Track and field "is no longer trustworthy, if it ever
was, and seeing is not believing," according to Tom Knott of
the WASHINGTON TIMES, who writes, "You don't know what is
real and what is the product of good chemistry. You don't
know whether to cheer or to wait for the results of the
urine samples." The sport's officials "have every reason"
to want the drug issue "to disappear," as they "know the
sport is struggling in America." Knott: "They know each new
revelation of a positive test result is only one more reason
for the American public to ignore the sport, except during
the Olympics" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 8/30). ESPN's "The Sports
Reporters" discussed the state of track and field with the
World Championships taking place in Seville. ESPN's Mitch
Albom: "Track and field is the worst-marketed sport of any
major sport that I can think of because, while it thinks of
itself as a sport, as a collective sport, it's a bunch of
individuals with their own agents and their own sort of
agendas and they can never seem to get together to market
themselves as a unit to the American public the way the NBA,
or the NFL or baseball or hockey" (ESPN, 8/29).
WAKING UP THE JONESES: In Chicago, Philip Hersh wrote
that sprinter Marion Jones' "image suffered after she was
forced to withdraw from" last week's World Championships due
to a back injury. Hersh: "The situation seemed badly
handled by an inexperienced management team that sources say
is both cowed and controlled by her" husband C.J. Hunter.
Hersh: "Jones came to Spain as the brightest new worldwide
star in her sport and a likely cover subject for U.S.
newsweekly previews of the 2000 Olympics. She left as not
even the biggest U.S. star in the sport" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE,
8/29). But the FINANCIAL TIMES' Peter Aspden wrote that
Jones "is everything athletics needs to bolster its flawed
image." Aspden: "So long as new generations of unsullied
talents such as Jones and her fellow American sprinter
Maurice Green emerge, athletics can move forward with a
certain confidence" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/28).
