One thing we know is that Mu has immense talent, however she has to get the mental side right and change coaches and the training location/facility, then we could see an assault on the 800M WR.
She doesn’t even seem to like the sport, treating it like an afterthought to other endeavors. The world record seemed to be within grasp, but you’ve got to have the desire.
Athing Mu is still the best. But credit to Keely who is 2nd best but is now an Olympic Gold medal winner. They are both great.
Nope, Keely ran faster this year than Athing ever has. that final was tactical on purpose. she ran 58/58 even splits and controlled the race. thing of Beauty.
It worked out, but I disagree with her tactics. She was best in the field by several seconds pb. Going out 156 pace was risky. She's the best for sure.
Would prime Mu beat Keely? Maybe. But I think it's pretty obvious that Mu, who placed third at last year's WC, couldn't stay up at US Trials, and didn't even break 2 in her latest meet, is not at her prime.
Keely ran a great race and has been crushing it all year. Well deserved!
sports operates in moments or windows. you have your opening, you are awesome and ready for it. you grab your moment. mu's moment was through about 2022. mu got hurt, relationship issues, funk, that moment is done. she can't even stay healthy and who knows if she gets the mentality back. it's keely's moment. 2024 keely doesn't race 2021-2 mu other than in some sort of theory thing. they race in 2024. and keely was winning.
i think mu came in at a lull in the sport after they cleared out the intersex folks who dominated for a period. she was much faster than the competition. the level has gone up since then. i think she has the raw goods to have another moment or at least to be an equal rival to keely but can she get healthy and get her mental stuff together. biles did after her twisties. others don't. but what you're arguing is like 2021 biles is messing up but let's argue would 2018 biles beat the 2021 medalists who replaced her when she lost it. the whole thing is they did compete in 2021 and she would either quit or lost. that wasn't her window.
lyles is an odd duck but lyles is like part of the furniture without fail for like 7 years. always in for a gold or at least medal. and even he gets beat in the odd race. that's a long window.
Athing Mu is still the best. But credit to Keely who is 2nd best but is now an Olympic Gold medal winner. They are both great.
don't start this woulda coulda BS. as far as we know, we saw "peak Mu" in tokyo. have to show up and have to do it. potential and actually producing the goods are two completely different things.
If Mu had run great all year and got tripped in one race, that might have been a reasonable OP. But since she has done nothing in 2024, nope. You don't get to make that argument. The undisputed champ won.
put differently, mu is not some isolated figure in a mediocre era. mu at the front end was the awesome one breaking through mediocrity that would barely break 2. there is now a herd below 2 and a few down near 155 with perhaps more potential than that. that is a golden age for women's 800. that is not messing around. mu cannot show up and jog through events carrying an injury or lack of focus and win.
she can get to that level far easier than 99.99% of the 800 runners out there but this is decided among the very best and at this point she needs to be top of her game to compete. but does she give a crap.
Keely for the mf win. Maybe Mu watched it on television.
I usually try not to be as conspiratorial as all this, but I'm not convinced Mu didn't fall on purpose. This way she gets to be a tragic story whereas there were serious reasons to doubt she was capable of going top 3 at the time. I suspect she still would have snatched a qualifying spot, probably not 1st place, but she is used to being the clear best so any amount of doubt as to her status may have been too much for her to handle -- especially for someone who doesn't have that burning passion for the sport.
I usually try not to be as conspiratorial as all this, but I'm not convinced Mu didn't fall on purpose. This way she gets to be a tragic story whereas there were serious reasons to doubt she was capable of going top 3 at the time.
If that was the plan why would she then agree to do the race in Florida which completely ruined that narrative? I don't think that makes sense.
Imagine her time with super shoes in a modern stadium
Or the other way around. Imagine Mu and Hodgkinson with an Eastern Bloc drug regimen (long periods of high dosage, high intensity steroids possible due to lack of out of competition testing).