Still in the shadow of her much more famous father.
According to the networks TVs, which are still run by old men.
I am so sick and tired they insist on showing him every time she jumps.
It's exhausting and so sad. I don't know if it's sadder that NBC thinks they will engage with people more by showing a retired football player than by talking about athletics, or that the average viewer might genuinely be more excited to see a retired football player on tv than anything related to athletics.
The NBC commentary is so, so tiring. And the production / presentation is so, so boring. Pay an intern $20 / hr for 15 minutes to scrape info from wikipedia and make a colorful excel table with rows for each year she's competed (with age) and then the following columns:
- height / place at iUSAs
- height / place at iWorlds
- height / place at oUSAs
- height / place at oWorlds / Olympics
- annual best height, in meters and feet
Then mentioned that her dad was a QB for 1s, don't show him unless he's going to provide an interview with valuable content, and instead show some silly comparison about how her HJing 2m would equate to her jumping over Trevor Lawrence or Josh Allen.
Then show an edited clip of her series of jumps in quick succession so the viewer can see the precision and accuracy in what she does.
Boom. Info + Entertainment + Engagement. ffs NBC is so tired.
Sorry to the OP for going off on a side rant. I am obviously fired up about how bad NBC is today.
Any who - I had the same question as the OP while watching her continue to dominate the US scene this past weekend - how is she so undervalued / underappreciated? She definitely doesn't seem to seek the attention, so that can and should be respected.
That, combined with not being a world beater (as RTXC said), leaves us with a person who isn't topline T&F news
Oh, little d!ck alert! Little d!ck alert! That's right, buddy. Keep dreaming about manly men all sweated up. Don't forget to resubscribe to Grindr either!
She's been incredibly consistent over her career and as a pro, it's not that she hasn't improved at all, but that she has improved in very small increments and never made the leap to regular contention for the gold. Born in January 1998, she first jumped 1.99m in 2016 at 18, 3 cm over her pr from the previous year. That was really really good for her age. It took three more years for her to improve 1 cm to 2.00 m in 2019. Now, there have been times where even 1.97 gets you in contention for bronze. But 2.00m will put you close to medal contention and maybe a medal of the lesser kind. In 2021, she improved to 2.02m, a very good number well in contention for medals, maybe even a gold. But of course right now we have a number of very good female high jumpers and with the former world junior record holder finally breaking Stefka Kostadinova's 2.09m record, it's tough. It is obvious that she should have switched coaches by now because as Josh Hoey's father has come to recognize, sometimes the fairly knowledgeable father coach needs to know when to step back and let the professionals take over. Still, no other American has been able to surpass her, and we should have plenty of talent in this event.
Watching the indoor nationals got me thinking about how off the grid she is. Every year she basically jumps indoor nationals , world championship , outdoor nationals,world championship and the prefontaine and other than that just low key college meets. She hardly competes in Europe, rarely posts on social media and her wiki page has almost no personal information. She has. Done that for 10 years now. I’m not saying its wrong, just odd to have such a low key presence in the sport where you need to generate a following.
"When men were men", "woke mess", agreeing that there was a time when NFL players weren't thugs/criminals (that's laughable), and saying DEI will cause TV stations to crash and burn. Taking to a message board to make any/all of those statements is a gigantic indicator that you have some deeply rooted anger issues going on that you clearly haven't addressed, but yet will make it everyone else's problem. And I'll make a safe bet you know this, deep down, but choose to ignore it because "therapy is for the weak".
Anywho, keep getting angry about things that don't impact your life. See how that works out for you.
She has fifteen US titles (nine indoor, six outdoor), including one this past weekend. She’s at no risk of losing her contract as long as she continues to win at the national level.
Is the women’s high jump any good in the US? Doesnt seem like it. The OP is correct… she hasnt gotten any better over the years, considering her age.
She has fifteen US titles (nine indoor, six outdoor), including one this past weekend. She’s at no risk of losing her contract as long as she continues to win at the national level.
Is the women’s high jump any good in the US? Doesnt seem like it. The OP is correct… she hasnt gotten any better over the years, considering her age.
The real answer is that she has no reason to seek out the limelight AND the networks don't know how to talk about an American star who doesn't really have a shot at a medal.
She is the best American jumper of the last decade but really isn't "in the mix" at the international level.
This means she doesn't get hyped up when NBC does its Olympic and World Championship previews or human interest stories. How should they hype her up if they know she will likely end up in 6th place?
The top jumpers are just a notch better...
A fair comparison from distance running might be Molly Huddle, who won a bunch of US titles but wasn't really "in the mix" internationally. I'm not sure NBC said a lot about Huddle, but I feel like she had a much higher profile than Cunningham. Maybe it's because there's no LetsJump.com.
There’s Not much you can go after the medals at the world stage and it’s not an indication of decline. If some once in a lifetime talent comes along and just starts dominating. ThT being said I don’t know her marks
The real answer is that she has no reason to seek out the limelight AND the networks don't know how to talk about an American star who doesn't really have a shot at a medal.
She is the best American jumper of the last decade but really isn't "in the mix" at the international level.
This means she doesn't get hyped up when NBC does its Olympic and World Championship previews or human interest stories. How should they hype her up if they know she will likely end up in 6th place?
The top jumpers are just a notch better...
A fair comparison from distance running might be Molly Huddle, who won a bunch of US titles but wasn't really "in the mix" internationally. I'm not sure NBC said a lot about Huddle, but I feel like she had a much higher profile than Cunningham. Maybe it's because there's no LetsJump.com.
Huddle squandered her best opportunity to win a global medal by celebrating too early... three years after she made the same mistake at USA XC Championship.
For such a low profile, how did she become a Red Bull athlete? I don't she is still with them. Her development went nowhere. It seemed as if she was poised for world class. Not competing in Europe and not leaving her father-coach showed a certain limiter to her career.