the Athing Mu Worlds saga demonstrates something important about track fans...

Saying Mu doesn’t care makes no sense. She has said she feels a lot of pressure, and it sounds like a lot of anxiety in the days leading up to a race. If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t feel pressure or anxiety.

I think the problem is the opposite: she cares too much.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

The GOATS are those that embrace the process over concern for the outcome. We would never be having such a discussion about Gebreselassie or Rudisha.

Its hard to be a fan of a disinterested athlete. There are some people so talented or determined that they can succeed despite not enjoying the sport. US fans don't like these folks. Galen Rupp doesn't have a lot of fans because he is so camera shy and competes so sparingly but at least with someone like him he gives the impression that there is a grand strategy to his racing, leading to peaking at the right times.

Mu is trying to separate her modelling and track and appeal separately on the basis of both. I just don't see this working as there are a lot of women as attractive (or even more) than Mu and some are other athletes in T&F or other sports who care about their sports much more deeply, drawing in the fans to whatever product lines they represent. There are probably a lot of models who which they had a talent in a sport to draw in fans so they wouldn't be so beholden to companies, have to do day long shoots, etc. Very few models have dedicated fan bases the way athletes do, though models can be paid a lot more.

I suspect not running worlds will be disastrous for Mu's brand if that is the route she choses to go and she has the opportunity to do severe harm to her brand to if she gives any more interviews or puts out statements reflecting any dispassion for the sport of Athletics.

That’s exactly what she’s been doing by taking a break from racing.

I wonder if she had a positive test?

remember when we were all wondering why Houlihan wasn’t racing for 6-7 months and the team was giving us the bag of reasons too while the case was developing?

Ask the fans who are filling up multiple threads with 15 pages and so clearly care!

Imagine the Denver Nuggets making the NBA finals and Nikola Jokic says he’s all of a sudden not gonna play, but doesn’t provide any sort of reason as to why. Are Denver fans supposed to just say “alright that’s fine”? Fans care about athletes they like! That’s why we’re here talking about this. People need to stop acting like fans can’t be curious as to why an athlete makes a massive decision like this out of nowhere, with zero transparency behind it. Obviously, nobody here knows what’s going on aside from her coaching mentioning focusing on next season. As fans, we WANT her to compete and succeed (especially for team USA) and therefore have every right to be disappointed or confused with a decision like this.

A strained analogy. Different sports.

As I've said, the woman has done nothing wrong. People, for very dubious reasons are fabricating, manipulating and gaslighting. Stop. You're making yourself look bad and desperate. This forum is such a weird place where people come literally on the hour to dump their insecurities, anxieties and inadequacies by using the anonymity of the internet.

What will you all do in the future when there are 5 Athing's dominating middle and distance events for the US ? *****silence*****

She'll be a great hand model until the wrinkles show.

I guess then she'll fall back on her A&M education-- what classes did she take again?

What in God's name is this post?

The OP was very respectful, made a solid original post, and just in general...what in God's name prompted this response?

Thanks for the post. That's an interesting perspective. Helped give me some more insight into this.

Let me tell you about T&F fans. Ninety-nine plus percent of T&F fans are only opinionated online.

> Review Minnesota Vikings v. Green Bay Packers games in Minnesota pre-1982.

> Review original Cleveland Browns football games.

> Review Philadelphia Eagles football games at old Veterans Stadium.

> Review Oakland Raiders/L.A. Raiders football games.

> Review L.A. Dodgers v. San Francisco Giants baseball games.

T&F fans are well behaved at stadiums and almost always well behaved in the pubs.

The two things needed to be a top pro runner is talent and drive. Love of sport helps but not essential. If Mu is more motivated toward modeling than running that is her choice. She definitely has the talent. The only thing her and her coach has to remember is that the world of women's 8oo meter running is not going to wait for her. They will be training hard and developing while she sits it out.

I care about Mu because she has awesome natural talent in the 800m. If she wants to go into modeling, that's her choice. I can't name one professional model and don't care anything about them. If Mu wants to model, she's of no further interest to me although I wish her the best. My interest will move on to the excellence and hard work of other women 800m runners. She doesn't owe me anything and I don't owe her any interest.

female 800m will be great with or without Mu. Hope she runs, but that is her choice.

Good point.

I am a track and field fan and Mu is not very high on the list of athletes I care about.

That being said, IMHO, and it's only my opinion, that is a HUGE waste of natural talent and really sad.

We really don't know why she's not competing.

I think that Mu and Mu's coach Bobby Kersee realize that Mu's chance for endorsement deals and modeling opportunities and the resulting big payoffs are based solely on how well she does in the Olympics. No one cares whether she races this summer, outside of a few thousand serious track fans. Kersee knows she can't completely disappear, but she doesn't have to actually race to get her name in social media.

If she races, she needs to win to avoid tarnishing her reputation, but training seriously for a race means peaking, tapering, and racing. That takes time away from training. Given the big goal, I could see how skipping these summer races makes sense. In ten years, no one will care who wins. Heck, no one will care in two years. Olympic Champions, on the other hand, are remembered for decades and get their photos on Wheaties boxes and the cover of ESPN.