Both Nico Young & Katelyn Tuohy Speak Out

Yeah I'm glad Tuohy doesn't go on this site at all. Aside from the gross posts about puberty, she's also been accused of being a bad sport because she didn't shake everyone's hand after a race...because she was tired.

Can you drop the relevant times in the interviews?

Too little information. Didn't read.

What did she say?

What's the point of being cryptic or trying to get us to read whatever is at your other link. We're not going to read that.

This would seem so obvious. Why read it if you think it’s toxic? Everyone has a right to express their own opinion. these folks certainly would not like other people deciding what they can or cannot say.

57:26 she says a mean word about LRC

I listened to the entire podcast, it was worth my time:

The first 17 minutes are about her background and how she was noticed as a pre-HS success and her coach, parents, etc. encouraging her to run:
HS pressure talk starts at 19:06. She does not like the media, she does not like going through comments even though she is famous.
Emma said she's never seen that many likes/comments (30,000 likes). KT does not post much on SM anyways. She suggests that KT's teammates run the fan page.
KT does not like taking photos of herself either (20:16).
She has a secret Instagram (20:21) but it's her and a few friends. She likes it better than her actual (20:45).

She deals with pressure well. In HS she handled it well through her junior year, but she was oblivious. When she realized the pressure/expectations were on her she was stressed (21:22) and her parents suggested she quit. Same thing in her first year of college.
In HS, she didn't really cope but just ran through it.
Emma said on her pod that running is mental (22:14). She said KT was mature in handling pressure (22:28). Her inner circle knew what was up (22:53) with her struggles. She was competitive with herself (23:35-23:50) and said she'd beat herself up if she wasn't as good as she wanted.

There's a good story about winning the title:
Senior year at NXN regionals--24:21--her teammate Haley wanted to qualify individually. Race before Haley didn't run well but she did well enough for her and KT to run at NXN together. Haley is at Boston College.

Why NC State? (25:43):
Because a lot of people told her she went to the wrong school.
She liked the people and atmosphere and would be happy.
28:43--the world is too small in the running world and everyone is bored, so they make things up/gossip.
29:02--she switched to business from engineering. She was going to do biomedical engineering. Emma was in business, and it was a good option if you are not sure what you want (29:41).

HS to college transition (29:52):

First year was rough, she was injured. She had pressure/expectations. No running from June to November 2020.
Non-running transition was difficult due to online school; she came in during covid. She didn't have a set schedule.
She was only injured for first semester but improved her second semester freshman year.
It's nice having teammates vs. running on her own (33:02). She liked getting beat at college by more experienced runners, but respected them and wanted that challenge.

Winning the team title:
37:47--winning the team title, it's cool doing something bigger than yourself. We ran the race and finished with 5 All-Americans. 18 seconds was the spread.
Went to the bell tower after the race but they never had a moment as a team, until practice the next Monday. Letting it marinate (40:02).
41:11--even when Emma's team won nobody celebrated when their plane landed in Terra Haute, it was anti-climactic.
There was all sorts of food at 41:48 at the hotel, that was a cool moment at the hotel after they won. They don't really have hobbies (44:25) other than playing games and hanging out with the teammates.
Any runner doesn't have time to have hobbies (44:48), per Emma. She hates asking that question.
KT then asks Emma the same question, and she likes social media, and that became her job. She is good at knitting and making friendship bracelets.

Tough workouts:
In HS, she did the broken 300/300s, so a 300, then 30s break (do them in 45-47 each), then 300 (47:41).
Emma's was a 600-400-300-200 after injury. Last 400 of hers had to be cut into 2 200s.
52:02--burnout/plateau, every year at the end of XC or track she'd get burned out. She'd take a step away but she loves training (52:54).

Strength: Hard work
Weakness: Going over the line

(53:18), she makes her coaches mad. She'd run EZ runs at 6:xx pace. HS kids go too fast for EZ race. Coaches yell at her (54:43) for doing extra cross training.

She loves training and running and feels grateful (55:13), and love the act of running itself.
Even if she wasn't good she'd still run longer races like 26.2 and ultras (56:05-56:10) but if she was truly bad she wouldn't go to college for running. You just don't know, because everyone's PR is different (Emma).

Criticism she's faced (57:10):
People give unsolicited advice. 57:26 she says F that site (LRC). When you are doing bad it's bad (58:05) on your mental state. Emma agrees.
She struggled with pressure in HS (58:22) partially possibly due to LRC.
Advice to herself (59:26), don't take running too seriously. At the end of HS she started having more fun with it. Don't let criticism get to you.
HSers are so fast now and everyone wants to get fast, but HS should be enjoyed (Emma, 1:00:05), and they enjoyed their experience.

Conclusion:
Those girls probably had an easier time in HS than most though due to their fame, to be fair. But at least they recognize it.
Emma is a VERY good interviewer; she asks open-ended questions, she doesn't interrupt, and as a great runner herself, she knows the sport and how to talk about it.

Thanks for the summary! Anyone care to do one for Nico's interview?

Compared to what highschool basketball players go through this is nothing. Not to minimize her frustration. I just think you gotta filter it out mentally.

I agree that this was definitely one of Emma's stronger interviews. It worked well because it was conversational in that both ladies are similar in age and have the shared experience of competing at the highest level in NCAA running, yet Emma is able to still know when to revert to the more traditional question and answer format of a typical interview. Bravo. fun listen on my run this morning.

i love how she calls out LRC, she has EVERY right to say "fk that site"

this site also earned a lot off tuohy's name

dont start an argument .. why even compare a team sport to an individual sport and to a dual sport athlete who is under the spotlight since she was a 7TH GRADER!

did they plan this together?

Ok do you want me to bring up gymnastics? Throughout history with fame and talent pressure cane alongside it. She's complaining about something that absolutely won't change ever lol

And if anything it's worse for a team sport player because they have to uplift their teammates and go off. You ever see the videos of Trae young or other highschool stars going to a gym where they are chanting overrated the entire time? I bet Tuohy has never had to deal with that lol.

I remember in highschool the night before the state championships my coach told me not to look at the milesplit forum and the meet preview and to just run my race. Across all sports though you shouldn't read comments about yourself like that. The Internet is a dangerous place

it is true that sports will always have a ton of external pressure at the highest levels. And that pressure can come every bit as much from the biggest supporters keeping names in the limelight, as it does from the naysayers. sometimes more.

Abrahamson has always had a gift in her ability to make her interviews feel laid back and informal and relaxed while still actually getting substance from the interview (theres a fine line between a quality talk with friends and peers and just a meandering focusless conversation). This isnt the first time shes interviewed Tuohy. She has the benefit of being someone Tuohy looked up to when she was in high school and Abrahamson was a popular food blogger who knew all of Tuohy's heroes. I recall one interview where Tuohy said she went and tried to get ingredients for some recipes she had blogged about but couldnt afford the fancy rice she used.

more like her mom didnt want her to buy it coz it costs so much more than the regular

They are children

To think Richard Williams was criticized for shielding his daughters from this before they reached HS age.

If you're going to blame letsrun and other sites (tullyrunners, dyestat, milesplit) then coaches and parents need to share in the blame.

I’m only on Letsrun because I’m not good at running. If I were good at running I would avoid this place like the plague. I don’t think it’s hypocritical to use this site but also acknowledge it can be toxic.

Very strong point. It would have been different had it not been a NCAA and/or elite runner who interviewed her. They both have shared experiences yet Emma also was able to not only ask questions well, but get it back on track and not let it just drift into banter.