Usain Bolt's epic disqualification

DAEGU, South Korea -- Usain Bolt false-started, and Yohan Blake, his Jamaican training partner, won the men's 100-meter world championship title in a race that immediately created a sensational controversy sure to linger to and through the London 2012 Olympic Games. Whether that controversy is good for track and field, a sport that desperately needs stars and on Sunday by rule excused its biggest star from its biggest event -- all that remains to be seen.

"Looking for tears?" Bolt said as he was leaving the stadium. "Not gonna happen. I'm OK."

Blake flew to an easy win in 9.92 seconds just after Bolt false-started. Under a rule that was passed in 2009 and that went into effect in 2010, a regulation that some track and field insiders had warned would inevitably produce a result just like this, one false start now leads to immediate disqualification.

Inevitably came Sunday night in Daegu.

Bolt false-started. He knew it immediately. His face turned into a scream. He ripped his shirt off as a roar of disbelief echoed around the stadium.

He threw his arms up in apparent disgust. His hands over his head, he was led backstage. There he slammed the blue stadium wall.

Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter, had suggested beforehand that the 100 final would be "epic." Turned out he was right -- but what a crazy context.

The show must go on. And, after the shirtless Bolt was led off, it did. But no one in the world thinks Yohan Blake is the world's best sprinter.

Against the six other guys he raced, yes, Yohan Blake was by far the best.

Would he have beaten Usain Bolt?

What, when all is said and done, is the point of a world championships race?

What, when all is said and done, is the point of a rule?

American Walter Dix took second, in 10.08. The first third of the race was the worst, Dix said: "… I kept sitting in the blocks and I couldn't move. That false start was killing us. And hopefully it will change by London. I really didn't think they would kick him out … they have him on every poster."

Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, the 2003 100 world champion, took third here Sunday, in 10.09. He, too, said the rule ought to be changed: "Not because of [Bolt] but because of what it's doing to the sport."

Then again, it's precisely because of what it was doing to the sport that the rule was changed to one-and-done.

From 2001, track and field worked under a two-strike principle. The first false-start in a particular race was charged to the field. Only if there was a second false-start would that particular athlete be disqualified.

The practical consequence of the two-strike rule was a lot of twitchy gamesmanship.

In 2009, the IAAF, track and field's governing body, had seen enough. It ordered the one-and-done, effective January 2010.

Swimming works on a one-and-done -- and, it must be said, swimmers stay on the blocks.

In the first two days of the 2011 track worlds, though, there have already been three extraordinary false-start disqualifications.

Christine Ohuruogu, the 2007 world champion and 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the 400, was disqualified in Saturday's 400 heats. She sat on the stairs leading to an interview zone for 20 minutes, then said, "I'm broken. You can all see I'm broken. I have nothing else to say. I false-started. I have worked really hard. I came here. I false-started."

Earlier Sunday night, in the semifinals of the men's 100, Dwain Chambers, the world indoor sprint champion, was eliminated when he false-started.

And, now, Bolt.

It must also be said that IAAF officials are appropriately even-handed in their application of the rule. If it can take out Bolt, it can take out anyone.

Now the question: is that a good thing?

Three years ago, at the Olympic Games in Beijing, Bolt ran 9.69, a world record, in the 100.

Two years ago, at the worlds in Berlin, he ran 9.58, a world record staggering in its achievement.

This year, he has been running slower. No one expected a world record. Pretty much everyone, however, expected victory.

Even Bolt, who before the race went through his by-now familiar showman's shtick. He pretended to fly down the lanes like an airplane. He smoothed his hair and scraggly beard to make himself look good for the cameras. When he was introduced, he pointed left and right and shook his head no, as if to say, no way those guys are gonna win, then pointed down the track to suggest it was all him.

He settled into the blocks, crossed himself like he usually does. At that point, Usain Bolt is all business.

This time, though, he jumped the gun.

The biggest event in track and field is the men's 100, and the biggest star is Usain Bolt, and, as Kim Collins said, "The people want to see him -- they want to see him do it," meaning run like he does, and set those records when he can, "and do it again."

One-and-done not only can but, it is surely proven, will take out even Usain Bolt for a twitch. What now, if anything, should track and field do about that?

Oscar Pistorius and the power of will

DAEGU, South Korea -- It took 45 seconds, more or less, for Oscar Pistorius to show the world, again and emphatically, that sport holds no barriers to the power of will. Running on prosthetic devices that he puts on the way able-bodied athletes slip on shoes, Pistorius, the South African whose lower legs were amputated when he was a baby, turned 400 meters at the track and field world championships in 45.39 seconds, third-fastest in his heat, plenty fast to move him into Monday's semifinal.

It's not the case that walls of every sort came hurtling down because Pistorius raced here Sunday.

But it may well be that sport was forever changed.

Swimmer Natalie du Toit, who is also from South Africa, competed in the  2008 Beijing Olympics in the open-water swim; her left leg had been amputated at the knee as a teen-ager after she had been in an accident. Natalia Partyka, a Polish table tennis player, also took part in the Beijing Olympics; she was born without a right hand and forearm.

Even so, track and field remains the most important of the Olympic sports and Pistorius' case has generated publicity and controversy of a far different magnitude than either du Toit's or Partyka's.

Watching him run on his blades is a very different thing than watching du Toit swim or Partyka bat a little plastic ball. Running is, after all, elemental.

To get the okay to run on the blades against able-bodied athletes in the first instance took the okay of sport's top tribunal, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.  Along the way, Pistorius became widely known in the press as the "Blade Runner."

Then, well after the legal case had been decided, some sport scientists started arguing that the blades gave Pistorius an unfair advantage against "ordinary" runners. Others said that was nonsense.

Big picture-wise, the matter launched an extensive debate world-wide about the technological boundaries of what's fair and what's not in sport.

Here, all of that was just noise.

Here, Pistorius got the ultimate respect.

To the others in the field -- he was just another guy in the race. He was somebody who might on a good day be a threat, and threats have to be dealt with.

"I know it's not easy, going through all this, and then coming to compete at a major championship," Chris Brown of the Bahamas, who won Pistorius' heat, in 45.29, said. "I wish him all the best, you know. But I came here to prevail."

American LaShawn Merritt, who raced two heats earlier, running a world-leading 44.35, said of Pistorius, "He ran the time to get here. I've had a little time to talk to him. He's a great person. He's dedicated and motivated. A great heart. I wish all the best to him."

Pistorius ran Sunday in Lane 8, all the way on the outside of the track. Like everyone else, he took off at the sound of the gun when, bang, the gun went off again. A false start.

A sense of dread settled over the stadium. But not over Pistorius. "I knew it was somebody else," he said, and it was -- Abdou Razack Rabo Samma of Nigeria, in Lane 5, who was promptly escorted out.

The gun went off again, and in Lane 7 Femi Ogunode of Qatar went out hard. Within 20 meters he was already ahead of Pistorius. But Pistorius did not press.

On Saturday night, Pistorius said, he had looked up Ogunode's best 400 times; Ogunode's best-ever was 45.12 last November and his 2011 best was 47.79 in April.

"Before my races, I research every single guy in the race, to know if he's playing a game or if he thinks he's got false hope," Pistorius said. So if Ogunode wanted to go out early now -- not to worry.

Over in Lane 6 -- there was Tony McQuay, the American, who had run a 44.68 in Eugene in June. Now there was someone to keep up with, Pistorius said, and that was the plan.

Indeed, for a brief moment at the top of the homestretch, Pistorius even held the lead.

Then McQuay started laboring. The thing about racing is you always have to adjust. Just go hard, Pistorius told himself, and you'll be in the semifinal.

It turned out that McQuay had a bad hamstring. He finished sixth.

Pistorius finished behind only Brown and Martyn Rooney of Great Britain, who crossed in a season-best 45.30.

"It's one thing getting here," Pistorius said after the race. "It's another thing being consistent here. I ran my second-fastest time," 32-hundredths off the 45.07 last month in Italy that got him here in the first instance, "and I'm happy with that."

That 45.07 was a nearly perfect effort, and at the world championships, you pretty much have to run in the 44s to be in the final eight. So it's hugely unlikely Pistorius makes the final.

No matter. Pistorius' first-round run in the 2011 track and field world championships was, by any measure, an extraordinary success. He was asked if he feels like a trailblazer and modestly said, no. "I don't really feel like a pioneer," he said.

That's not so. Here Sunday, Oscar Pistorius made history. He ran with the guys, and he was just one of them.

Usain Bolt awaits

DAEGU, South Korea -- American Walter Dix, running in sunglasses at night, was so in command and control that he could look left and right as he cruised down Lane 2 to a strong and easy victory Saturday night in his heat of the men's 100-meter dash. He said afterward that he had come to Daegu "to win three gold medals," in the 100, the 200 and the relays. In his heat, another American, Justin Gatlin shook off freezer burn around his ankles to earn an automatic qualifier spot. He declared afterward that Sunday night's 100 final would "probably be one of the most epic world championship we have ever seen."

Confidence is of course a good thing when you have to run against Usain Bolt.

The issue is whether confidence, or anything, matters.

The 2011 version of Bolt is not 2009 or, for that matter, 2008. Even so, the Bolt who was on display Saturday night looked lethal enough. He ran the night's fastest time, 10.10 seconds, and did so though he jogged the final 50 meters.

The men's 100 heats capped a thoroughly full first day here at the world track championships that also saw Americans Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee standing 1-2 halfway through the decathlon, Eaton with 4446 points, Hardee with 4393.

In other performances:

-- All four American women moved through to the next rounds of the 400, led by  Sanya Richards-Ross, in 51.37, and Allyson Felix, in 51.45.

"I feel really healthy, the best I've felt in a long time," Richards-Ross, the defending world champion, said.

"I felt controlled," Felix said of the first race in her 200/400 double. "I wanted to establish a fast 150, then go from there. It was a little bit quicker than what I hoped for but I wanted to make it as easy as possible. I feel good, and excited to get started."

-- Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, the 2008 Beijing gold medalist and 2007 world champion in the 400, false-started and was disqualified. She sat on the stairs leading down into the alley called the "mixed zone," where athletes meet the press, for nearly 20 minutes. She just sat there, in disbelief.

When she came through the zone, she said, "I'm broken. You can all see I'm broken. I have nothing else to say. I false-started. I have worked really hard. I came here. I false started."

-- Incredibly, Kenyan women swept the medals, six-for-six, in the marathon and 10,000 meters.

Edna Kiplagat, who had won the New York marathon last fall, won here in 2:28.43. Priscah Jeptoo took second, Sharon Cherop third.

No nation had ever swept the medals at a worlds or Olympics.

Prior to the Kenyan finish in that marathon, none had even managed a 1-2 finish.

Then came the 10k.

The Kenyans didn't just go 1-2-3.

They went 1-2-3-4:

Vivian Cheruiyot won in 30:48.98, a personal best, followed by Sally Kipyego, then by defending champion Linet Masai. Priscah Cherono finished fourth. Ethiopia's Meselech Melkamu, the African record-holder, took fifth.

All of that, and then came the men's 100 heats.

Jamaican Asafa Powell is not here, purportedly with a groin injury. American Tyson Gay is hurt. Further, American Mike Rodgers and Jamaican Steve Mullings are out because of doping-related issues. The field isn't what it could be.

"Epic" remains to be seen.

Dix, it must be said, looked solid, in 10.25. He said, "I wanted to come out of the blocks well so I could finish easily. That was a great race for me," and it was.

Bolt, it must also be said, remains Bolt.

Dix raced in Heat 2, Bolt in 6.

Before Bolt lined up in Lane 4, he pretended to brush back his hair in an imaginary mirror, to make himself prettier for the cameras. He shot both index fingers as if they were guns. He smoothed his hair back again.

He settled his silver shoes into the blocks, his sponsor logo trimmed in gold. The gun went off, he exploded out and, essentially, the race was over.

Dwain Chambers, over in Lane 8, who came in second in that heat, in 10.28, was asked later if he thought Bolt might be vulnerable.

He said, "I don't think so."

USOC's smart play: staying out of 2020

DAEGU, South Korea -- The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said here Friday, "Obviously we would love to have had a bid emanating from the United States for 2020," and, sure, no doubt about that. At the same time, the United States Olympic Committee unequivocally did the right thing by announcing earlier this week it would not be bidding. An American bid could not have won. If no one else is willing to be so blunt in saying so -- it says so here. Not now, no way, no how. Moreover, it's not clear when. Maybe 2022. Or maybe not. It's too soon to know.

You can believe there were a variety of interests urging the Americans to jump in to the 2020 campaign. Larry Probst, the USOC chairman, and Scott Blackmun, the USOC chief executive, deserve credit for having resolve enough to just say no. That's leadership.

Right now the IOC, and for that matter international sport, is in the midst of what the South Koreans, prompted by the first-rate American strategist Terrence Burns, cleverly termed the "new horizons" era. That slogan encapsulated Pyeongchang's winning bid for the 2018 Winter Games. That same sort of expansionist thinking won Sochi the 2014 Winter Games and Rio de Janeiro the 2016 Summer Games -- and, as well, brought Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Friday brought yet another "new horizons" twist -- one that makes Probst and Blackmun look even smarter.

After meeting all afternoon here at the Inter Burgo hotel behind closed doors, the IOC's policy-making executive board gave Doha the green light to launch an autumn bid for the 2020 Games, when it would be cooler in Qatar.

Later Friday, the Qatar Olympic Committee announced they were in the race. The formal entry deadline is Sept. 1.

Istanbul, Madrid, Tokyo and Rome have announced they're in, too.

There's no question, of course, that the United States has the facilities and resources to stage an Olympic Games. As Seb Coe, the leader of the London 2012 bid and now its organizing committee, has famously put it, that's the "how." What's now missing is the "why" -- the story of why the IOC would vote to send the Games back to the United States.

Until that "why" comes along, there's an incredibly strong argument to be made that it's best for the United States to remain a loyal, faithful and devoted Olympic partner but graciously permit others to shoulder the burden of staging the Games.  It currently costs $100 million, or more, to bid successfully, and in the United States, where all that money has to be privately raised, there has to be a return on that investment.

See New York 2012 and Chicago 2016.

Let's be perfectly clear. At least 20 years will have gone by from the last time the United States had the privilege of staging the Games until the next time, whenever that is; the last time was of course in Salt Lake City, in 2002. But it's not that the USOC, and the United States of America, haven't sought the Games. To the contrary.

Indeed, the next time a bid committee goes to the White House to ask the president of the United States for his (or her) personal involvement in the campaign -- again, it gets back to return on investment.

It is indisputably true that the IOC and USOC find themselves locked in a complex dispute over revenue-sharing over broadcasting and marketing shares. Solving that is a prerequisite for the launch of any American bid. It wasn't going to be solved by Sept. 1, and that's why the USOC was for sure out for 2020.

The two sides are currently negotiating; eventually, the matter will be solved. It's a contract dispute. Such disputes inevitably get solved.

That just sets the stage, though, for the real work.

Far too many people seem to have a grossly unrealistic expectation about the bid process, particularly in the United States, fueled perhaps by Atlanta's win for the 1996 Games.

That win, though, happened at a very different time in both American and Olympic history, when the United States was riding the boom of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Those days are long gone.

What Probst and Blackmun understand is that the USOC now is in the relationship business.

That is the real work.

The two most intriguing U.S.-centric bid-related news bits this week were not so much that the USOC opted out of 2020 -- the signals had been there for a long while -- but that Probst and Blackmun last week traveled to Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and that here this week Bob Hersh, the American delegate, was not only re-elected to one of the four IAAF vice-presidential positions but received the most votes among all the candidates.

First, the South American swing:

It is vital that the USOC play a key role in the western hemisphere. If you can't help lead in your own neighborhood, how can you lead anywhere else?

It's why Probst, in a statement released by the USOC, said it had placed a "high priority on being a trusted partner" in the Americas. Blackmun -- who, by the way, is also due into Daegu next week -- called the South American trip an "opportunity to learn from some of the smartest people in the Olympic movement and continue to build genuine relationships."

Hersh, meanwhile, offers a solid example of how Americans ought to -- no, must -- go about re-building their international relations effort.

Hersh has been active in track and field circles throughout his life. He was manager of his high school (Midwood High, Brooklyn) and college (Columbia) track teams; after law school (Harvard), he became an official at track meets; then he got involved with the body that pre-dated USA Track & Field. For chronological purposes, that takes us to the 1970s. He was elected to his first IAAF post, a technical position, in 1984.

That was 27 years ago.

Hersh has steadily worked his way up since, saying in an interview Friday, a couple days after receiving 175 votes for vice-president, "Work is the key word," adding a moment later, "The way you progress in most organizations is by doing work that is recognized. And it is work. No question about it. A lot of work. I am pleased, as anyone would be, when things come of it."

Dale Neuberger is a key figure in swimming. Svein Romstad is secretary-general of the luge federation. Max Cobb is a rising figure in biathlon.

Here, in addition to Hersh, three other Americans were also elected to IAAF posts, including David Katz, who led the voting to remain on the federation's technical committee in balloting that saw 12 elected from a field of 28.

The United States needs more such worker bees, and in considerably more federations. That's how networks get built. Over time, such networks build influence.

Again, give Probst and Blackmun credit. Rather than being rushed into a decision for 2020, they took their time.

"We respect and we understand the position of the United States Olympic Committee," Rogge also said here Friday, "and we hope there will be good bids in the future beyond 2020."

There's no rush.

Allyson Felix's audacious 200/400 challenge

DAEGU, South Korea -- Maybe Allyson Felix's audacious challenge yields three gold medals here at the track and field world championships. Or, given the odds and the competition, maybe not.

Felix, long one of the world's premier 200-meter sprinters, has opted here into the 400 as well. She is scheduled, too, to run in the relays.

Given everything else surrounding the U.S. track and field program -- the injuries, the doping-related issues, the general tumult -- it's hardly a stretch to say that the spotlight in advance of these championships, which get underway Saturday, finds itself trained directly on Allyson Felix.

On top of which, it has been drizzling here pretty much non-stop for days. Someone has to be a bright spot, right?

"I'm excited to do something different," she said Thursday morning, reporters pressed in close to hear every word she said.

Again, the chances of Felix succeeding at this task are not particularly robust, and that is not -- repeat, not -- a reflection on her.

The 200 and the 400 are two very different races.

The 200 is 22 seconds of hugely technical power and pain. There's the curve and then there's the straightaway.

The 400, of course, is a full lap around the track. As any high school coach could tell you, virtually anyone can run 300 meters. It's that last 100 that's the killer.

You train differently for the two races.

Yet -- every once in a while there emerges a special talent who can do both at the elite level. Three people have done the 200-400 double:

Michael Johnson did it, twice, once at the world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1995, and then again at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Marie-Jose Perec also did it in Atlanta. Valerie Brisco-Hooks did it at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Allyson Felix can. There's no question she can. She has proven over the course of the IAAF Diamond League circuit that she is world-class in both events.

What Allyson Felix and her coach, Bobby Kersee, want to find out this year -- the year before the Olympics -- is how best to get her ready for both come next July in London.

That's what this is about here in Daegu.

So while they would gladly take three golds in Korea, each said, separately, that what they really want is to find out where she is now and how to get better over the next year.

Kersee, calling it the ultimate challenge," said he has taken to referring to Felix as "Seabiscuit." Like the horse. "I like the way she races," he said.

A bonus: Reuters reported here Thursday that Brisco (as she is now known) will be here in Daegu, to "walk Allyson through what she did."

It's hardly a lock that Felix will win even the 200, her specialty over the years. Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, the Olympic gold medalist in the 200 in Beijing, awaits. Another American, Shalonda Solomon, has run the fastest time in the 200 this year, 22.15.

Beyond which, the 400 comes first -- the heats get underway Saturday. Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States is the defending champion in the event; Amantle Montsho of Botswana, though 1-12 all-time against Felix, has dominated the Diamond League with five straight victories.

"I know it going to be tough," Felix said.

"To me, when you go to a race your goal is to win. So when you don't win, it's a disappointment -- you're not living up to your goals. For me it's a learning experience. I'm going to take away whatever happens here into next year, and learn from it. I'm just going to try to grow from it.

"Of course," she said, "I'm in it to win it. But I'll be okay if it doesn't end up that way."

Small-town guy Tim Phillips goes big at University Games

SHENZHEN, China -- The Summer University Games are hardly the Olympics or world championships. They're not the Pan American Games. For swimmers, they don't even offer a stage on the order of the Pan Pacific championships. Even so, these Games always herald the potential for breakthrough.

If, at next year's U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Tim Phillips makes the team that goes to London it won't be a huge surprise to swimming insiders. He announced himself here with four medals overall, two gold, the top U.S. swim performance of these 26th Summer University Games.

Phillips, who has finished two years at Ohio State, won both the 50 and 100 butterflys. He swam the second leg in the gold medal-winning 400 free relay. He swam the fly portion of the silver medal-winning medley relay.

His effort capped a performance that saw the U.S. team win a competition-high total of 29 swim medals. Japan took 27. New Zealand, intriguingly, took third, with 13.

A couple weeks ago, at the world championships In Shanghai, the U.S. coaches said the American program held unusual depth. Wait, they said, until you see some of these college swimmers.

Again, that's what in large measure makes these University Games such a novel proposition -- the notion of seeing tomorrow's stars today.

Rebecca Soni, for instance, the current Olympic and world breaststroke champion, was a gold medalist in the 200 breast at the 2005 University Games. Dana Vollmer, winner in Shanghai of the 100 butterfly, was also a member of that 2005 U.S. University Games team.

Though the fields here would obviously not match up with those at worlds, it's not as if there wasn't talent in Shenzhen. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, arguably the third-best all-around swimmer in the world, along with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, raced here, winning three gold medals, in the 200 fly and the 200 and 400 IMs.

Phillips grew up in West Virginia, of all places, where he went to Parkersburg High School. But he comes from an Ohio State family. His dad, Tom, swam at Ohio State. As a boy, Tim Phillips went to Buckeye football games. He went to Ohio State summer swim camps.

Signing with Ohio State, and coach Bill Wadley, and the new pool there -- one of the best in the country -- was pretty much a slam dunk.

In his first year at Ohio State, Phillips helped the Buckeyes win their first Big Ten championship in 54 years.

At the 2010 U.S. nationals, he finished third in the 100 fly, behind Phelps and Tyler McGill, in 52.41.

A couple weeks later, at the Pan Pacs, he finished ninth, winning the B final, in 52.21.

This is where things started getting even more interesting for Tim Phillips.

At the end of his sophomore year at Ohio State, Phillips moved down to Charlotte, N.C., to train with SwimMAC and coach David Marsh, along with the likes of Cullen Jones, Nick Brunelli, Nick Thoman and Josh Schneider, other U.S. national team members.

There are two spots up for grabs next summer at the Trials in the 100 fly. Unless something goes horribly awry, Phelps is going to get one of those spots. He's the Olympic and world champion in the event multiple times over, including again in Shanghai in 2011, when he wasn't even in tip-top shape.

At the 2010 nationals and 2010 Pan Pacs, McGill finished second, behind Phelps.

The 2011 U.S. nationals took place after Shanghai. Phelps, having already won worlds, opted not to race at nationals. Both McGill and Phillips, though, were there. This year in the 100 fly, Phillips came in first and McGill came in second -- Phillips in 51.69, McGill in 51.84.

For the math-challenged -- Phillips is roughly six-tenths of a second faster in 2011 than he was in 2010. That's a marked improvement, and 2012 is yet to come.

Here in Shenzhen, his winning 100 time, 52.06, reflected more the end of a long summer of racing than a suggestion of anything else; he led the race at the turn and won by more than half a second, over Tom Shields of Cal-Berkeley, who touched in 52.62, making it a 1-2 race for the Americans.

Phillips is an immensely likable 20-year-old from Small Town USA. When he got done swimming at this year's nationals, he said, he had dozens of text messages on his phone, "from, like, everyone at home."

When he won the 100, he pointed to the American flag on his cap. Representing the United States, he said, is "always a big deal for me."

"Every time he goes on a trip," said Wadley, his coach at Ohio State, who was here in Shenzhen,  "he comes back hungrier, he comes back better, he comes back more excited. It has been quite a trajectory."

For Seb Coe, it all comes back to track and field

The one constant in Seb Coe's life has been track and field. At his core he is still the formidable middle-distance runner. He is both champion on the track and champion of the sport itself. That is the prism through which Coe still sees himself, even now, as chairman of the London 2012 Summer Games organizing committee and vice-president of the IAAF, track's worldwide governing body. To not understand this is to make a fundamental miscalculation.

Four years ago, just after Coe was elected to one of the four IAAF vice presidential positions, Lamine Diack -- the longtime IAAF president -- took Coe aside to share a quiet moment. This was in Osaka, Japan, on the eve of the world championships. Diack said to Coe, you have one responsibility, and that is to deliver great track and field championships in London in 2012.

That mission remains to be fulfilled.

Now, Coe is standing again for re-election to that IAAF vice presidential position, the voting next week as the track and field community gathers anew before another world championships, this time in Daegu, South Korea -- an election that comes at a pivotal moment for the sport, the Olympic movement and, indeed, for Coe, because already there is so much speculating about what he might do after London 2012.

Assuming the Games are a success -- what, then, would he want?

He is, in this regard, a victim of his own success and, of course, the mayhem that is daily life in the British press.  Like: Wouldn't Coe make a great president of the International Olympic Committee when that job opens up in 2013! Never mind that you have to be a member of the IOC first and there are four British members already and five would be stretching matters considerably.

For Coe, it all comes back to track and field. That is his lifelong passion.

In a letter sent around the world to the more than 200 track and field national federations announcing his re-election bid -- translated from English to French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese -- Coe writes, "I have no other ambition but to serve the sport that I owe such a huge debt of gratitude to."

Running again for vice-president, Coe said in an interview, is "my way of re-affirming my support for the sport." He added, "I'm taking nothing for granted. It's my way of saying, 'This is what I want to do post-2012. Track and field is going to be my prime focus. I feel sensibly and modestly I've got 10 productive years to support and [help] the sport.

"In life you never want to get too far away from your roots and mine are in track and field."

Ordinarily, it must be noted, an election for the vice-presidential slots of the track and field federation would not be the sort of thing that might merit this sort of examination. But these are uncertain times for the sport and Coe is a most unusual figure -- not just in international sports but, frankly, on the world stage.

The sport is still the anchor of the Summer Olympics. And in Usain Bolt it has produced a mega-star. But it is facing enormous challenges. It must move beyond the shadow of doping. It must grow globally and commercially. It must find innovative ways to attract a young audience.

Change does not come easily to track and field's establishment. The IAAF, for instance, founded in 1912, has in all those years been overseen by only five presidents. Diack has been in office since 1999; he is now 78 years old.

Given Diack's age, there are within IAAF circles amazingly complex -- indeed, fantastic -- succession scenarios that have been floating about for years now.

Then again, it must be said that Diack has been confounding his critics for years now, too.

Coe is quite clear -- abundantly clear -- that this election, to be held Aug. 24, is about the vice-presidential positions. Full-stop.

Six candidates purportedly are in the running for four spots. But it's an IAAF election. Thus the situation is by definition fluid.

The point here is not that others don't deserve support -- Sergei Bubka and Bob Hersh, for instance, are likely to again be strong candidates, and it says something that Hersh is an American in a senior position in an international federation.

The point of this column is that sensible, rational people simply have to look at where track and field is now, where it's likely headed and what Coe offers. The man is a walking idea factory with a demonstrated record of getting people to buy into his ideas. That's called leadership.

The London 2012 bid -- he led it.

Keeping the track in Olympic Stadium after the Games? Large credit to Coe -- working closely with Diack. That's no small thing. The 1996 Atlanta stadium was turned into a baseball field; the track was removed from the 2000 Sydney stadium; 2004 in Athens would hardly make for a study in legacy; the 2008 Beijing stadium is largely a tourist draw now while it awaits the 2015 track and field world championships.

Of course Coe would like to bring the world championships to London, and as soon as possible. At the same time, he said, "There's absolutely no question in my mind we are a global sport and we have to globalize," meaning not only Diamond League events in Africa and "we really do have to be able to plot a path to being able to stage a world championship in Africa -- I think that's really important."

He added, "But always at the same time recognizing there are two wheels on the bicycle and we must always do what we can to protect and enhance what I would call our more mature markets.

"The follow-up to that is that we really do have to have a more commercial global reach. We have to build on what we have done so well and figure out over the next 20 years in terms of marketing where the sport needs to be commercially."

Perhaps the major Coe theme is getting kids off the couch and into a pair of running shoes -- particularly through school-based programs.

"We have to sell track and field to kids in a much more imaginative way," Coe said. For every kid who wants to be Bolt -- what about the one who wants to be Roger Federer? Or David Beckham? Doesn't that kid have to be able to run?

"The physical literacies are all in track and field," Coe said. "Hand-eye coördination, strength, endurance, power, speed. They're all the physical literacies of track and field. If you get that right for young people, [convey] that this is all track and field-based, you'll provide a healthier cohort of young people and, secondly, I think some of them might look at that and think, you know, I was into tennis or football but I like this track and field."

London 2012's international legacy program, dubbed "international inspiration" -- it now reaches 12 million children and young people around the world, in 17 countries, three-quarters of whom are involved in track and field-based activities.

"The one thing I'm very happy to say is that I am very grateful for the generosity of Lamine, when he took me aside four years ago," Coe said, and the second part of that conversation in Osaka, after Diack instructed Coe to deliver a great track meet in London in 2012 was, "After 2012, there will be other things … to focus on within the movement."

To understand Coe is to know the answer to the rhetorical question he asked himself: "What is it I think I'm going to focus on?"

The answer, he said: "More reasons for young people to choose a life in track and field."

Passion and purpose -- the AIPS 'young reporters' program

SHENZEN, China -- The 60 "young reporters" from all over the world had spent their first two mornings in "school" listening to and then asking questions -- lots of questions -- of the secretary-general of sport's top court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and then the senior media manager of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Heavy, heady stuff from and for Matthieu Reeb of CAS and Terence O'Rorke of WADA.

Now it was my turn, as program director of this first-ever AIPS "young reporters" Summer University Games program, to ask the questions -- not only to see what they had learned but what they could teach us, all of us, amid so much concentrated talk of legal maneuvering and doping jargon.

In a couple weeks, I said, the track and field world championships will take place in Daegu, South Korea. How many of you, I asked, believe the eight guys who ultimately make it to the starting blocks in the men's 100-meter dash finals will be doping-free? Not one hand went up.

I looked around the room. The 2011 Tour de France ran last month, I said. Some people believe it was cleaner than previous Tours. How many of you believe the 2011 Tour was clean? Maybe three hands went up.

And yet -- here's the remarkable thing.

There isn't in this group even a hint of cynicism.

Indeed, on Day One of this program, before "school" launched, we asked each of the 60 young people to take the brave step of getting up on stage and saying a few words into our camera, with all the others watching. Most everyone in the group is in their early 20s; a couple are still in their teens; a few are still in university; others are already working at print and broadcast outlets.

Predictably, some were shy. And then there was Julio Bonnin Cadogan of Paraguay, who got right up and said, you know what, sport is a force for good -- it can do no less than help us all overcome racism in our world, and that's why I'm here, to write stories as an agent for change.

The idealism, the enthusiasm, the curiosity that these young people have brought with them to Shenzhen offer great reminders of why journalism matters -- despite the profound elements re-shaping journalism, and the business of journalism, in these early years of the 21st century.

Too, why a program such as this one can make such a difference in the years and careers of young journalists, and in the legacies of hosts such as Shenzhen 2011.

Here were just a smattering of the smart questions that O'Rorke got asked:

Why isn't Major League Baseball part of the world doping code umbrella?

What is WADA's relationship with Interpol?

What is WADA's view on the propriety of a national Olympic committee entering into a deal with a supplement company?

Reeb, among other matters, was asked to explain in detail the case involving the South African Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee popularly known as the "Blade Runner." (Since being cleared to run by CAS against able-bodied competitors, Pistorius has now met the qualifying standards to compete in the 400 at the forthcoming Daegu championships.)

Similarly, Reeb also was asked to explain the background and reasoning about the case involving the Brazilian swimmer Cesar Cielo, cleared by a CAS panel to swim at the just-concluded 2011 swimming world championships in Shanghai. (There, Cielo won gold in both the 50-meter freestyle and butterfly.)

It's not just idealism, energy and enthusiasm that's on display here in Shenzhen. There's one further element, and it's the ultimate difference maker.

It's passion.

As I write this, it's 12:45 in the morning.

Kelsey Wingerak of Canada is herself in the midst of writing three stories about tonight's Serbia-Canada men's basketball game (won by Canada in a big upset -- the Serbs won the University Games title four years ago).

Jonathan Mishal of Israel just sat down in our 11th-floor workroom here at the Shenzhen Shanghai Hotel to bang out his story. The piece he wrote the day before for his hometown paper -- he just sent that to me as a .pdf, in full-on color.

Thorkell Sigurbjornsson of Iceland, who is a TV guy, just tried his hand at a newspaper-style piece. It just dropped into my e-mail inbox.

A few moments ago, Ozan Can Sülüm of Turkey filed not just one but two stories. "Not sure they need editing," he assured me in a side note.

And then there is Alex Bendaña of Nicaragua, who after just these few days is already a legend. He has cadged more free taxi rides than one would have imagined possible in this sprawling city. How he has done so, because his first language is Spanish and his English is quite good but his Chinese is non-existent -- no one is quite sure.

Alex announced he is staying up, or waking up, at 4 this morning to catch the Real Madrid-Barcelona soccer game, the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup at Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.

Class gets underway again at 10. At best, Alex will be working on three hours sleep. He promised he would be there.

Passion.

Team USA's "unbelievably encouraging" swim worlds

SHANGHAI -- As the race unfolded, it wasn't a question of whether Ryan Lochte would win the 400-meter individual medley. It was by how much. In 2011, he's just that much better than everyone else. After three of the four segments in the race, he was a stunning three seconds ahead of the other American in the race, Tyler Clary, who was in second place.

Lochte went on to win, in 4:07.13, with Clary  four seconds back, capping the final night of the 2011 swimming world championships, a night that not only saw a second world record -- China's Sun Yang, in the men's 1500 meters -- but also saw the American team again assert its dominance.

Remember former USA Track & Field chief executive Doug Logan, and his ambitious goal of seeing the American track team win 30 medals in London next year?

Here, the U.S. swim team won 29. That's seven better than it won at the 2009 world championships in Rome.

In Beijing, at the 2008 Games, the U.S. swim team won 31 medals, 12 gold. The track team may still get the love from the traditionalists but the plain, hard fact is that it's the swim team that carries the U.S. medals count. It did in Beijing and it's all but sure to do so in London, too.

In a twist, the American dominance in Shanghai can be attributed in large measure to the American women, who came on strong across the board, and in particular to the emergence of 16-year-old Missy Franklin.

In Rome, the American women took home only eight medals -- two gold, three silver, three bronze.

Here: 13 total -- eight gold, two silver, three bronze.

With Franklin yelling, "Let's go, USA!" in the stands, Jessica Hardy won gold Sunday night in the 50 breaststroke, a poignant victory after her suspension for inadvertently ingesting a contaminated supplement, with Rebecca Soni -- who earlier had won the 100 and 200 breaststroke races -- taking third. Then Elisabeth Beisel won the women's 400 IM.

"It was great by [Saturday] night and just got greater tonight," the U.S. women's head coach, Jack Bauerle, said when it was all over.

The sudden depth of the U.S. women's program was most evident in the medley relay Saturday, when Franklin anchored a victory in American-record time. That prompted Natalie Coughlin to post afterward to her Twitter feed, "Yay. Gold medal, 4x100 MR. 10 yrs on that relay & 1st GOLD."

The depth on display in Shanghai, moreover, doesn't even factor in a whole host of college swimmers or the likes of Dara Torres or Janet Evans.

Pointing toward London, it's "unbelievably encouraging," Bauerle said.

As for the men -- well, the performances that Lochte and Phelps threw down are surely encouraging.

Lochte won five gold medals and set a world record -- the first since the plastic suits went away at the start of 2010 -- in the 200 IM, edging out Phelps in the race by 16-hundredths of a second.

Asked to reflect on his performance, Lochte said, and he was being dead serious, "I'm not happy. I know I can go a lot faster."

This is the mental key to Lochte's success. "I don't really think I'm the top dog," he explained, adding that no matter what he might accomplish, immediately afterward, "I knock myself right down to the bottom of the totem pole." So, looking toward London, "I have a whole year to work hard, train hard, to get back up there to the top. As far as I'm concerned right now, I'm at the bottom."

Phelps on Sunday night put the American men in position to win the medley relay with his butterfly split; Nathan Adrian swam the winning anchor leg.

Over the course of his week here, Phelps won both the 100 and 200 flys; he also took part in two winning relays; so that's four golds. He took two silvers, both behind Lochte, in the 200 IM and the 200 free; and he was part of the bronze-winning 400 free relay.

In all, that's seven medals -- the most won by anyone here. Over his extraordinary career, Phelps has won 26 gold and 33 world championship medals; both are records.

The medley marked Phelps' last world championship swim. He has vowed that the London Games will see the end of his competitive swimming career. He said in a Twitter post that it was "wild" to think that Shanghai was his last worlds -- his first was in 2001, in Japan -- and "amazing" to finish with a gold medal.

At a news conference, Phelps again made the point that 2011 is a warm-up for 2012. Once more, he said it's time to buckle down:

"I said this 100 times this week and I'll say it 100 more. To swim fast you've got to be in good shape. Ryan is clearly working hard and is clearly in the best shape he has probably ever been [in]. That's why he's swimming how he is. You know, I just need to get back to what I did to get to where I am, and that's hard work and not giving up, and that really is the biggest key for me over the next 12 months."

The challenge for the American men is obviously not Lochte and Phelps.

It's this:

Clary won that silver in the 400 IM and a bronze in the 200 backstroke, both behind Lochte.

Tyler McGill took third in the 100 fly, behind Phelps.

Nobody else won anything.

To be fair, stuff happens. Adrian, for instance, who finished fourth in the 50 free, touched the wall one-hundredth of a second from third place. Nobody's blaming him for that -- that would be ridiculous.

Traditionally, though, the U.S. men are strong in the breaststroke and in a race such as the 100 back. "We know where we've got to get better," the U.S. men's coach, Eddie Reese, said Sunday night.

As for the inevitable -- before the "how many golds can Lochte win in London?" chatter gets overwhelming, remember that the eight Phelps won in Beijing broke down to five individual events and three relays.

One step further: The American men would seem a safe bet for 2012 in two of those relay, the 800 free and medley.

As for the 400 free, though, the one in which Jason Lezak saved the house in 2008 -- the Australians, led by James Magnussen, smoked the Americans in Shanghai. Magnussen went on to win the open 100 here as well. He is a force, and he's just 20 years old.

Magnussen swam the lead-off leg for the Aussies; Eamon Sullivan the anchor. After watching the destruction, Reese had said, "After we saw the first guy from Australia, we didn't know he could stay out there, that they'd stay out there. Their anchor man's got such a great history. He's the guy that scared me on the relay, more so than their lead-off man. But he now scares me more."

On Sunday night, Reese observed, "The world is getting better."

Before the Americans even get to Magnussen and the Aussies, they have to get by the French; after all, the U.S. finished third in that 400 relay, not second.

There's a year for the Americans themselves to get better. And maybe to find new talent. America's college ranks are filled with up-and-coming swimmers, too, Reese said; the U.S. nationals take place in just a few days.

It makes swim freaks geeked up already for the U.S. Trials next summer in Omaha. "I think," Reese said, "it's going to be the best meet any of us have ever seen."

Missy Franklin's breakout moment

SHANGHAI -- The entire American swim team gathered in the stands just behind the starting blocks Saturday night to cheer on the red, white and blue. Ricky Berens, winner of gold in the men's 800 free relay the night before, was among those sitting in the front row. With two laps to go in the women's 200 backstroke, he leapt to his feet. With one lap to go, everyone else joined in. Everyone started yelling, "Go, Missy!"

Go, she did.

Missy Franklin, the 16-year-old sensation, won the 200 back and in the process lowered the American record she had set the night before in qualifying, finishing in 2:05.10. Later in the evening, she anchored the U.S. women's medley relay team to its first victory at a world championships since 1998, in American-record time, 3:52.36.

On a night when Michael Phelps won his second gold of these championships in the 100 butterfly, timed in 50.71 seconds, even he was all too glad to applaud for Missy.

"She's unbelievable," Phelps said just moments after winning his own race. "She really has been able to come on the scene strong and I have said this all along: she's a stud."

Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, had observed earlier this week, "Missy is awesome. I think we'll remember [here] as when it all started. It reminds me of somebody I know."

The fact is, sports needs stars, and right now U.S. swimming arguably has four.

Phelps and, of course, Ryan Lochte, who has had a phenomenal 2011 worlds, with four golds -- so far -- and a world-record in the 200 individual medley. On the women's side, Natalie Coughlin and Dara Torres.

The U.S. women's team features some first-rate swimmers -- Rebecca Soni and Dana Vollmer, for instance, who swam on the medley Saturday, were individual gold medalists at these championships as well.

But, regrettably, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name any female U.S. swimmer but Dara and Natalie, and Dara isn't here, the Americans having picked their team last summer, when Dara wasn't in swim mode.

It may not be right and it may not be fair. But that's the way it is.

All of which only underscores the Phelps phenomenon. Before Phelps, were swim races shown on the big screen at NFL games? Here, a Phelps ad for a sportswear company is all over Shanghai bus stops.

Let that sink in for just a moment. An ad using an American swim star to push sporting gear is all over Chinese bus stops.

And Coughlin, of course, appeared on "Dancing with the Stars."

Swimming needs such stars.

That's why Missy's emergence here is so promising.

Because if she does at the London Olympics what she did here, America is going to swoon for Missy.

By next summer, you'll learn all about how Missy has size-13 feet. She's 6-feet-1. She still has braces on her teeth. Her coaches call her "Missile."

This fall, she'll be a junior in high school. She couldn't be sweeter to talk to. She has unbelievable positive energy.

"You have to go in there and trust yourself and know that if you set your mind to something, you can do it," she had said Friday. "I'm just going to out and represent the U.S. and have a blast."

At that point, she had won a silver in the 400 relay; a bronze in the 50 back; and a gold in the 800 relay, with a 200 split, a 1:55.05 leadoff leg, that would have won the 200 free by more than half a second.

In Friday's 200 back semifinals, she went an American-record 2:05.90.

"… She didn't even know it was an American record. I looked at her after the race," said Elisabeth Beisel, who had placed third in the heat, "and said, 'You know that was an American record? And she said, 'What? No way!' "

In winning Saturday's final, Missy lowered the American record to 2:05.10.

The medley combination -- Coughlin, Soni, Vollmer, Franklin -- ended up only 17-hundredths back of the world record. In a race that over the past several years has not been an American strength, this combination beat the next-closest team, China, by more than three seconds. That's a wow.

"I just knew if I went out there and did my best that my team would be proud of me," Missy said afterward.

"She is barely 16 and so strong and she has the maturity to handle the pressure of swimming," Coughlin said. "I know many of us have spoken … about how special it is. She gets so excited. She's genuinely happy and excited to race, like more so than any other swimmer on this team. All of us are trying to, you know, mimic that as much as possible. It's unbelievably refreshing to have her energy on the team."

Vollmer said, "Like she said, we're mimicking her energy the best that we can. Having someone on the team that comes in and it's just like, 'Ooh, yes, it's prelims!' It's really awesome to have that."

Coughlin: "LIke yesterday, before the 100 free, she said, 'Are you guys excited? Were like, 'Yeah, yeah.' "

At the traditional winners' news conference, a reporter asked Missy, "You're one of the faces of these championships now -- can you sum up .. how you feel?"

If you want to start swooning now, it's okay. Everyone here is.

"There really are no words to describe it right now," she said.

"i am so so happy. I have never been this happy in my entire life. It has been such an incredible meet. Everything was run perfectly. The pool was incredible. The crowd  was so energetic. I honestly couldn't ask for anything better. I am so thrilled right now."

Natalie Coughlin, sitting right next to Missy, said, "See what I mean?"