Verzbicas Pic Update

Why are we still talking about a quitter?

Carb illuminate wrote:

Your synopsis of being a "toolbox" or not...he goes to bed tonight as a world junior champion in the triathlon and a sub 4 minute miler.

Dude was a 22 year old high school senior. 3:59 is certainly not elite for someone that age.

This guy is indeed a toolbox, gypsy scam artist, and an age-cheat on par with most "junior" Kenyans.

Lukas is making north of $200k this year on sponsorship alone.

Listen, if the internet was around when Lance Armstrong was a Triathlete and he made the Lebron-decision to pick cycling over tri's, the whole Slowtwitch community would have been b!tching and moaning, "oh what a mistake". Lance ended up fine.

I think Lukas will end up fine.

I'm just glad we don't have to see or hear about him running.

Yes but people on here hate lance too sooo....apparently the onltbpeople free if criticism on this board are Bekele, Solinsky and...oh wait, that about all. Apparently you get to know a lot about people from watching them run.

Joe Mama wrote:

yet you forget to mention he d!cked over his team...

You would dick over your mother for the kind of money he left for.

Look, I'm not saying that Lukas should have stayed in Oregon through his freshman year. He certainly wasn't required to even stay at Oregon through the entire cross country season, as he aptly showed. The issue I think most of the people on here have is that Lukas left 2 weeks before NCAA regionals when the team absolutely needed him in order to qualify for NCAA nationals. The fact that he couldn't tough it out for another month and basically left his teammates high and dry when all he had to do was stick around for a month (or at least until after regionals) shows Lukas is a pretty big a$$hole.

In all fairness, he is a toolbox

LV is the product of helicopter parents, who controlled his every move. When he went to U of O, he probably spent hours every night on the phone with his parents, debating the efficacy of every training session, and mulling over his decision to choose running over triathlon, at least in the immediate sense. He probably had a 0.0 GPA, and just bailed, going back to Mommy and Daddy for comfort. Normal students do this every year and nobody cares, but he is no normal student, so it is more obvious.

It has been about five months since his switch to triathlon. What has he done? Any results?

FLCoach wrote:

http://twitter.com/Bob_Babbitt/status/192414143054221312/photo/1/large

I would say he is sponsored by Specialized...

It's just a blank twitter page, nothing there.

Verbo-Realist wrote:

Look, I'm not saying that Lukas should have stayed in Oregon through his freshman year. He certainly wasn't required to even stay at Oregon through the entire cross country season, as he aptly showed. The issue I think most of the people on here have is that Lukas left 2 weeks before NCAA regionals when the team absolutely needed him in order to qualify for NCAA nationals. The fact that he couldn't tough it out for another month and basically left his teammates high and dry when all he had to do was stick around for a month (or at least until after regionals) shows Lukas is a pretty big a$$hole.

I'm certainly not an LV fan, and don't care for him, but see nothing wrong with him leaving the team to do what he wanted. He did the right thing, and that's what life's all about.

If the team absolultely "needed him", they sound like a very needy bunch, all the better reason for him to get the heck out of there. Why weren't they just running for themselves.

If a bunch of weenies started whining at me that I had to give up my dreams to do this or that for them, I'd tell them to shove it and move on. That's the same thing that happened to Jeff Nelson at Oregon, who also did the right thing, and left. Good for him!

Look kiddies, when you go to college or wherever, the decisions you make are for you, and YOUR LIFE, and the people who are important to you in your life, your family, your loved ones, not any control freaks who try to force you to do things one way or the other, regardless who they are.

Always do what you feel is right for YOU, for your future in life. You're the only one who decides this, not anyone else.

Well said, JR!

I wished he was more interested in running...however, talk about double standards...I don't hear anyone crying over all the spoiled, pampered college basketball players, where the best are "one and done" -- one year in NCAA and then off to the NBA.

Fact is, if running was ever that lucrative, runners would do that too. I have 3 boys -- if any of them have the opportunity to make big money to play a GD sport, I'll support them all the way to let them do that.

All this romantic purity talk here is just naive in this 1% society.

Ok, enlighten us, what kind of money did he leave for?

Then I can properly respond to your statement.

I bet he comes crawling back to running after he realizes that tri's bring him so much less popularity than running. he probably lost half of his twitter followers.

I mean, it is the classic, switch to a rich person's sport so I can be the top dog. You call him the 'world champ' but I know plenty of runners who could do what he did (their names end in Kiplaget and they just didnt have all the wealth his parents have). Honestly, I hope the olympic the committee rules his unethical conduct as a disqualifier for the up coming olympics.

Also, I am glad another poster brought up the fact that he is old for his age. I know I forgot to mention that before, but it is true. And just look at the NCAA list, there are what, 30 runners (that would be his peers as far as age, not mentality, because he is mentally weak) now each year that dip under 4.

Uhhhhh, I'm pretty sure he wasn't "a 22 year old high school senior". He owes no one a thing.

He did dick over OU.

But there is a long history in Oregon of dicking people over

e.g Rupp & Rohatinsky running the '08 OT 5k heats, qualifying, and then scratching the final. Total dicks. They could have paid somebody to time trial them, but no, they had to run the gd race.....and showboat it.

That is the way people are in "track town". So LV's behaviour is not out of the ordinary.

I bet he is heartbroken half his fair weather followers on twitter stopped following him. You know plenty of top level runners who also cycle really well and swim really well? If there are so many runners his age that are better than him, and he wasn't performing as someone else had suggested, why is it such a big deal to his team if he left?

Joe Mama wrote:

I bet he comes crawling back to running after he realizes that tri's bring him so much less popularity than running.

Taller midget contest.