Rupp looked so confident today. Put in some great miles and did plenty of the work. If he had sat on the back of the pack he would have easily been at least 3rd.
Rupp looked so confident today. Put in some great miles and did plenty of the work. If he had sat on the back of the pack he would have easily been at least 3rd.
…..except he didn’t. Instead, a clean athlete not coached by a lifetime ban recipient gets to represent the country.
Exactly. He has no idea what he was taking from AS and what it will do to his kids and his own health in the future. Bad move on his part. No common sense. And to let AS massage him. Wow.
Rupp was compelling during his best years. He was a villain 50 weeks of the year but when he was great, he was great and gave us some fine performances on the global stage even if it all seemed...manufactured.
Mantz and Young also make Rupp look as cool as Miles Davis.
It seems Rupp's best days are behind him, but let's not forget the massive impact he's left on US distance running over the last decade+.
I remember being in college when he was tearing up the US Indoor scene and running those massive workouts after breaking records. It blew my mind that he could run a sub-4 mile, then go crush every pr I've ever run doing reps in a workout.
I also remember watching his Rio Marathon live. I was so pumped seeing him stay with that lead pack as runner after runner dropped out. I was screaming at my tv for the last few miles!
What are your favorite Rupp memories?
My favorite Rupp memory was when he cheated in the 2016 Olympic Marathon by wearing illegal prototypes that nobody behind him had, even the other Nike athletes. Same at the 2016 trials.
My second favorite Rupp memory was when he cheated to "win" the 2017 Chicago marathon by bringing a pacer despite that pacers were prohibited.
My third favorite was when he tried to cheat to set the half-marathon record on a point-to-point course in Rome. If you watch the video, you can see Salazar in the lead cart calling out the splits he needed to break 59:43. It wouldn't have counted but he no doubt would have tried to claim this as a record.
My fourth favorite was when his doctor charts revealed he took testosterone medication.
My fifth favorite was when Salazar told the team masseuse that he would do Rupp's massage, having already tested exactly how much testosterone cream you can give an adult male without triggering a positive test.
My sixth favorite was when Salazar was overheard asking if Rupp remembered to take his prednisone (a banned PED).
That's just 6 off the top of my head. So many more memories to choose from
Well, these are all good except for #3 you don't know if he would have claimed the record, although the guy who does hold that record also claims "fastest marathon (2:04:56)" on his social media bio even though that 2:04:56 is on a course that's not record eligible and run with a massive tailwind.
If any of you hating on Rupp who are so certain of his devilish nefariousness actually think Grant Fisher is clean, then I would urge you to think a bit more objectively. The drugs Fisher’s teammate and likely old coach was involved with are way more serious than anything salazar was ever involved with.
You think Nuguse and Ingebrigsten are using testosterone gel and inhalers? and what do you think the rest of the world is using to run 12:40’s and 2:01’s-2:02’s, L-carnitine?!
I appreciate Galen's effort today, he ran to make the team. He got dropped past the halfway mark, but finished the race. Not easy, that took guts, and resolve.
Whatever comes next, it's been a great career. The 2nd American Record in the 10,000 stands out. Rupp won, and also beat the great competitor Paul Tanui, who finished ahead of Galen in the 2103 and 2015 WC, as well as the Olympics. But in their fastest match in Eugene, Rupp kicked away with 800 to go.
Rupp was not a world beater at the 5000, but he had some good moments -- outkicking Lagat at the trials in 2012, Outkicking Merga while nabbing 2nd (to Mo Farah) at Birmingham in 2011, and best of all, getting to the podium in the Diamond League Final in Zurich in 2014 -