Jerry Maguire wrote:
I'm sorry. Call me a hater.
This is absurd and ridiculous. At a bare minimum it is unhealthy for our sport to promote these grand unchecked fantasies boosted by media outlets looking for "clicks". It's a JOKE! Seriously.
To talk of Olympic GOLD, totally skip over being Top 3 at the Trials, skip over the part where you run a time to even give you a chance at top 3 at the Trials, is stupid. It's embarrassing and a total sham. Average people on social media believe this crap and will actually consider her a legit medal contender.
How is anyone embracing this garbage?
I would have much more respect if her stated goal was to make the Olympic Team in the Marathon.
It's not a joke nor is it disrespectful given the context. She is an olympic gold medalist at the top of her sport. She is "career switching" into another sport that is closely related to that sport.
Consider for example reading an announcement by Eluid Kipchoge that he is quitting marathon running to pursue trying to be a decent domestic elite cyclist in the US. That sounds weird to us, because it frames the goal as someone highly successful setting a comparative goal of relative mediocrity compared to where they were. Yes, if Kipchoge said he was quitting marathons to win the TdF we would all know it's a grandiose fantasy that is very unlikely to ever happen...but it's the only thing that makes sense. You don't quite something you're great at to chase mediocrity elsewhere.
Her dreaming and wanting to chase an Olympic gold is no different than a HS kid dreaming of being a 5000m champion on the track someday. Neither are close to their goals, and neither really have any ideal what they are capable of. Are we going to crucify HS runners for wanting to be great? Why are we doing the same with Gwen?