Her friends say, oh, ‘Legally Blonde’ passed the Bar! It’s British steeplechaser Lizzie Bird

Her friends say, oh, ‘Legally Blonde’ passed the Bar! It’s British steeplechaser Lizzie Bird

ROME – Which is better, running in the Olympics for the British team, or passing the Colorado Bar Exam?

Running in the Olympics for the first time – or the second?

Running in the Olympics with no fans – or having your family there to cheer for you?

All in all, it’s very interesting being 29-year-old Lizzie Bird, who late Sunday night here at the European track and field championships all but assured herself of a second Games when, by a margin of roughly four-plus seconds after 3000 meters – about 1.86 miles – she finished third in the steeplechase, in 9 minutes, 18.39 seconds.

Damn straight this Israeli team raced for the hostages: 'we are here, we are strong'

Damn straight this Israeli team raced for the hostages: 'we are here, we are strong'

ROME – All of the useful idiots who maintain Israelis are colonial oppressors would do well to take a look at the happy impromptu team pictures after the men’s half-marathon here Sunday at the European track and field championships.

The Israelis sent six runners. All six are Ethiopian Jews. Translation: they are black. Complete translation: they are fully, completely, thoroughly Israeli. Three finished in the top 10, led by Budapest 2023 world championship marathon silver medalist Maru Teferi, who on Sunday finished fourth.

That earned Israel the team silver medal in the men’s half. And to the obvious question: yes, the four hostages freed Saturday in Gaza were on their minds and, yes, damn straight they were racing for them.

When it comes to track and field, he's the - one and only - rock of Gibraltar

When it comes to track and field, he's the - one and only - rock of Gibraltar

ROME – The gun went off in the third of three heats here Friday night in the men’s 100 at the European track and field championships and, as expected, Craig Gill fell behind early and finished last.

 It’s not just that Gill finished last in his heat. Twenty-four guys lined up in the three heats. One was DQ’d. That means 23 finished. Gill’s time ended up being 23rd of 23, 11.17 seconds. The guy who was 22nd, Francesco Sansovini, of San Marino, was a full 62-hundredths better, in 10.55. There’s a phrase in track for guys like Craig Gill, observed with affection: DFL.

 All good. For real.

Res ipsa loquitur: from the Kersee files

Res ipsa loquitur: from the Kersee files

Speaking generally, track and field needs — almost everyone rooting for the sport to do better agrees on this — to matter more, especially among the key 18- to 34-year-old demographic. The May 25 Prefontaine Classic, the biggest one-day meet in the United States, drew 1.17 million viewers overall but only 73,000 in the 18-34 category. An early ESPN SportsCenter that same Saturday morning drew 77,000. 

The sport has a hard time making the case that it should matter more than a weekend a.m. SportsCenter or, for that matter, the May 25 Indiana-Vegas WNBA game — 73k on NBA TV, 18-34 demo — when track and field’s biggest stars do not race as often as they — pick your word here — should, could, might. 

Is that because of Injury? Yes. Is it because of a slew of other issues? Yes. Is it because of money, of which there is not enough in track and field? The question answers itself. 

Scattergories bordering on idiocy: too many track meets, and in 2024, only two matter

Scattergories bordering on idiocy: too many track meets, and in 2024, only two matter

Attention, track and field nerds. This past weekend featured:

1/ the LA Grand Prix, on Friday and Saturday, at UCLA

2/ another Continental Tour Gold meet, in Tokyo, Sunday

3/ a Diamond League meet in Marrakesh, Sunday

4/ the Atlanta City Games, Saturday

5/ World Athletics Combined Events Tour (decathlon, heptathlon) in Götzis, Austria, Sunday

6/ and for the true specialists, World Athletics Race Walk Tour Gold meet in La Coruna, Spain, Saturday

The purist may say, look at the robust nature of the sport.

Anyone else says, this is scattergories bordering on idiocy.

The message the Olympic world needs to hear: Pay the athletes. Especially on the podium

The message the Olympic world needs to hear: Pay the athletes. Especially on the podium

Change or be changed, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach says.

Seb Coe, the head of World Athletics, must feel right now as if he’s living in parallel worlds.

He’s got his athletes telling him he’s, like, the greatest — amid a plan to pay $50,000 to winners at the Paris Games. That’s change. Big change.

Then he’s got critics. Lots of critics. Including institutional critics within the Olympic world.

Finally, an admission: Plans B and C. Let's save face: Plan C, off the river, to the stadium, now

Finally, an admission: Plans B and C. Let's save face: Plan C, off the river, to the stadium, now

In December, after a man with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist near the Eiffel Tower, the French sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castréa told France Inter radio, looking ahead to the opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Games, that there was no Plan B.

Of course, there was.

On Monday, the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, said there was in fact not only a Plan B but a Plan C: Plan B would be “limited to the Trocadero,” across from the Eiffel, Plan C, “even moved to the Stade de France,” a traditional stadium-style event.

Let’s save face and get to Plan C. Now.

The world has changed, Seb Coe says: track and field winners at Games to get paid

The world has changed, Seb Coe says: track and field winners at Games to get paid

A few weeks back came the announcement of the Friendship Games, to be held in Russia in September. Total prize money across all sports: $100 million. Winners get $40,000. Second place, $25,000. Third: $17,000.

On Wednesday, World Athletics, the No. 1 sport in the Olympic landscape, made a precedent-setting move, announcing it would pay gold medalists at the Paris Games. Total prize money: $2.4 million. Winners across each of the four dozen track and field events will receive $50,000 each. Relay teams will split the $50k. Starting in Los Angeles in 2028, silver and bronze medalists will also be paid. 

The timing may seem like World Athletics is following the Russians. To be clear, very clear: it is not. 

“I have to accept the world has changed,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Wednesday in an interview with Steve Scott at ITV.

Caitlin Clark: very good basketball player. But 'growing the game'? Reality check

Caitlin Clark: very good basketball player. But 'growing the game'? Reality check

But that does not mean Caitlin Clark is single-handedly growing the game. 

With South Carolina having defeated Iowa, 87-75, in the NCAA women’s tournament final, these conclusions:

Caitlin Clark is a very good basketball player. But not, not hardly, the greatest of all time.

There’s a fantasy world in which people want to believe stuff. It feels good, sure. And then there is reality.

Sitting ducks, in a boat on the River. Plan B, please. Give peace a chance, really

Sitting ducks, in a boat on the River. Plan B, please. Give peace a chance, really

Four months ago, in the first week of December 2023, I wrote that the Paris 2024 opening ceremony needed a Plan B.

Since then, I have had dozens of conversations with people inside and outside the Olympic movement. No one has said the idea of a flotilla of boats, the athletes of the world floating down the River Seine for six kilometers, or three-plus miles, is good. Almost everyone has said the same thing about this idea: it’s flawed.

For the sake of all that is decent in our world, the hope here is that they pull it off. But it so obviously seems the farthest thing from safe.