Keely is a 20 year old getting Silver medals at global championships. If she a has a bit of fun it is all good. You see these athletes dropping out of competitions due to their mental health? Keely sounds as if she is doing just fine. Do you remember being 20? Maybe you wanted to have some fun too?
Again. That's not how you prepare your body for the challenge of a lifetime, with three major outdoor championships and a Diamond League chase. She ran out of steam this season, didn't approach her breakthrough season best and lost more times than people probably expected.
If she wants to have her fun, sure, go ahead. That's not what brought her to stardom and clearly was a bad choice for the off-season.
This is ridiculous. Letting loose for a couple of weeks in the off season has no impact on running 8 months later. Athletes need to relax, enjoy themselves, take time off. It’s not only ridiculous, it’s actually counter-productive to believe athletes can and should be on 24/7, live like monks all year, and never have any fun. That’s a recipe for pressure, burnout, and mental exhaustion that leads to physical injury. Hodgkinson has had a ton of high pressure races. Going to the club last summer has nothing to do with her being tired now.
The posts on Mu and and McLaughlin are equally silly. People on here want young athletes to go hard constantly, do nothing but race, have no fun, take no breaks, compete a million races a year…it’s smart for young athletes to take it at their own pace, race within their capabilities, and leave time for long-term development.
The same people will be the ones screaming “washed up” when an athlete ends up getting constantly injured and is miserable.
Hodgkinson had three championships this year and still lined up in multiple diamond leagues while Mu and Syd were too scared to run.
This is a tad misleading on the championships as Mu's path to winning the US title was harder than Keely's to the Euro Title. More rounds, better competition. Keely had the bye so she didn't run at British Champs. So really it was 2 to 3 in terms of major competitions with rounds. I admire that Keely went after DL glory and Mu assuredly didn't. "Scared to run" though? With McLaughlin, that must be a joke. For Mu, COVID knocked her out of Pre and it seems like it was a tough season for her. Was she scared to defend her title or just content with her earnings and hardware on the season? I'd bet the latter.
At least she races unlike MU. Where is she, or Sydney? Scared to race in case of the unlikely event they get beaten. That's no way to be. Hodgkinson competes.
The olympic games, and to a lesser extent, the world champs have crossover appeal, but the diamond league draws zero interest from a casual track and field fan in America. I would love to see more of them race on the circuit, but totally understand why they dont. Its inconvenient for all (besides pre they are all in europe), for some its because they arent competitive/invited (all of our mens 800/1500 runners) and for others its because they are so dominant why bother maintaining fitness/risking injury or burnout when you are focused on global medals (Mu and Syd). surprised Lyles even shows up to be honest, but he seems to perform his best in these events that carry less expectations/pressure than the olympics while still being highly relevant in T&F.
Haha stop it - this was her 13th 800m race in just under 4 months and the first one she finished worst than second place. Not bad for a 20 year old.
The bigger question I have been having with a friend is what her ultimate potential is time wise. She ran 1.55.88 at 19 so something under 1.55 would seem obvious however this year it's 1.56.38. I think it will be tough for her to break 1.55 - it's only ever been done by drug cheats or DSD athletes, so to do so means she is the absolute pinnacle of clean, female talent ever and I don't know if she is quite that. She is clearly a superb athlete already and will be at least in the near future relevant in all global meets but it's possible she might have got close to her best even at 19, which is a phenomena we have seen before.
She may be a superb athlete, however Keeley spent a wee bit of her 2021 off-season partying and carrying on. She's the first to admit she had a little streak of club visits going on.
That's not how you prepare your body for the challenge of a lifetime, with three major outdoor championships and a Diamond League chase.
Less of the sauce, less of the James Bond movie scene and 100% focus on being the best version of herself would probably have netted better results and more in the tank at season's end.
And yet ironically, not just being a single-focussed running robot may actually help her long her.
Right now she's pretty damn accomplished and will make good money at least until 26 - maybe she's okay with that and not living a miserable life where running is EVERYTHING.
She had too many, pressure packed, competitions this year. The mind and body can only rise to the occasion so many times. However, in my opinion, she is a fine runner who may eventually win a gold in a major global championship.
Well, talk about a full year! Keely had to plan for 4 major championships! Starting in February, where she ran the fastest indoor 800m for something like a couple of decades. Goes to the World Indoors as the hot favourite but withdraws injured. Has the busiest, most pressurised outdoor season over 800m than any other 800m athlete ( World, Commonwealth, and European Championships). She looked stressed and tired at the European Championships, and she should have ended her season there. But, next year will seem like a walk in the park with just the outdoor World Championships. I see this year as the end of her apprenticeship, and next year she will emerge faster and stronger.
Again. That's not how you prepare your body for the challenge of a lifetime, with three major outdoor championships and a Diamond League chase. She ran out of steam this season, didn't approach her breakthrough season best and lost more times than people probably expected.
If she wants to have her fun, sure, go ahead. That's not what brought her to stardom and clearly was a bad choice for the off-season.
This is ridiculous. Letting loose for a couple of weeks in the off season has no impact on running 8 months later. Athletes need to relax, enjoy themselves, take time off. It’s not only ridiculous, it’s actually counter-productive to believe athletes can and should be on 24/7, live like monks all year, and never have any fun. That’s a recipe for pressure, burnout, and mental exhaustion that leads to physical injury. Hodgkinson has had a ton of high pressure races. Going to the club last summer has nothing to do with her being tired now.
The posts on Mu and and McLaughlin are equally silly. People on here want young athletes to go hard constantly, do nothing but race, have no fun, take no breaks, compete a million races a year…it’s smart for young athletes to take it at their own pace, race within their capabilities, and leave time for long-term development.
The same people will be the ones screaming “washed up” when an athlete ends up getting constantly injured and is miserable.
When you realize that many of these posters are truly jealous as hell of these athletes you learn to just chuckle at the ignorant comments on the forum. These a-holes expect the athletes to run at every meet that THEY deem important or career defining. She is 20 yrs old, she isn't old enough to have anything career defining at this point, her career just started. This board dragged Athing Mu for not competing after Worlds even though she came back from COVID and injury to compete at worlds then complained that she didn't dominate enough for their liking. I could never understand the hate this board had for Matthew Centrowitz. They complained that his Olympic medal was somehow less valuable because his time wasn't great. He still accomplished what many of these people could not, he had the talent and drive to do it while they didn't.
This is ridiculous. Letting loose for a couple of weeks in the off season has no impact on running 8 months later. Athletes need to relax, enjoy themselves, take time off. It’s not only ridiculous, it’s actually counter-productive to believe athletes can and should be on 24/7, live like monks all year, and never have any fun. That’s a recipe for pressure, burnout, and mental exhaustion that leads to physical injury. Hodgkinson has had a ton of high pressure races. Going to the club last summer has nothing to do with her being tired now.
The posts on Mu and and McLaughlin are equally silly. People on here want young athletes to go hard constantly, do nothing but race, have no fun, take no breaks, compete a million races a year…it’s smart for young athletes to take it at their own pace, race within their capabilities, and leave time for long-term development.
The same people will be the ones screaming “washed up” when an athlete ends up getting constantly injured and is miserable.
You missed the important part of drinks at those late nighters. Listen, did Keely do anything different this past off-season than the previous one that netted her an Olympic gold? Yes. None of the down voting changes this fundamental fact.
You missed the important part of drinks at those late nighters. Listen, did Keely do anything different this past off-season than the previous one that netted her an Olympic gold? Yes. None of the down voting changes this fundamental fact.
Olympic gold?!? You're an idiot. And I don't use that term loosely.
Whether or not she ever wins an OG or WC gold, she's already had one helluva career.
Haha stop it - this was her 13th 800m race in just under 4 months and the first one she finished worst than second place. Not bad for a 20 year old.
The bigger question I have been having with a friend is what her ultimate potential is time wise. She ran 1.55.88 at 19 so something under 1.55 would seem obvious however this year it's 1.56.38. I think it will be tough for her to break 1.55 - it's only ever been done by drug cheats or DSD athletes, so to do so means she is the absolute pinnacle of clean, female talent ever and I don't know if she is quite that. She is clearly a superb athlete already and will be at least in the near future relevant in all global meets but it's possible she might have got close to her best even at 19, which is a phenomena we have seen before.
You think she can run under 1:55??!!
it is possible to have reached near peak performance by the age of 19. 1:55.50 at best.
Haha stop it - this was her 13th 800m race in just under 4 months and the first one she finished worst than second place. Not bad for a 20 year old.
The bigger question I have been having with a friend is what her ultimate potential is time wise. She ran 1.55.88 at 19 so something under 1.55 would seem obvious however this year it's 1.56.38. I think it will be tough for her to break 1.55 - it's only ever been done by drug cheats or DSD athletes, so to do so means she is the absolute pinnacle of clean, female talent ever and I don't know if she is quite that. She is clearly a superb athlete already and will be at least in the near future relevant in all global meets but it's possible she might have got close to her best even at 19, which is a phenomena we have seen before.
You think she can run under 1:55??!!
it is possible to have reached near peak performance by the age of 19. 1:55.50 at best.
Keely will definitely run 1min 54sec - if she has to! This year, with her ridiculously heavy programme of events - and injury setbacks - was not the year for pbs, but next year's programme will seem like a walk in the park.
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