I don't think enough good things can be said about Wariner in how he breaks down caste perceptions, at least in the USA. I myself thought of the 400m as the ultimate domain of the black man, an intermediate event where neither the raw power nor the great lungs of the white man could reach. It seemed to me the ultimate event of the long limbs, small torsos, and moderate strength of those of a west African mixture.
Really, if I was not so castified myself, I would have seen that a great sprinter like Michael Johnson had already broken all of my false rules about bodily proportions before Wariner had ever arrived on the scene.
And now there are so many good young white American 400 runners on the scene. Some will not develop beyond the collegiate level, simply because they will have better options in life with a more certain chance of success. But more Wariners are on the horizon -- and not just Andrew Rock -- and it is encouraging to see all the superb ones trackster posts in the video links; and it is likewise encouraging to see so many who are not quite at that same level but who are still good enough to make the relay squads at major universities. It does make me wonder, however, when watching these videos as to why there are so many "good" white 400 runners but comparatively fewer "elite" whites; and whether this in itself might be an indication that the difference between "good" and "elite" is largely a result of dope.
I know that there have been good white 400 runners throughout the world before Wariner, and even in the USA two white Minnesota collegians had the 1st and 3rd fastest times in the world in 2003 up to about June of that year. But Wariner has done it year after year and at such a high level as to have been the entire sport of track & field's man of the decade.
Wariner has had some injury problems for a few years, and has never made too big a deal about it, but simply worked through it. I think even in 2006 he had some problems, but still knocked down historic times. And in the Spring of 2008 he was set to run very fast, blazed a very fast early season relay, but then hurt himself somewhat and then maybe was somewhat demoralized between trying to compete with an HGH monster and the mistake of dumping his old coach. I still wonder whether he might have been drugged or something in that Olympic final; he was not the same runner who had jogged a low 44 in the semi-finals, and he really had no history of a sub-par performance when under pressure.
I agree with you, FastEuro, about Wariner's excellent prospects for this Summer. Well, I would agree, except that the article mentiones that he is engaged for a November wedding. Congratulations to him, but I wouldn't be surprised if things don't go as expected this year for him. Andrew Rock kind of fell off the map about the time that he got married. In any case, I wish them both the best.
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