NEW YORK AP Greg Foster one of the newest members of the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame is now on the other side of his sport and he isn't happy with its status. Foster a sports agent is depressed about the decline of athletics in the United States. ``When we're losing meets annually it's not good'' the hurdling great said Tuesday. ``I tell kids nowadays how good track and field was when I was coming out of college UCLA. At that time we had about 12 meets indoors and 12 outdoors all in this country.'' Foster was the 1984 Olympic silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles and the 1983 1987 and 1991 world champion. He was world-ranked for 15 of the 16 years from 1977-92. He laments that today's athletes have few opportunities to compete in this country. Instead they are forced to go to Europe where meets and money are plentiful. ``Not being able to compete in front of the U.S. fans hurts them'' he said. ``They can't showcase their talents. ``The sport has changed drastically. For those who are saying it hasn't they're not paying attention. ``It's not at rock bottom. They'll always be someone there to prevent it from hitting rock bottom. There are those of us who love the sport too much to let that happen. It's a slow decline. But there's a big difference from what I experienced and what I'm experiencing now.'' When Foster was in his prime and there were no shortage of meets he often competed against Renaldo Nehemiah the former world record-holder. While Nehemiah who was elected into the Hall of Fame last year had the best of their confrontations the head-to-head meetings were compelling. Those kinds of rivalries brought out crowds and made for the best competition. Now interest in athletics in the United States has never been lower. Foster points to other factors in the decline: lack of closeness between athletes and fans uncooperative athletes shortage of sponsors. Foster recalls that when he competed athletes would mingle with spectators afterward signing autographs posing for pictures and simply talking heightening the camaraderie. Before meets he enjoyed going to the host city and helping the promoter at clinics and other events. ``Until the athletes realize how important the sponsors are and give back to the sponsors the sport will suffer'' he said. ``They have to learn to make the sport fan-friendly. It's wasn't so much me publicizing the meet as the meet publicizing me. I've run in Times Square I've run at Magic Mountain I've run at Madison Square Garden ...'' The sport's downfall he said has resulted in a lack of quality athletes. That has forced some athletes other than sprinters to run on relay teams in international meets and college dual meets. A prime example was Allen Johnson the two-time world champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the 110 hurdles who was drafted for the winning U.S. 1600-meter relay team at the 1997 World Championships Still Foster thinks the United States which has dominated Olympic track will remain the world's No. 1 track power. ``But the gap is closing'' he said. ``The fact that we didn't win the 4 x 100 relay at the Atlanta Games shows that it's closing. We didn't lose before unless we dropped the baton.'' He says the sport's future lies with the athletes. ``The athletes have to learn to make the sport exciting'' he said. ``Just to show up and run is not enough.'' Foster will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Thursday at a luncheon sponsored by Xerox at USA Track and Field's convention in Orlando Florida. Joining him in the Hall will be discus thrower Jay Silvester women's distance runner Francie Larrieu-Smith and high jumper Dwight Stone. The four inductees will bring the Hall's membership to 176. APW19981201.0696.txt.body.html APW19981201.0844.txt.body.html