Forgotten White Athletes?

mastermulti said:

I had the pleasure of being there that day.
Light rain and a blustery wind (the track is very close to the coast) which gave us that +4.2 wind in the final. What a shame because 20 year old Tim really looked our first sub 10 possibility here in 1989. Beautiful sprinter!
They had him kicking that leg out in front a la FloJo before grounding to claw back more powerfully but in the end his knees starting getting hurt. His legal best never passed 10.26 in Tonsberg although he was a great 2nd leg runner in our then world number 8 ever (time 38.17) 4x100 team in 1995.

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Maybe because he disappeared similar to Kaiser Sose I had never heard of him as I recall all of the various world class male Australian sprinters from the Moscow Olympics to this season.

Since the sport is only a semi pro sport for all but the elite super stars the sport will lose competitors due to economics from first world countries much easier than countries in Africa...

jacknyc said:

Great jump by Kravets. I believe she was also a long jumper...?
Jonathan Edwards also set a WR in the triple jump at the 1995 WC in Gothenburg.
Unfortunately don't see too many white women triple jumping these days.

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yes, and he was still reaching nearly 18m up to 2003. An incredible jumper

Does anyone know what happened to Cole Beck? I searched and all I can find is articles from a year or two ago. Looks like he went undrafted in the NFL and then failed to make a team and just faded away. I guess track wasn't his thing but that's kind of ironic as he's technically the fastest white American of all time. Of course this hit piece article on him was the first thing that came up. Of course it's filled with errors as Lemaitre's PB is 9.92. All it takes is a simple search to find the 100 meter time of the fastest white man but apparently that's too much to ask for a useless piece of garbage like the author. This article is a great example of blatant racism and the fact that it's still up shows that racism is ok in today's society as long as it's directed at the right people.

The author of this piece is a white simp and hates his own race.....how sad. I find it "surprising" that a white guy with a sub 10 100m who played football could not catch on with an NFL team..... Even if all he ever did was return punts he would be massively dangerous every time he got his hands on the ball. Makes one wonder....right?

NWsoccerfan said:

Does anyone know what happened to Cole Beck? I searched and all I can find is articles from a year or two ago. Looks like he went undrafted in the NFL and then failed to make a team and just faded away. I guess track wasn't his thing but that's kind of ironic as he's technically the fastest white American of all time. Of course this hit piece article on him was the first thing that came up. Of course it's filled with errors as Lemaitre's PB is 9.92. All it takes is a simple search to find the 100 meter time of the fastest white man but apparently that's too much to ask for a useless piece of garbage like the author. This article is a great example of blatant racism and the fact that it's still up shows that racism is ok in today's society as long as it's directed at the right people.

Fastest White Guy Of All-Time Smoked In NCAA 100m Championship

Cole Beck, a WR at Virginia Tech, is also the Hokies' best sprinter. His incredible senior season came to a close at the NCAA Championship.

www.outkick.com

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That's quite a disgusting article, but it fits in with the rest of the writer's BS. I couldn't find anything in the past year on him either, I guess after not being signed in his 2024 Jets and Falcons minicamps, he has faded away completely. What I did find odd was that he wasn't mentioned at all in the 2024 US Olympic track and field trials, even though lots of articles presumed he would attend. So I wonder if his 2019 collarbone injury has had new complications, or if a focus on football made him not be in form for sprinting, though it definitely didn't seem a problem for 4 years after the injury.

His case is an odd one. The fastest time in the world that year (2023) was a 9.83 so his 9.97 wasn’t too far off the fastest guys. With some work he may have been able to get down into the 9.8’s and possibly make a relay team for the US. He is a very powerful runner when you watch him. He runs like a football player who wants to run through people so maybe a top coach could have refined him and turned him into a world elite sprinter. I guess we’ll never know now. And yes, he should have at least made a team as a receiver/returner. There are literally handfuls of blacks in the NFL who are undersized and underskilled but somehow make a roster because of their “speed”.

Why not try out for the UFL or the Canadian Football League?

News 21 Jun 2020​

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60 years on, Hary recounts his historic 10.0 100m world record​

Feature11 Jul 2025​

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The short, spectacular career of Phyllis Green - the first woman to high jump five feet​

White Lightning said:

https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/phyllis-green-high-jump-five-feet

Feature11 Jul 2025​

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The short, spectacular career of Phyllis Green - the first woman to high jump five feet​

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“A wonderful new girl athlete was discovered during the women's inter-club athletic contest at Stamford Bridge [in west London] on Saturday,” eulogised the British newspaper the Daily Mirror, alongside photos of her on their front page. “Though she is only just over 17 and was competing for the first time at an open meeting, Miss Phyllis Green broke world record.” ..............
"However, Green was back in action on 5 July, representing London in an inter-city match involving Brussels and Paris in the Belgian capital and once again cleared 1.51m. One week later, she returned to Stamford Bridge – on the grounds of what is now the home to two-time Champions League winners and Premier League powerhouse Chelsea – for the third edition of the Wormen’s Amateur Athletics Association (WAAA) Championships and duly made history by clearing 5’0” (1.524m)."

Trying to erase what we now process in our minds to be common place - and keeping in mind the era, women's place in society, lack of coaching, lack of high jump mats (they cleared a bar and fell onto sand), lack of role models etc, a just-turned 17 year old sissor high jumping 5 feet is amazing

I was looking into Matt Shirvington's progression (regression) after he promised great things in Malaysia. His annual best performances:
Two very good virtually equal years in 1998 and 1999, He basically held his own for only 1 more year (2000) then slowly regressed and thereafter, even with positive winds, he started losing speed.
So he had 3 years where sub 10 was possible with another 2 metres of wind (but still legal) - but those conditions only come given lots of competitions.
Basically, for many athletes it seems there are only a few years where the body can hold up to that intensity unless pharmaceutically assisted.

A quick article about Betty Robinson.
What a natural speedster she must have been!