USA women’s distance is really bad right now

USA Men: Win medals, Clint Eastwood levels of badass (Goose, Hocker, Fisher, Mantz, Young, the steeple guy, the other 5k guy). They are focused on the task at hand. They Fing operate and do not get cute.

USA Womens: It’s all about what the ALSO are some combination of: Model, Mom, Dairy Farmer, Dude, victim of some mean boy, influencer, eating disorder survivor, PhD or some crap.

People do not want to admit it but this is what it comes down to.

Contracts will be up after the Olympic year. Who is out? Is Catrina Coogan the only NB athlete safe?

Yeah, hopefully Monson comes back strong. Gotta say I'm tired of Schweizer and Cranny doing the same thing over and over. Sitting in and just hanging on while the real kickers go. Total armchair quarterback here but maybe shake it up and try to take it when the pace slows in the middle? Or keeping doing the same thing and finish anywhere from 7-10th place. Again.

Mom like Faith Kipyegon? PhD or some crap like Laura Muir? Were the US men less focused last Olympics where none of them medalled?

You sound like a misogynistic a$$hole. Sure, the US distance women didn't do great, but to chalk it up to a lack of focus strikes me as very ill-willed.

Hiltz and St.Pierre were with the leaders all the way until the last lap. Laura Muir sat off the pace and moved up later to run 3:53 for 5th. I imagine that if they had gone out with Muir, they could have finished in a similar time. They went after it and faded late. Maybe the next time they try that they will hang on a bit longer. I remember Hull went after Kipyegon during her record last year and faded on the last lap. This year she didn't fade. There's something to be said for taking risks. Muir took a risk hanging back and she missed out on a medal. For the longer distances, when I look at the top men in the NCAA, they seem closer to being able to compete internationally than the top women. The top guys are 20 to 30 seconds away from the top pro runners, while the women are a minute back (other than Valby who is still 40-50 seconds back). Are they being brought along too slowly?

Easy solution. Just have a few of the men transition and run with the women

It's an Olympic tradition!

The point is that I have no idea what grant, hocker, etc have going on outside of running because they don’t hang their hats on anything except running. Girls I care too much about external validation via insta vs. just winning races. The score is focused men : a bunch of medals. distracted chicks: zero medals. Facts are stubborn things.

If you're in an olympic final, you're world class.

Didn't we have like all 3 women making finals in 15, 5? And solid 3 in 10k? I'm not sure if that's the pattern historically, but it seems pretty solid.

None of the women 800 and up who made their finals ever looked like they were going to medal, at any point in any race, realistically. Maybe Dakotah just for a bit around halfway, she might have had me thinking the story was going to get even crazier.

Kazankina ran 3:52 in 1980.

The world indoor results inflated expectation beyond ability. The Kenyans weren't there and Hull ran the 3000 instead of 1500.

I like how you ausies keep bringing up a very suspicious hull like she’s some elite, world class runner.

Not even one mention of Kelati and the future of american running. Shemost likely will be starting her marathon career soon and will, I think, be one of the best marathoners in the world......

This year alone she went from 14:51- 14:33 int he 5k, and 31:09 to 30:34 in the 10k, along with an american record in her first half marathon ever.

ESP was probably our best bet for a medal and she went out too aggressively. (Jakob made the same mistake, just less dramatically -- he was ~1 second too fast at 400 while ESP was probably ~3.)

As to why the American distance men were resurgent and the women weren't, I guess my weak hypothesis is that our men's distance squad took a lot of risks in the past few years that paid off when the women didn't. I'm thinking about Grant leaving BTC but Schweizer not. On the other hand, Cranny left for team Bosshard and we're not seeing much out of that.

Another possibility is that doping controls have gotten stricter for men but not for women so Kenyan and Ethiopian men struggled in this Olympics but their women didn't. I don't have any specific reason to think this is true besides a general feeling that men's sports tend to get more attention and scrutiny.

bruh i agree she's an idiot but clearly is living rent free in your head

Quite a bit of unjustified doom and gloom here. We were missing was Alicia Monson in the 5k and 10k. Very well could have seen here getting a result like the Italian woman. The 1500 women ran very good times, just happened to be some absolute world beaters out there this year (who predicts Hull and Bell getting that fast this year). We probably would have medaled in the 800 if Athing Mu was there. A fully fit Emily Sisson probably runs under 2:25 on this course and maybe picks off runners 5-7 in the last couple miles.

If anything, our women runners were cursed by a few untimely injuries and lack of fitness.

Explain Nadia Battocletti. Missed gold by about a meter.

Here'a hint: US runners at distances above 1500 lack the speed to compete internationally, and domestic competitions do not reveal that flaw. The US system selects young women for endurance but not speed.