I'm surprised that Mu doesn't have more work ethic. Her parents must have raised her to have more than she has - they emigrated, as war refugees from South Sudan for better prospects. Athing has had opportunities her parents could only have dreamed of at the same age. Any modeling contracts she gains are going to be linked to her fame as an athlete, because in the highly competitive world of young models, she isn't going to make it otherwise. But she just doesn't seem to have the work ethic in athletics. She can't always be injured all year long except for 6 weeks in summer. She needs to practice her race craft more, because the 800m is highly tactical and she is a bit of a wrecking ball.
Also, Kersee seems to have an effect on some of his athletes of making them dislike racing and being anxious and nervous when they do race. I think Athing needs to be in a bigger middle distance group where she can benefit from the team ethic. I also don't see the point in basing herself somewhere like LA where the air quality is really poor. Does her group even do altitude training camps?
Why would a sprint group do altitude training???
Mu is a middle distance athlete. Is she really the only non-sprint athlete in that group? The British 800m runners spend a proportion of the year training at altitude. Or at very least they go to Potschefstroom which is nearly at altitude.
Mu's demise is an absolutely catastrophic failure of coaching and lack of preparation by the coach. She obviously has a problem with tactics and placing herself in races so as not to run into trouble, but there appears to have been no effort in the last 3 years to work on this. Instead, she has raced less and less and is out of practice. She was already an inexperienced tactitician, despite being an Olympic gold medallist, because she's so young. What sensible coach fails to work on tactics and developing the athlete's racing brain?
Perhaps the athlete is very difficult to train, but she doesn't seem all that difficult, just anxious, slightly troubled and not very happy. The athlete herself needs to have a think about what might work better for her, if she wants to be successful. Didn't she go to Kersee's group in the first place because she was following her boyfriend and then broke up with him and found it hard to train? What sort of advice is she receiving with regards to her personal life and how not to throw away her career like this?
Mu is a middle distance athlete. Is she really the only non-sprint athlete in that group? The British 800m runners spend a proportion of the year training at altitude. Or at very least they go to Potschefstroom which is nearly at altitude.
Mu's demise is an absolutely catastrophic failure of coaching and lack of preparation by the coach. She obviously has a problem with tactics and placing herself in races so as not to run into trouble, but there appears to have been no effort in the last 3 years to work on this. Instead, she has raced less and less and is out of practice. She was already an inexperienced tactitician, despite being an Olympic gold medallist, because she's so young. What sensible coach fails to work on tactics and developing the athlete's racing brain?
Perhaps the athlete is very difficult to train, but she doesn't seem all that difficult, just anxious, slightly troubled and not very happy. The athlete herself needs to have a think about what might work better for her, if she wants to be successful. Didn't she go to Kersee's group in the first place because she was following her boyfriend and then broke up with him and found it hard to train? What sort of advice is she receiving with regards to her personal life and how not to throw away her career like this?
I agree. There are a lot of things I don't like about Kersee, but there's no question that for a very focused sprinter or hurdler in a technical discipline he can be incredibly successful. I'm not gonna tell Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone that she needs a new coach.
But his obsession with a certain kind of conditioning on a certain day, and with presenting a certain mysterious game face to the world, don't work as well in a discipline that requires tactics and pack running. There's no substitute for experience. Mu gained most of her experience in the NCAA, where the best athletes are front-runners by necessity, and in 21-22, where as a prodigy, she was still able to avoid the pack most of the time. Mu already had a close call in the WC semifinals last year. She's also described how winning all the time was incredibly stressful because she felt like she had nothing to gain, everything to lose.
There's a solution for that, and it's competition. Lose some races. Run some 1:59s and 2:00s when you're having a bad day. Live your life as a working pro, not being indulged and manipulated by some Svengali. Then she can decide if she really wants to do this for a living.
I'm surprised that Mu doesn't have more work ethic. Her parents must have raised her to have more than she has - they emigrated, as war refugees from South Sudan for better prospects. Athing has had opportunities her parents could only have dreamed of at the same age. Any modeling contracts she gains are going to be linked to her fame as an athlete, because in the highly competitive world of young models, she isn't going to make it otherwise. But she just doesn't seem to have the work ethic in athletics. She can't always be injured all year long except for 6 weeks in summer. She needs to practice her race craft more, because the 800m is highly tactical and she is a bit of a wrecking ball.
Also, Kersee seems to have an effect on some of his athletes of making them dislike racing and being anxious and nervous when they do race. I think Athing needs to be in a bigger middle distance group where she can benefit from the team ethic. I also don't see the point in basing herself somewhere like LA where the air quality is really poor. Does her group even do altitude training camps?
I think she worked her butt off to get where she was. I actually talked to one of her teachers once, who said that Mu was the most impressive student she'd ever had. I think Mu is burned out, she's alienated and she has an indulgent, manipulative coach.
No work ethic? What? Any basis for that? Sounds like straight out dislike for Mu rather than any basis in fact.
My guess is that she is overworked and overstressed. Everything was new and fun for her in 2021. Youth and enthusiasm and happiness is a pretty good recipe for success. But then you win and you get money and attention and praise ("rat poison" as Nick Saban would say) and your coach might not have your best interests in mind and you are 21 . . . . and you screw up.
That said, this sport is brutal. There might not be any story. She might have just had a brain freeze for a second. It looked to me like it went out a little harder than she thought and she couldn't decide whether to take the lead or not. A QB can thrown an interception in the Super Bowl, a pitcher can give up a home run in the World Series, a golfer can miss a put in the Masters . . . They all can come back. But in the Olympic Trials one half second of indecision leads to everyone calling you a joke. . . . Rough world. . . Cannot wait for her to come back in 2028 and 2032. . . . And this is not as sad a story as Lolo Jones or Jim Ryun or Dan O'Brien in 1996 or Dan Jansen's first falls--she already has a gold medal!
Mu is quickly becoming one of the biggest “what ifs” in U.S. history.
the early success has went to her head. The switch to a questionable coach, the lack of racing... Even if she didn’t fall, Hodgkinson would smoke her at the Olympics. You can’t just turn it on at this level, Keely is out there grinding, and is always sharp. It’s disrespectful to her opponents having this lazy attitude towards racing.
stick a fork in her. She’s DONE. She clearly doesn’t respect the sport or her opponents enough.
She doesn't want to run.
She loves the attention, but not the tension.
Hopefully she has a backup plan, because she has absolutely wasted the main plan.
Mu is quickly becoming one of the biggest “what ifs” in U.S. history.
the early success has went to her head. The switch to a questionable coach, the lack of racing... Even if she didn’t fall, Hodgkinson would smoke her at the Olympics. You can’t just turn it on at this level, Keely is out there grinding, and is always sharp. It’s disrespectful to her opponents having this lazy attitude towards racing.
stick a fork in her. She’s DONE. She clearly doesn’t respect the sport or her opponents enough.
She doesn't want to run.
She loves the attention, but not the tension.
Hopefully she has a backup plan, because she has absolutely wasted the main plan.
Nothing screams wasted main plan like an Olympic gold and US Record and financial security for life all by the age of 23!!
I feel bad for Mu, however her lack of racing showed, she is rusty, she should have gone right to the front to stay out of trouble hit the 400M mark in 57 and be gone.
Instead she was in the middle of a messy pack for some unknown reason, crazy.
If she really rans to run it is time to leave Curse-see, and start running some Diamond league races.
Mu is quickly becoming one of the biggest “what ifs” in U.S. history.
the early success has went to her head. The switch to a questionable coach, the lack of racing... Even if she didn’t fall, Hodgkinson would smoke her at the Olympics. You can’t just turn it on at this level, Keely is out there grinding, and is always sharp. It’s disrespectful to her opponents having this lazy attitude towards racing.
stick a fork in her. She’s DONE. She clearly doesn’t respect the sport or her opponents enough.
What do you mean what if
She had probably the best usa female performance in one olympics for track since Marion Jones who was doped up so doesn't even count
Sydney runs a b side event in hurdles so she doesn't compare
A blistering effortless win in the 800m against strong competition followed by one of the most dominant 4x400 legs I've seen by a women since the east Germans
There isn't a what if issue with her. She already is a legend
Doesn't race all year, goes to trials not race ready, falls...
Race more or this will happen. Does she need to find a new coach? A medal opportunity in the women's 800 for Team USA is no more.
What part of she has been injured this year and couldn’t race more do you not understand? It has been widely reported she had to dropout of meets with a hamstring injury and was fortunate to even get to race at the trials.
The injuries started with the switch to Kersee. He has no business coaching the 800.
Since she became World Champion in 2022, Mu has entered a grand total of five meetings, and four of those being at 800m. Four. In two years. And at two of those meetings she has tripped (Budapest SF) or fallen (OT 24). This is not enough racing, as simple as that.
Kersee has an obsession with his athletes being '100% fit' for Trials & the Championships, and whilst we know Mu has had a hamstring injury this season, clearly it was not serious or else she would not have been on the start line. But rather than let her race once or twice, get used to racing again, get used to being in a pack - because clearly she is not at her best yet, so was going to be surrounded by other runners - he wrapped her it cotton wool because of his fear/paranoia that she would worsen her injury.
Mu needs races. She is not tactically savvy when she is not leading from the front. Be it her leg length, back lift, anxiety at being in the pack, whatever. But she isn't comfortable, clearly, or efficient.
She needs to move coaches, and rekindle her love for the 400m. Another red mark against Kersee is his wish to not pit Mu and McLaughlin against each other over one lap. She is a 400/800 woman, not 800/1500, regardless of obvious talent there.
Seriously, as always she would have found away to win. Unfortunately she didn’t race enough and wasn’t sharp. I tell you one thing. Women’s 800 meters = 0 US medals.
Doesn't race all year, goes to trials not race ready, falls...
Race more or this will happen. Does she need to find a new coach? A medal opportunity in the women's 800 for Team USA is no more.
So who would be her best option?
Milton Mallard? obvious choice perhaps she would feel it to be a retrograde step
Danny Mackey? A good 800m coach withn good stable has coached 0.1% talent. Brandan Marshall probably rules this out
Pete Julian? No thanks
Ritz? wrong brand, decent 800m stable.
Mike Smith, is he any good with 800m?
Someone from the Clyde Hart coaching tree?
Jerry? The mould doesn't fit really and Eugene isn't LA.
Would she move to Britain where there is a deep tradition of 800m coaching? Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter? You'd love to see it but Keely Kills it surely
Rojo and Kellogg? not happening but they have as much chance as most of this list
This post was edited 33 seconds after it was posted.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.