IAAF Hall Of Fame, Class of 2013

[gh]

It's not "haste"; it's applying common sense to trying to sell your sport to the general public. Just because the hardcores who post here and know the sport inside-out get just excited years down the line, you don't have to peel back the onion for many layers of oldies (and I can consider 10 years very much an oldie for a modern audience) before you get into "who gives a shit" mode for the wider audience.

And that's one thing a HOF should be doing; continually engaging the sports fan as a whole. Those are the people whose opinions count, not ours.

[mump boy]

It's not "haste"; it's applying common sense to trying to sell your sport to the general public. Just because the hardcores who post here and know the sport inside-out get just excited years down the line, you don't have to peel back the onion for many layers of oldies (and I can consider 10 years very much an oldie for a modern audience) before you get into "who gives a shit" mode for the wider audience.

And that's one thing a HOF should be doing; continually engaging the sports fan as a whole. Those are the people whose opinions count, not ours.

Gaz no one gives a shit if it's 5 years or 50 years

The IAAF do such a crap job of selling to sport nobody was aware of Hall of Fame apart from us hardcore anyway

Also i don't believe the idea that it's only young people who should be courted is short sighted

[lionelp1]

Totally wrong on this one ,gh; selling the sport to the masses

Are you having a laugh at our expense. If one in 10,000 knows what a Hall of Fame is and that it now applies to athletics, I would be amazed.We are not impressing the great sporting public around the globe, who have heard of a few current athletes and that's it, mate.

Who needs a Hall of Fame; fans that care about track and field probably know some or most of the great athletes of the past. An American invention which is rather pointless, meaningless and slightly weird, in my opinion.

Good job cycling has not got one otherwise that fine upstanding shitbag, Armstrong, might have got in by 2012

[Powell]

What's IAAF's definition of retirement, anyway? Joan Benoit ran in the Boston marathon as recently as last year; would that make her ineligible until 2022?

[gh]

I could be confusing it with USATF requirements, but there is a rider that ignores "masters competition."

[Powell]

I could be confusing it with USATF requirements, but there is a rider that ignores "masters competition."

Marathons are not age-segregated, though. She just ran the race with everyone else.

Merlene Ottey also continues competing, being now in her 50s. She's no longer world class, but she competes in the open category, not in masters meets.

[26mi235]

The purpose is to separate the athletes from 'current' competitions because current/recent performances tend to loom over-large in our minds and to assure that additional performances of note are not still to come. When the athlete is so far from their PRs and has been for a long time I doubt that there is real confusion on either of these dimensions. Ottey continues to impress with what can be done as one ages (as does JBS) but that is not going to affect HoF considerations.

[gh]

Ottey ran in the European Championships this year; I don't consider her clock as having started.