Who better than Track Town President Vin Lananna to explain the world’s most basic sport. Of course it’s track and field. He lives and breathes the stuff. Don’t you?
Because of him, Portland hosts the World Indoor Track and Field meet in 2016, the same year the Olympic trials return to Eugene for the third straight time. Maybe Vin is right about track.
From oregonlive.com:
“In the last decade Hayward Field has morphed into the semi-permanent site for the NCAA’s Division I Outdoor Championships. Eugene played host to the 2014 World Junior Championships. Lananna’s TrackTown USA organizing group will stage the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. The 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials are back at Hayward for a third, consecutive time.
Three major, post-collegiate training groups have taken root in Oregon, the Bowerman Track Club, Oregon Track Club Elite, and the Nike Oregon Project.”
Don’t forget the 2021 World Championships. Vin Lananna is dialed into the world of track and field operators. He is one. Does that make track and field the basic sport? What is track and field?
It’s running and jumping and throwing. Short distance runs with medium and long distance races cover the ground part. Jumps go from high, to long, to broad. And a triple jump. One event, the steeplechase, even combines running and jumping in the same race.
Throwing comes with a cannon ball or shot put, the spear or javelin, and a weighted plate or discus.
Track and field has a certain allure in America. We’ve seen fast runners transition to the NFL. Receivers like ‘Bullet’ Bob Hayes in the 60’s and Renaldo Nehemiah in the 80’s. Some worked out, some didn’t.
I wouldn’t look for Usain Bolt to walk through any NFL door. Ever. Now we have to care about track and field without the transition.
Vin Lananna knows his sport well enough. More important, he knows the business side.
From registerguard.com:
“On Thursday in Beijing, site of this summer’s world championships, the IAAF Council voted 23-1 via secret ballot to award Eugene the 2021 meet.
This has all been a long-term vision for the sport of track and field in the United States,” Lananna said. “It started back when we hosted the Olympic Trials in 2008 and 2012, World Juniors in 2014 and in our quest to host the NCAAs for nine straight years. This has all reflected on a community and a state that loves track and field.”
Remember, you love track and field. If Vin says you love track and field, then you love it.
If he pulled a secret ballot our way in China, we’d better love track and field.
If he got Portland revved up enough to plan a Hyatt Hotel near the Convention Center, we’d better love track and field. Was it Vin who got the ball rolling on Hotel Eastlund,too?
The man is a champion of bold thinking. But is his sport the basic sport of human kind? I’ll agree if he does one thing.
Vin Lananna is a Man of Oregon. He revived track and field for citizens of Oregon. He and Galen Rupp, but Mr. Rupp needs to push a few civic building projects to get equal credit. I’ll call track and field the basic sport of mankind if Vin Lananna makes an effort to influence the University of Oregon to return college wrestling to the campus.
You won’t ever hear me call track and field activities a means of exercise for real athletes in real sports if he gets wrestling reinstated.
Wrestling compares to track and field in that everyone thinks they’re better than they are. Oregon needs to be better and wrestling is an avenue. Europeans coming to Oregon are all aware of wrestling. That’s their heritage. They need to see wrestling at Oregon if you expect them to leave satisfied.
Vin Lananna knows the ropes. He knows the people. From what he’s accomplished in Eugene, Portland, China, and around the world, he ought to flex his muscles and show what the world’s most basic sport and do for wrestling, the world’s real basic sport.
What makes wrestling more basic than track? If someone takes what belongs to you, you either take it back or run off.
Vin, which one are you? Talk to the men of wrestling.
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