Why are American track and field performers trotted out every four years, given a stars' reception, only to turn them into reclusive divas - but only at home - the rest of the quadrennium? It certainly doesn't happen in Europe, where sprinter Michael Johnson commands $60,000 per appearance, as well as a well-paid bodyguard.
Apparently, America doesn't "do" track, except every four years. Neither does American television.
"Every four years, people expect us to go out and conquer the world," said Payton Jordan, the 1968 U.S. Olympic track coach and coach emeritus at Stanford. "The rest of the time, we're ignored like we have the plague, kind of the orphan on the block. Track athletes are the stars of the stage. And if you don't have the stars, you don't have a show.
"We need to build a foundation every day, not just once every four years. We need to get back to the idea that track and field is of value to the world."
Jordan, nearing 80, spoke during a break on "The Olympics of Ancient Greece" tour several weeks ago in the Greek islands. He has carried the burning passion for his sport for nearly seven decades, holding it proudly aloft like a perpetual Olympic torch.
Jordan's biggest gripe is with television which, he says, needs to care about its coverage of track and field.
"They don't just let football telecasts happen," he said. "They work at presenting it from every angle. They don't miss anything when it comes to football, baseball and basketball. They even make golf fascinating.
"There is responsibility as well as a privilege when presenting a sport and they don't know what they're doing with track and field half of the time. I had the pleasure of being involved with one of the greatest track and field meets in history in 1962 between the U.S. and Russia. It drew 155,000 and it was the greatest track show ABC ever did. Somewhere along the way, they forgot what made that show so good."
There was no television in 1932, when the teen-age Jordan sat in the Los Angeles Coliseum watching Ben Eastman and Ralph Metcalf perform in the Games. He turned to his mother and said, "I want to be a part of this."
"We're all dreamers, we're all inspired by the strangest things," Jordan said. "I saw the crowd. I saw the stadium. I was inspired."
As a sprinter, he went on to captain the Southern Cal track teams of 1938 and '39, hoping for a shot at the 1940 Olympics. World War II intervened; there were no Games for some of the greatest athletes of the time.
"I regret I didn't have the opportunity to go to the Olympics," Jordan said. "I would have liked to have had the chance to try. But I feel lucky because I came back from the war and many of my friends didn't.
"My reward came later and it was one of the greatest rewards of a person's life: to be the head coach of the United States Olympic track team in 1968. So I did get to the Olympics, even if it was the hard way. But it was a wonderful, wonderful road I traveled, every inch of the way."
Jordan, a gracious and engaging man, had many wonderful stories to share. From the coaching intricacies and intimacies of the 1968 track team in Mexico City - particularly the "Black Power Salute" - to his delight in Hawaii's Duncan Macdonald, a 1976 Olympian at 5,000 meters whom Jordan coached at Stanford.
"Duncan was a true Olympian because he ran for the joy of it," Jordan said of Macdonald, a Punahou School graduate and anesthesiologist who resides in Lanikai. "His talent wasn't something that happened by accident, he worked hard. I think he had a real good balance between seriously living up to his potential while at the same time having a unique sense of humor.
"All Duncan did was the first sub-4 minute mile at Stanford. All he did was run an American record at 5,000 meters that had been held by the great Steve Prefontaine of Oregon. He's one of America's great, great athletes. And on top of that, he's a great guy."
Jordan wants to carry his message of sportsmanship and goodwill for as long as he can.
He'd like to see amateurism remain central to the Olympics and boot the millionaires from the NBA out of the Games. Jordan is also very vocal when it comes to the amount of corporate sponsorship that should be allowed.
"We cannot let the corporate bottom line distort and abort the true value of ancient Greece and modern Olympism," he said. "We need the corporations, we need them desperately, but on our terms. There is nothing wrong with striving to produce income but it has to be controlled and administered properly."
Jordan has been asked many times what makes a champion. Two elements are essential in his mind: commitment and gratitude.
"You have to take charge of that commitment and make it realistic and attainable," he said. "And you have to be able to say thanks because no one is an island unto themselves."
Thank YOU, Coach Jordan.