Videos by OutKick
What does insanity look like? It was on display Wednesday at the Summit High School track in Bend, Oregon where the mask police — the Oregon Health Authority — forced athletes to wear masks during competition.
That includes the 800-meter race — two laps around a track — where a runner named Maggie Williams was well on her way to crushing a school record in the event and, according to the Bend Bulletin, well on her way to a win when she started to fall just meters from the finish line.
“I was pushing so hard and everything went blurry and I just fell,” Williams told the newspaper. “But luckily I fell at the right spot and crossed the line with my head.”
The mask police will say she just pushed herself too far. Her coach, Dave Turnbull, thinks the mask rule is a ticking time bomb.
“I am concerned with the mask rule,” he told Bulletin reporter Brian Rathbone. “This is what I am worried about, and I said this at the beginning of the season. You get a kid running the 800 with a mask on, it is actually dangerous. They don’t get the oxygen that they need. This rule needs to change.”

Turnbull called Williams’ situation “complete oxygen debt.”
Long-time Oregonian columnist John Canzano unloaded on state officials Friday and called for the lifting on the dumb mask rule for track athletes.
“The OSAA ought to be in the business of protecting high school athletes. It should not leave the state coaches, parents and this columnist alone to demand a sensible fix. The Oregon Health Authority needs to ask why it’s fine with civilian runners being maskless outdoors but not good with children running on a track or a cross country meet,” Canzano wrote.
On a Facebook post, Turnbull posted an update explaining where the state is at heading into the weekend.
“The good news is that the OSAA is working hard with the OHA to remove the mask restrictions,” Turnbull wrote. “I sent them pics of Maggie hitting the ground. I warned them of this in a meeting over a month ago. Respiration requirements in events from 400 too 3K are far too high for masks. Moreover, carbon dioxide isn’t fully removed from the mask upon inhalation. The very reason we wear the masks to protect others, is now a liability for the athlete when they increase respiration to the levels these athletes need.”
What would the state do if Turnbull and other coaches just told their runners to compete without the masks? One could only imagine the mask police would try to have him jailed, removed from his teaching job and take his pension.
That said, Turnbull’s begging the state to lift its rules before someone is permanently injured over lack of oxygen.
“Look at the science of Covid transmission outside. It has been non-existent. Why are track athletes still required to run in a mask? What metrics are you following?” the track coach said Wednesday.
“I am so incredibly proud of this young lady for her efforts, but I’m worried about the next fall.”
This kid! Maggie Williams. Old school record 2:11 and change by the incredible Izzy Max! Today in a full mask, she…
Posted by David Turnbull on Wednesday, April 21, 2021
“The good news is that the OSAA is working hard with the OHA to remove the mask restrictions…” Working hard?!? How about simply noting that this practice is dumber than dirt, and to stop it right now.
There, that wasn’t so hard.
I live in the Northwest. Oregon’s “leadership” wants to make masks mandatory, at least within businesses, indefinitely now, regardless of being vaccinated twice or what the CDC says
I think the problem is the coach making his players put on the stupid masks to begin with. There’s no way a coach should voluntarily put his players in danger, physical danger. Why are you going along with it??? Any doctor on earth would tell you you don’t put anything over your face when doing aerobic activity or you may very well drop dead from lack of oxygen. You’re Just telling your players to risk their lives because someone said so? Come on!Coaches need to have a back bone and say no. If the school says you have to then you hand them your notice and explain to the children and parents That the school system does not have their children’s health interest in mind whatsoever
A track coach got fired in New Hampshire a few weeks ago for allowing his runners to go maskless. In the “Live Free or Die” state. I can only imagine what they would do in the People’s Republic of Oregon
I know it’s ridiculous and I don’t want people to lose their jobs. But when you think about it, do you really want to work at a place where you have to work like this? No one can possibly love track that much! I love baseball, I love football, I love basketball, but if the place I’m coaching is asking me to put my players lives on the line on a political whim it’s peace out! Run for your life And tell the players and parents to do the same. Best move you’ve ever made.
“But did you die?”
Sadly, until someone does, they will not stop. And not even then. Parents, where are you?
How did we get to this point in America? People have become conformist. No one questions anything anymore. Just for her being stupid, she deserved to pass out for wearing a mask while running a long distance race. Who in their right mind would wear a mask while running?
I thought this was as dumb as it gets, but Bumbling Biden just wore a mask on a zoom call. There’s got to be pushback or this shit or it will never stop. This incident is the perfect time for the parents to get the team (in union, and for their safety) to reject this stupid rule.
80% of America’s adults are collectively hysterical psychopaths, malignant cancerous cells, hopeless idiots and irreversibly conditioned to do nothing except pursue pleasure.
Consumerism and cell phones have destroyed the human spirit
Coach a moron? Yes.
OHA members are morons? Yes.
OSAA staff are morons? Yes.
Biggest morons? These kids’ parents! Seriously, what the #I$%? I argue that it is child abuse to ever allow your child to wear a mask, but when they are involved in physically-taxing activities, there is no argument: you are endangering the health and welfare of your children.
50% of US citizens are sadists.
I think there’s a lot of oxygen deprivation to the brain going on these days….
Unfortunately, none of this is going to stop. This is about more than stupid mask requirements. it’s about control and power. The schools in Oregon are teaching kids critical race theory, that America is irredeemably racist. This is happening everywhere. There are probably some parents in Oregon who are pushing back on the stupidity but most people in the US are too busy and too complacent to fight back. When they do fight back, the powers-that-be simply say that they are right and the fighters are racists. Education, media, and corporations are filled with Marxists. I know this is a bit off-topic, but dontbemalignant’s comments are true. I think that fighting back is not working. I don’t know what will.