USA fall off

I like to agree US runners had well timed juice, but the reality is it’s difficulty for Americans to travel to Europe to race. They’d have to stay in Europe to make it work. Will their sponsors pay for them to live in Europe for 4-6 weeks to race? Unlikely. It’s too much of a burden to fly back and forth. You literally lose a day of training each way.

If Jakob breaks the 1500 world record, that will be remembered too. The summer of 2024 where Jakob broke two of the most iconic and longstanding track records, but was off the podium in the 1500 at the Olympics. Who won the gold that summer? Oh yeah, it was Hocker.

Isn't it obvi that they don't care as much about the DL meets? They were focused on the olympics (and to a lesser extent the Olympic trials), they are now done mentally. It's okay really. Most of them did exceedingly well when it counted.

Rooks apparently fell pretty badly: https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12987504

The European championships comparison isn't necessarily a good one: they're not as make-or-break for an athlete targeting the Olympics.

1. Double peak for U.S. trials and Olympics (yes, Europeans had Euros but they stress about that to the same extent)

2. Sure all our medalists rightfully celebrated after winning

3. They've been in Europe for a while, hard to maintain consistent training like that

because late-season (post world event) circuit races are an afterthought relative to the events they needed to peak for, and they probably tuned their training for. some folks like hull are literally not racing and others may have taken several days off for r&r.

as i said on the hull thread, imagine your college had optional meets after the season ends. i think one year where i was crabby with the coach i trained a couple weeks after conference and classes ended, then ran a D1 all-comers where i tied my PR. but a lot of people if the main event is over and this is all extra, might call it a day.

also, to be blunt, this isn't london or monaco, this is poland.

I love all the mental gymnastics at play to explain the sudden drop-off, especially for the ever weak distance runners, did anyone seriously believe that a nobody like rooks was a world-class steeple runner, or that grant fisher, perennially 5th best was a top 3 runner globally? Both results today showed who they really are, especially rooks, i.e. they're all off the 'freedom sauce".

i mean if you look at like nuguse, he was wired for indoor, he was doing very well early season outdoors, peaked at trials, then arguably fell off for oly despite medaling. if he's already stale and knows it, why keep going?

some of these dudes have probably been running since last november or december. whether they won or not in paris, they peaked with that intense experience, at which point "he won" vs. "he no-showed" for silesia comes under the heading of so what.

Masai Russell only ran 0.07 slower than she did in the Olympic final. That's pretty good in her first post-Olympics race. The 100mH is just incredibly deep right now. Remember she only just beat Samba-Mayela by thousandths of a second after she had a really great start. Plus, Grace Stark ran faster here than she did in the Olympics too. This really just felt like a great race from Ackera Nugent, who has already ran sub-12.3s this season at Jamaican trials and just flubbed it at the Olympics. It's not easy putting together two really great hurdles races in a row and US athletes just tend to struggle in their first race in Europe. Grant Holloway ran a 10th of a second faster in his second race than his first, for example.

not to get too cynical but some people have called it a season, some are phoning it in to fulfill a contract expectation to run x number meets or get an appearance fee, and a few are still treating it super serious -- sometimes precisely because they imploded at paris, or perhaps they just turned pro or are trying to break into regular inclusion in the DL.

the folks arguing "but the times are fast," yeah, they have a rabbit and DL meets are rarely tactical races. some folks show up highly motivated. under those conditions you can get fast times or even WR if A and B try hard even if C and D dog it and E and F skip, in part because the rabbit replaces the ones who skipped or the effort of those on energy saver.

Just like antidepressants, when you go off them you crash and crash hard and fast. Rooks is a total joke, Fisher too.

Rooks fell at Silesia. He was taken to the hospital for x-ray of shoulder and clavicle. Put 20 guys in a steeple race and things happen.

He was never in it. American muzungs with the ever present excuses.

I’m not a doping expert, so help me understand the logic here. Are you suggesting that there is drug testing at the Diamond League meets but no testing at the Olympics, and therefore you believe Americans were able to dope in Paris but not in Lausanne and Silesia?

If so, are you also suggesting the benefits of doping only last for a week? Again, I’m not an expert, but that seems doubtful. I did find this:

runnersworld.com

Study: EPO Effective, Long-Lasting

Improves 3-K time by 6%; effects last at least four weeks.

Open link

There is only one track meet that matters for most of the world and it happens every four years and is called The Olympics. Juiced you are going to have to deal with the fact that American distance men brought their A game and now you have to wait 4 years for redemption. Enjoy the wait.

There is only one track meet that matters for most of the world and it happens every four years and is called The Olympics. Juiced, you are going to have to deal with the fact that American distance men brought their A game and now you have to wait 4 years for redemption. Enjoy the wait.

we already figured out that the USA got a 'free pass' these games. This diamond league data strongly supports that.

They're off the "freedom sauce".

Enjoy the wait.