new personal best of 4:07.36. In the end Kate finished 15^th overall. Two women also competed for Canada who had run “A” standards; one finished 14^th and the other 27^th.

Back in 2007, it would have been believed that there would have been no point in bringing Kate or Geoff to these major championships; they would have been destroyed.

Now, I know this is where people are going to say, “But Peter, you’re example athletes didn’t medal. In Moscow, the people who won medals all qualified with “A” standards. This proves that if you want to medal, you need to be capable of an “A” standard.”

Granted, neither Geoff nor Kate medalled; but is that all that matters? Being at championships like the World and Olympic Games has an immeasurable affect on athletes. Not only by gaining championship race experience, but by the opportunities that open up to them as athletes afterwards, regardless of a medal.

The experience competing at major championships provides is absolutely priceless and hugely beneficial for an athletic career. Kate and Geoff weren’t ready to medal this time around, but they gained incredible race experience so when they are ready to medal at a World or Olympic Games, they will have that under their belt and be better prepared.

Not only is the race experience huge for these athletes; competing at major championships also opens a lot of doors in the way of sponsorships, working with world-class agents, and getting into world-class track meets. It also helps in regards to government funding, which allows these athletes to continue to focus solely on athletics and continuing to get better.

As a side note, with the exception of Dylan Armstrong, everyone who did medal in Moscow had previously been to games before, all on "A" standards, and no medals.

I am so glad that Athletics Canada has changed their views since 2007. It’s great that we have people in charge of our governing body that can see the benefit of bringing any and all athletes who qualify to these championships. I believe it will have a huge impact on our sport.