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Mr. McClelland's argument seems to be that America used to be good at the marathon until the sport became swamped with less competitive runners. I'm not certain where he gets that impression.
Looking at Olympic history, Americans dominated the event until 1924. Since then only two the two American men mentioned in the article (Frank Shorter and Mebrahtom Keflezighi) have won Olympic medals. I'm not certain where Mr. McClelland's perception that we recently were major players in the sport came from.
It is true that we used to dominate certain prestigious American events like the Boston Marathon and the New York Marathon. But once those events became international, rather than national, competitions that dominance faded.
For my part, I will continue America's proud tradition of mediocrity in long distance running. Mr. McClelland should take up the 400 meters, where America has won 19 out of the 26 available gold medals including 11 out of the last 13. That is, unless he his afraid that his participation will bring the elite runners' times down.
