"America hasn't won an Olympic marathon medal since 2004." American Men also didn't win a medal from 1980-2004, or between 1928 and 1968. http://en.wikipedia.o

"America hasn't won an Olympic marathon medal since 2004." American Men also didn't win a medal from 1980-2004, or between 1928 and 1968. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_athletics_(men)#Marathon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_at... The Marathon for women only started in 1984, and American's did not medal from 1988-2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_athletics_(women)#Marathon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_at... I'm not American, but American's have never been marathoners. It's an extremely shaky argument that the current generation is slower based on the statistics quoted in this article. If America sees a long-term decline in something like the 4x100 relay (running or swimming), then I'd say there might be some cause for concern, but I suspect more people are competing in running events as a whole, and most of those people are going to be slow, compared to the past when athletics was for athletes.