Dont Hate, Congratulate!

Don't hate congratulate!

This is a common slang phrase meaning don't waste your energy being envious of my success instead be happy for me.

I am happy for Carmelita Jeter and Usain Bolt too for that matter. All year long and even more so now the mumbling under people's breath has been," Are they clean?" I do not keep 24hr surveillance on either but my opinion is that what they have accomplished this year is doable without performance enhancing substances.

Those of us within the sport have to have layoff they haterade and have some confidence in our competitors work ethic and morals.

We want to get from up under the doping cloud yet we have joined the outsiders in brow raising and finger pointing every time someone finishes ahead of us. If the truth be told we should assess how accountable we have been for our own performances or lack there of.

I won't speak on behalf of the male sprints on the time line of when those times should have been run but in the case of the women's  100m I had expected to be running something similar myself by now. In my mind having run 10.88 in 2005 a steady progression plus great competition to keep me hungry surely should have produced a sub 10.70 time for me. Unfortunately things haven't gone quite as planned for me or for some of my greatest competitors either. Instead 4yrs later women are having the kind of year we have long been capable of but yet to produce. Multiple ladies running consistently under 11 seconds each race has been the norm this year and though I am not one of them I am excited about it. It is time to put up or shut up. Make the most of your talent and potential or get to the back and get over it.

You can not become consumed by what you can not control. You can not control what the competition is doing. So you may as well be consumed with what your doing because that is all you can control!
I have faith in the fact that all the top sprinters know the weight that our event carries. Call me naïve but I don't believe with all that has gone on recently and knowing our sport is on the brink of self-destruction if another top notch sprinter falls from grace that anyone would be so selfish as to risk others lively hood for a chance at faulty fame.

The moral of the story... We must focus on banding together and believing in each other for the sake of changing the image of our sport. If track is your career, your passion and your life than take more pride in making it look appealing to the public. A good place to begin is directing your attention to finding the best possible balance to get the most out of yourself.