Molly Seidel: "Who’s the GOAT?’ Who fucking cares? Who’s got the story that’s going to get people excited?”

Don’t much like or agree with the quote. For me it’s kind of difficult to imagine someone who’s a big fan of the sport at the highest level saying that, but it’s odd to think that an Olympic bronze medalist wouldn’t be a true fan of world class running. Personally, I think a 2:25 marathoner who’s overcome an illness, difficult childhood, etc. is nice for the sport, but at the end of the day I want to watch the front of the race.

The GOAT discussions are in recognition of the sport’s greatest athletes (obviously). Why would an Olympic athlete say “who [expletive] cares?”

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Somewhat related, I think: I don’t like efforts to try to make casual joggers into fans by bombarding them with human interest stories, and I don’t think it works. I think a more professional, no-nonsense approach that appeals to existing fans is the best way to catch people’s interest. For comparison, there are very niche winter sports that should be boring on surface level, but hold people’s interests for 2 weeks because they’re presented as real sports, a little niche universe unto themselves.

Who the F@&$ cares about Molly Seidel?

I'm actually not inspired by runners at all, I'm inspired by the ThrustSSC, a jet powered car, developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss. Whereas Kelvin Kiptum ran a marathon at a mere 20.998 km/hr, this car has the true land speed record record of 1220 km/hr.

I think people who are inspired by greatness and sheer performance me should look past runners for inspiration. Molly is wrong. Stories are boring. All that matter are specs. I care about velocity, fuel efficiency at speed, and materials used to fight the sound barrier. I really don't get why people care about human speed at all when we've got the technology to move far faster.

Running fast is enough. That is what I'm interested in. It takes great human qualities to be the best: hard work, focus,commitment, courage and the ability to perform under pressure. Very few people have these qualities or perform at the highest level in any endeavor.

Running fast is enough form me

In 40 years of coaching I have yet to have a conversation about GOAT. Don't care (like Molly) and have too much to do trying to coach athletes to be better than talking about things that are really just 'pissing" contests. Unlike seemingly Americans mostly, there are a lot of ways to enjoy the sport without accusing people of doping, or caring about who arbitrarily is the best (whatever that means?). It is NOT a testament of following the sport, in fact it seems mostly the childish and juvenile (of whom there are many, if not the majority, on this site) who go on about this silly topic. The topic can never have a definitive answer and just exposes the personal and cultural biases of the posters on the subject.

Rojo

Did Molly ever thinking that talking about who is the greatest is what gets a lot of fans excited in sports including track and field? Especially when both of GOAT contenders are active and competing at a high level.

Hey Molly who cares , I care.

No. The truth is, neither the GOAT conversation nor the "great story" matter one little bit.

I run with a hobbyjogger group, it's fun, it's social, it's healthy, a bunch of people enjoying a shared activity. You would think that because they're runners, they would have some interest in the sport.

I promise you that 98% of the people in the group cannot name ONE professional runner. That is not an exaggeration. And they're runners! Runners who have never heard of any famous runners. And if they can name any pro runners, it's probably Pre or Karnazes or equivalent.

They may have heard that "some dude" broke the world record at Chicago, but ONLY because some of their friends ran Chicago. And they certainly can't name him. If their friends hadn't run Chicago, I can GUARANTEE you that they would not even know the Chicago Marathon had even taken place this weekend.

I recently asked a running friend, who has run multiple marathons, if he could guess what the world marathon record was. He guessed 2:30.

This is something that competitive runners don't ever seem to understand. The vast majority of runners do not follow the sport at all. They couldn't be less interested. They don't know who Eliud Kipchoge is. They don't know who Sifan Hassan is. They don't know who Galen Rupp is. If you mention any of those names you get a blank stare in return. They may know who Molly Seidel is, but if they do it's only because of social media.

So the thought that if you get more people participating in running, more of them will tune in to watch is completely erroneous. They won't.

And that's why there was virtually no way to watch the race. No one outside of a small core group of running fans wanted to watch it. There's no money in that.

Running is a great sport, I'm both a participant and a big fan. But it is never going to have appeal to the general public.

Never.

Kipchoge doesn't have a story. People like him cause he runs fast and usually wins.

His "story" is he races twice a year and spends the other 363 days at home. That's not a story, unless the lack of story is the story.

Wish he raced more but it works for him, more to the point it's not a story.

Glad they posted a link to a thread on this forum that I contributed to.

I didn't care at all about Kelvin Kiptum until it was revealed he runs 180 miles a week. Now I want a Netflix documentary. Even if it's just about running, eating and sleeping I would watch. Cam Levins can play a minor part/supporting talking head.

Maybe it could be a series based on doubts of a world record. The first ep would be, is it the training? The second episode could be about supershoes with Netflix doing experiments on a control group. Let's see a 9-minute miler break 7. The third ep is investigative and about drugs and spying on agents with bad records. The fourth is a feelgood episode about talent and mental fortitude. Kipchoge only gets a minute to quote from Who Ate My Cheese. Sifan Hassan gets a lot of time. Everything she says will be subtitled and delightful. Jakob gets to wag his No. 1 finger as does Faith Kipyegon. Everyone talks about running junior cross barefoot.

Easy Chief!

Nothing wrong with idle conversation as to who is The Greatest Of All Time in a sport in which someone competes in. How do you associate a "pissing contest" with who is the most accomplished runner?

After 40 years of coaching I find it hard to believe you've never had a G.O.A.T conversation. No coaching friends?

I think this is the real truth of the matter. Among running fans on this website, GOAT conversations are far more interesting than "relatable" runners. That's pretty clear from this thread alone. If you need more proof, just look at what runners get the most attention on this site: Jakob, Kipchoge, Kipyegon, Hassan, Noah Lyles, Sha'Carri, etc—all at the top of the sport.

But among the US population as a whole, neither GOAT conversations nor Molly Seidel-esque "relatable" runners are going to do anything to get people more interested in the sport. Bottom line is, Molly is just trying to promote her brand by making comments like these (and she seems pretty successful, given all this attention).

Molly is right. NYC 1982 nailed it. The world was gunning for Salazar, and he took them all down. Just saying.

She's somewhat correct. The NFL knows how to grow the sport and reap the finances. That's why Taylor Swift is at games and media coverage is endless. Her fans are now buying NFL tickets and not all of them will stay around when Taylor is no longer the draw. But some of them might because of the attention. Taylor's dating an NFL player is the excitement in the media and she's bringing revenue to the game. Yet major marathons are not getting media coverage or exposure via ESPN or hardly any sports channels unless the running enthusiasts pay per view. That's not how you grow the sport of running. Lack of media exposure is why running events are out of sight and out of mind.

GOAT boring. I find it more compelling when an underdog wins. Or someone I've been watching improve.

You obviously don't know contracts. I'd be STUNNED if Molly Seidel's contract with Puma isn't for more than what Kiptum makes from Nike. Seriously, certainly before the world record.

Now Kiptum's contract will go up A LOT now and he made $150k in prize money in Chicago, but to act like Seidel is some nothing in the sport is absurd. I didn't start this thread to see a bunch of insecure men rip Seidel. I started it as I thought it was an interesting post intellectually.

Plus it's a bit ironic. If Molly Seidel wasn't a former HS and NCAA champion and an Olympic bronze medallist, RW wouldn't be doing a 5,000 word feature on her to begin with - thus her quote to me makes no sense intellectually. What are we supposed to do - fall in love with every person in America in a marathon who is struggling with a mental health crisis? Now, I do like to know about my stars. It's absurd to me for example that a runner can get paid six figures to run the Chicago Marathon but then decline a post-race media request.

But you have to be a star for me to really care in the first place.

Kipchoge is nearly a household name, not because of an inspiring personality or interesting lifestyle, but due to being a MF’g assassin on game day. How else do you explain a quiet, African, long-distance runner having 2.4M IG followers?

Compare that to the outspoken and complicated American girl, Molly Seidel, and her 234K followers, most of which are only know of her because of her bronze medal.

american distance running sucks, no good times and just terrible athelete personalities