Please pop the real one. wrote:
800 dude wrote:Nobody who doesn't know her personally has any clue whether going pro was a mistake for her personally, but there's nothing to indicate that her troubles are a result of that decision.
It's worth remembering that she was ALREADY world class in high school. If she had just continued running the same times, then NCAA competition would have been a waste of time. You can't learn racing tactics from people who aren't in your league. She was good enough at 18 that it was entirely realistic for her to focus her efforts on the Olympics and WCs. It's entirely different from when Rupp went pro out of high school and he was still years from being world class.
As for the stress and pressure of going pro, it's not clear to me that there's any difference between that and what you face in the NCAA. As a prodigy, you're under a microscope either way. Just ask Alan Webb. And moving thousands of miles from home? That's what most collegiate runners do.
Everyone wants to talk about what she missed out on by not running in the NCAA. The problem is that we're all looking back to our own college experiences, which we think we wouldn't trade for anything. But we don't really know what we're talking about because we don't really understand the alternative that's available to a world class runner. Most of us have never traveled around the world for meets, made friends with athletes from other countries, been introduced by name over a loudspeaker in a foreign language, or received a shipment of brand new Team USA gear. And if we were ever fortunate enough to stand on a podium at a global championship, we'd probably say that just about whatever it took was worth it.
I agree with everything you said.
I would also add onto your last point. As collegiate runners, we also forget that plenty of non athletes really valued the social experience they had in college. Those experiences range widely and fit the individual. It would have been entirely possible that she would end up getting more out of a "normal" college experience than the experience of an athlete.
Agree with both. Kinda an interesting dilemma for the 2013 Cain. If she went the NCAA route, she would've had all the great social and team-bonding experiences but her times would've stagnated anyway, as she would've been training and racing with runners far below her level. She would've been placing high in the fast heats of collegiate meets like Payton Jordan, but running in the 4:09-4:13 range for most of it. Having come off running 4:04 and making WCs, that would probably be torture for her having to step back for a few years from what she knows she's capable of.
On the other hand, she goes the pro route, lives alone, is a Nike lab rat, spends all her time with pro athletes married and way out of college, flying by herself to meets across the country while trying to fit in her schoolwork, with none of the team bonding aspects and twice the pressure to perform, still runs way off her PRs anyway.
Almost seems like you're cursed either way as a teenage star. The athletes who were able to succeed as pros were ones like Simpson and Coburn that rose steadily through the collegiate ranks until they were on top by their junior or senior year. Got all the good team experiences during their tenure while still being challenged to improve. Sets up well for a good pro career.