Good story about a sad state of affairs. It's painful to watch the sport's reputation get dragged through the mud, but USATF is doing the right thing.

Track like baseball is all about records, records are everything in these sports. Steroids affect these records and once the records are suspect the sport suffers. I love track it's one of the best spectator sports in the world. I feel sorry for those that dont abuse the sport yet get thrown in with the cheaters.

How can NBC ignore track & field and send it to taped delay? There are still athletes who are honest. I love swimming but I do not want it stuffed down my throat along with gymnastics. I am old school track and field. We trained hard, the result was I was national champion in the 400 meters. Also there are other sporting events at the Olympics. Very sad that NBC is making honest athletes pay for what a group who does not love their sport enough to stay honest. The fans who do love track & field are also made to pay by not seeing the competition on prime time.

Great article! Track and Field has been my life. I received a track & field scholarship, which enabled me to get my Degree. All my children have participated in the sport at the National level as will my 4 year old when he gets of age. Problem! The only athletes I know for sure are clean are my own. It is unfortunate that I have to feel that way about the sport I love, but this is what it has come to. I watched Marion Jones run and play basketball as a Prep athlete at Thousand Oaks and Rio Mesa and believe she would have been just fine not taking drugs (albeit a bit slower). She still could have had fame, but the need to be the best and do what the others were doing put her in a very bad situation. Now look at her! I still love the sport and will watch it every time it is on TV, but I can't help but wonder, who will get busted next.

Thanks,

"Track Lover For Life"

I feel iot to be a total disgrace that NBC is showing track events on tape delay while telecasting live the swwimming and gymnastics events. When was the last time either of these sporting events had 100,00 people in the stands.

Could it be a racial issues?
Track and field has and will continue to be a diversified sport while gymnastics and swimming continue to be mainly white athletes

Racial issues? What nonsense. Does that always have to be brought up? Swimming has always embraced black athletes. But you know what? Swimming is like distance running, not sprinting. You have to put in lots and lots of hard work. Anyone that chooses to be in the water 5 hours a day is welcome.

100,000 people in tbe stands? In this country? When's the last time even 25,000 in the United States watched a track meet? 12 years ago I would guess in 1996. When's the last time there was even enough interest to host a world championships in any running event here?

I'll predict the TV ratings (now we're talking something important) are very comparable for swimming vs. track. US swimmers are a great group of people, do awesome on the world stage, and have kept their sport clean. It's legit. Is what we're seeing in track even real anymore?

I enjoy watching track and cross country, but USATF deserves what it's gotten. Nice job Regina Jacobs. Nice job Marion Jones.

Again Robinson shows his suspicious and skeptical side. His negativism is too much. And as far as friends--does he have any? I didn't think that he could even express that word in his vocabulary--at least I never heard it!

Anonymous, are you saying skepticism is bad? Wow, that is really ignorant. Should we just smile and act like nothing is happening. It is a shame what has happened to Track and Field, but good for them for doing it. Everyone else should too.
What is your solution Anonymous, ignore it and act like everything is fine? Would that make you happier? Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, it still exists. Pull your head out of the sand, the air is great! Go Doug! Go Reality!

EXTRA:
Swimming is no cleaner then track. Swimmers were named in the Balco report as well.

Reality, when, in the "sports" world, you can find ten good humanistic stories for every one that is bad, why should we applaud Robinson for his propensity towards negativism and suspicion. Robinson tends to wear it out.

Why should we even glorify the bad in sports with newsprint? Are sports really that important in the big picture of life, for good or bad?

Looking for the positive doesn't make one naive. Nor does it make him a person that buries his head in the sand.

Instead, it makes him hopeful, which is something that we have way too little of these days.

Hope is being able to call someone a friend even when skepticism and elitism tells us not to. And true friendships are also something that there is way to little of these days.