Flashes of Panic

Sometimes, when I see USATF’s strategies for getting wider recognition for our star athletes, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. One that has me laughing (so far) is the poll currently on the USATF website: “Who would you most like to see try out for the TV show ‘Dancing with the Stars’?”

Now, I’m not familiar with this show (I don’t watch much TV) so I don’t know if they’re seriously considering having one of these athletes try out. So I just took it as a thought experiment: who would be most entertaining to see dancing?

It turns out that I voted for the current leader: Christian Cantwell, recently the national indoor champion in the shot put. He’s leading (narrowly) sprinter Wallace Spearmon and (widely) sprinter Lauryn Williams and distance runner Shalane Flanagan. Yes, this guy’s athletic specialty is throwing a sixteen-pound iron ball as far as possible. And, if you’ve ever watched the ensemble of motions putters use to transfer kinetic energy to the shot without stumbling out of the ring, you’d probably guess that he’d make a better dancer than most runners.

Plus, he’s huge. That has to be good for a few points somewhere.

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