I think I’m having an out-of-body experience.

As a hard-core Track and Field fan who seriously follows the sport all year, every year, I’m having to get out of my own skin in order to gain the perspective of the general sports fan who eats, sleeps and breathes for such sporting commodities as say…football, basketball or baseball.

Considering my own particular passion, I understand the obsessive nature of sports fandom. But why does that fanaticism normally exist at the exclusion of what might possibly be the oldest and purest of all sports?

In any given day during the year, Track and Field athletes are competing at all levels somewhere in the world, yet most sports fans—especially here in America—are either unaware or uninterested.

Except during those two weeks of magic in the summer of an Olympics year.

Then, Track and Field becomes the premier draw in what is arguably the most concentrated gathering of elite athletes on the planet.

Quite a leap forward for a sport normally relegated to the back pages of the sports section during the other 36 months and 50 weeks of the quadrennium.

And so, as I mystically hover above my diehard fanatic self, I’m asking this question: Why doesn’t the temporary fervor generated by the casual fan toward Track and Field during the Olympics carry over to the non-Olympic years?

After all, in two of those non-Olympic years the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships provide a global stage almost as prestigious as the Olympics. And new world records occur much more frequently in non-Olympic settings. Also, at the elite professional level—when one considers prize money, appearance fees and shoe endorsements—financial compensation for the athlete is approaching the level of the big three (NFL, NBA, MLB).

And did I mention that nearly every major pro meet in the world can be seen via live internet stream, if not via live TV?

Within the sport, “experts” have been asking where the former glory of the sport has gone. A tainted image brought on by high-profile drug cheats is an almost universal answer. Some cite poor marketing techniques or lack of quality media exposure. Still others point to a refusal (so far) to adopt the modern “extravaganza” approach typified by the Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Weekend.

Although it doesn’t solicit it directly, Track and Field does benefit from an Olympics media coverage which comes close to the Super Bowl in terms of hype in promoting its featured sport. (Therein might lie part of the answer I’m seeking).

Another segment within the sport argues that with the emergence of charismatic superstars such as Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva and Jessica Ennis, the sport is actually on the upswing. Still, the days of seeing USA vs. USSR or Coe vs. Ovett plastered across the top of the typical American sports page are long since passed.

So it is with a bit of urgency that I now ask you, the reader, what it is Track and Field must do to keep your attention, on a yearly—or even monthly—basis. Use the comments section below to enlighten me.

And could you hurry? I’m in a literal state of suspension and I’m eager to get back into my old familiar Olympic-frenzied, rabid self.

Things to look forward to this year:

Indoor season (collegiate and pro)—underway now through March.

Outdoor season—April through September (in the northern hemisphere)

US Olympic Trials (team selection)—Eugene, OR: June 22-July 1

XXX Olympic Games—London, UK: July 27-August 12

The American 100-meter record-holder (9.69) Tyson Gay is looking to expand his repertoire across the entire spectrum of competitive sprints.  He already is one of sprinting’s most versatile runners, being the only person ever to have accomplished sprinting’s hat trick: a sub-10 100m, a sub-20 200m and a sub-45 400m (44.89). Gay is also the fastest man all-time on the 200m-straight (19.41).

Last year in Zurich, he ran the third leg on a makeshift 4x100m relay team which won in 37.45, the world’s fourth fastest time ever.  Gay is now in pursuit of a personal dream to participate on a world-class 4x400m relay team—with perhaps the 2011 World Championships or the 2012 Summer Olympics as his stage.

An interesting collaboration at the April 9 Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium may provide a revealing launching point for that dream.

Teaming up with former World and Olympic 400m Champion Jeremy Wariner (43.45) and two other sub-45 runners, Lionel Larry (44.63) and Reggie Witherspoon (44.99), Gay should have a successful launch—at least on paper.

That’s four runners with sub-45 credentials! At the very least, the meet record of 2:59.86 should be in jeopardy.  At 28, Gay has to be looking at the 2012 London Games as his last real shot at an elusive Olympic gold medal. While his 2010 season included his notorious defeat of Usain Bolt, a world-leading 9.78 100m, and that 200m-straight record, the short sprints are becoming extremely competitive.

Make no mistake, Gay has as good a chance as anyone (Bolt included) to stand at the top of the podium in the sprints in London.  But considering the American team’s dismal 4×100 results on the world’s biggest stages—and the Jamaican ascendancy in that event—the 4x400m relay may provide him with his best opportunity.

But first things first.

Gay, with little experience running the 4×4, is still a small fish in a big 400m pond. It would serve him well to adhere to Boldon’s point no. 9:

“No one ever remembers the pain, but medals are forever. Push! No one ever died from a workout. Post-career regret sucks.”

The Winter Olympics ended with a bang yesterday, but not before perhaps the biggest event of the Olympics ended in a thriller.  Before the day began, USA was in pursuit of breaking the medals record for any one country in the Winter Olympics. However, that wasn’t the only record in pursuit of that day.

The Canadians, in their backyard, were trying to break the record that they had tied the day before for the most gold medals for any one country in the Winter Olympics.  80% of the people in Canada at some point yesterday tuned in to this game, it was not to see if their respective countries broke the medal records.  The citizens of the United States were not tuned in to watch them total the most medals in a Winter Olympics since 1932.

Both of these countries were tuned in for the biggest hockey game of the year. USA versus Canada, the game lived up to the hype.  USA had beaten the mighty Canadian team just a week before 5-3, but now this game had a whole new meaning. Americans enjoyed watching flashbacks to Lake Placid, when USA played a bunch of college kids and beat all the teams of the world for the gold 30 years prior.

Canadians didn’t care about the previous 13 golds the country had won prior to this event. The only one that mattered was the Dream Team the Canadians had on the ice taking on their most bitter rival USA.  The game itself was a thriller.  Canada went up 2-0 by the middle of the second period. Goaltender Ryan Miller knew that a 3-0 lead would be too insurmountable for the US to make a comeback. Another goal would not pass him in regulation time.

Team USA got off to a quick start in the second period, scoring a quick goal.  The lead was cut to 2-1 and the US were skating hard and fast, attacking the Canadians.  Both teams fought hard and put all they had on the line for the gold medal. The third period only had a minute left with the score still 2-1 in favor of Canada seemingly that they would just hang on for the win in the final minute.

Then just like the miracle on ice 30 years earlier, Zach Parise scored with 24 seconds left in the game to tie it and send it in to overtime.  Everyone in America screamed for joy as the puck off of Zach Parise’s stick hit the back of the net. USA had a chance for gold heading into overtime with all the momentum on their side.  There was 10 minutes of hard hitting hockey played through overtime without either country seemingly gaining an edge.

Finally Sidney Crosby, the young Wayne Gretzky, got a clear shot on net and it slipped by Ryan Miller’s stick side.  Americans sat in disbelief feeling this is not the way this fairy tale story was supposed to end. However, America still had to feel proud and keep their heads held high, after all team USA wasn’t even supposed to Medal and they nearly beat the best team in the world.

Bode Miller is one of the best Alpine Skiers in the world, he has rebounded from his poor performance in Torino to win three medals at the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. It seems Bode is unattached at the moment, which may be a reason for his success.

Discovering the women in Miller’s life was not as easy as with mainstream athletes, Miller works his trade all over the globe. Once I found pictures of all of them, I will have to say that Mr. Miller has represented himself well when it comes to his taste in women.

He has a some variety too, but as he has gotten older it seems he has developed a type he seems to stick with now. So enjoy the women who have come and gone in Bode’s life.

Susie Abromeit (2002 – 2003)

Born, November 15th, 1982 in Boston Massachusetts, she was on the Dean’s list and Honor Roll at Duke University.

Sven, how could you? How could you have thrown away the gold medal by failing to change lanes and skate on the inside when you were supposed to be on the outside? It’s one of the biggest mistakes ever in sports.

In his defense he had help not the only one that ruined it for himself, he had assistance from his coach Gerard Kemkers. Kemkers gave Kramer the wrong information about which lane he needed to be in en route to his Pyrrhic victory.  Disastrous coaching. Disastrous skating. It all adds up to…a disqualification. If this doesn’t make you the laughingstock of Dutch speed skating, Sven Kramer, I don’t know what will.

The worst part about all of this is that the Olympics only come around once every four years, so Kramer will have four years to think about this and stew over it.  In the Netherlands where speed skating is as popular as football is in this country, I would avoid going out in public too much if I were Kemkers.  But telling an athlete the wrong lane to be in is just inexcusable, so as a result I am inducting Sven Kramer and Gerard Kemkers into the Sports Session Hall of Fail.  Welcome to the hall fellas!!!