LESAProject

Only days after his shocking 100-meter loss to Tyson Gay in Stockholm's Diamond League meet, Usain Bolt has announced his season is over. Citing lower back problems, Bolt's agent, Ricky Simms announced, "With a view to his future career, we believe further treatment to loosen his back, followed by a period of rest will be in his best interest". Bolt has been generating criticism in the Jamaican press for his poor showing in Stockholm and in a previous narrow win in Paris. The criticism centers around his casual approach to the current "down year" (no global championships in 2010) and his reputed night ...

Like scenes from the next Terminator thriller, the headlines scream a warning of impending revolution: "Runaway SUV Assaults Innocent Sidewalk Shoppers" "Diesel-guzzling Big Rigs Defile Pristine Parkway with Fumes/Noise" "Off-shore Oil Pumping Station Threatens Entire Planet" One would gather from the tone of these typical headlines that the machines of this world are engaged in an organized revolt against humanity. It's not by accident that machines like the ones mentioned above are given a not-so-subtle personification. If we can somehow assign to them an intrinsic willingness to cause harm, can we not then by-pass the real culprits and eliminate the machines? And believe me, there are ...

Why do we torture ourselves this way? After all, when Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay line up in today's 100-meter final in the Stockholm Diamond League meet, isn't the outcome already a foregone conclusion? The 0.11-of-a-second gap between Bolt's world record (9.58) and the next fastest time (Gay's and Bolt's 9.69) is an eternity in a sprinter's time-warped mind. And Bolt's rivals haven't finished within a stride of him since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We torture ourselves because way down deep, no matter what logic tells us, we know that the impossible sometimes happens. And we know that in our everyday, mortal reckoning of ...

OK, I've finally conceded. Even God took a day off after a six-day creation extravaganza. And doesn't the farmer occasionally let his field go fallow? So I guess I can forgive a few elite Track and Field athletes for dialing down in this so-called "off season". But I'm taking names - and will be expecting great things next season from a list of 2010 no-shows which reads like a page from "Who's Who in World-Class Athletics": Kenenisa Bekele - All-World distance runner from Ethiopia; injured. Yelena Isinbayeva - All-World pole vaulter from Russia; injured ego. Sanya Richards-Ross - American 400-meter World Champion; injured. Paula Radcliffe - All-World British ...

The damage had been done. Whether through insensitivity, ignorance, or just plain incompetence, an athlete was victimized in one of sport's most embarrasing atrocities. South African 800-meter world champion Caster Semenya was publicly stripped (of her dignity), raped (of her privacy), and disemboweled (of her physiology) by medical experts, governing sports entities, and news media. Semenya was effectively banned from competition after her stunning 2009 victory in Berlin's World Championships. Her rapid week-to-week improvement and her impressive world-leading time in the finals (1:55.45) prompted an intrusive gender verification process which left no piece of the champion's persona hidden. During the eleven-month ordeal, the black ...

Lately I've noticed a subtle, yet steady escalation of good, old-fashioned "homerism" in my daily Track and Field readings. Whenever an American track meet of national (or international) scope comes around, like ants on honey, the banter begins as to which venue is best. Randal Tyson or Gilliam. Icahn Stadium or Franklin Field. Indianapolis or Sacramento. Eugene or Des Moines. I've even engaged in the fray myself. Things reached a new level mid-week as Ken Goe's deft volley was answered by Lance Bergeson's swift return. And then, a neutral judgement by "referee" Elliot Denman. I must say, even with the excitement of the recent NCAA and USA ...

Even the casual track and field fan will remember the agonizing visual. Tyson Gay, only a few strides into his 200m quarterfinal heat, tumbled awkwardly to the track, grabbing his left hamstring. Grimacing in pain, he lay there for minutes under the watchful care of trainers and medics. Eventually, he was carted out of the facility on a stretcher. It was the 2008 Olympic Trials at Eugene's Hayward Field. And as surely as Gay's entourage disappeared behind Hayward's fences and shrubbery, the hopes of an American sprint double-gold in Beijing vanished. Days earlier, Gay had won the 100m final with a wind-assisted 9.68 and ...

(Eugene, OR) - Site of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Any other week and I could easily be on a bummer. It's early June and my legs are still pale from a longer-than-normal winter. The closest motel vacancy I could find is 50 miles out of town. Long lines in every restaurant mean I'll be brown-bagging dinner. The Eugene forecast calls for even more cool, showery weather. But this week, it's just too perfect...from an Oregon perspective. Green Bay's Lambeau Field has its frozen tundra. The Boston Garden had its legendary unheated, smoke-filled visitors' locker room. Coors Field, in Denver's ...

The common kitchen match. It's been around for nearly two centuries, essentially unchanged. Today's high-tech geniuses have not come up with a cheaper, safer, more portable source of fire. John Browning's Colt .45 auto-loading pistol. In an age where a missile can be guided through a knothole from outer space, Browning's 1911 design is still without peer in regard to efficiency and reliability. The Great White shark. No frills. No attractive lures. It sees what it wants and gets it. Over millennia, it has not changed or evolved. The perfect killing machine has no need to adapt. The beauty is in the simplicity. Since man first became ...

Just beyond turn two, hidden in obscurity on most track and field ovals, lie the staggered starting marks for a seldom-contested race: the 300-meter dash. Unrecognized as an official distance (for world record purposes) by the IAAF, and relegated to "training distance" status by most elite athletes, the 300 meters is about to have its moment in the sun. It is possible that Usain Bolt himself could anoint the rarely-run race with his Midas touch. On May 27, Bolt will attempt to break Michael Johnson's 300m record time of 30.85 at the Czech Golden Spike meet in Ostrava. If successful, the honor would make ...