2016 Olympic 800m bronze medalist Clayton Murphy retires from pro track

True. Clayton never actually ran very well in an international championship after training with Salazar. His sharpness was gone. One person has said Clayton never trained with these guys but that’s not true. TAFNews or RW or somebody even ran an article with pics about it. Salazar was a very underhanded person.

Murphy checked just about every box you'd want from a running career.

NCAA titles

Made 5 global teams

Olympic medal

I think it says a lot about his talent that we feel like he left a little on the table. Definitely felt like 2017-2018 he got overcooked. Started dealing with injuries on and off, never quite hit another global final when firing at his full potential.

Credit him for seizing that moment in 2016, you never know when you best chance will come for a medal.

yes murphy wasted time in the 1500 which is useful as an adjunct, not primary

but fantastic career for sure

what is instructive is to look the coaching

coaches see a guy that isn't the fastest 400m runner on the planet and assume he's distance oriented in the end.

they say, he's a 1500 runner with no real proof, just their theory, which in fact works for many cases

but not for guys that are actually optimal at 800 born.

you can take a 47 400m down to 46 at least and 45 with all the hacks

and then 141 becomes available, which is a 143 144 low back in the day talking 800 m

sure cross country and aerobic max work is essential, but high octane is fifty percent, not twenty.

but training some guys like a 1500 5k runner is the recipe to INJURY and illness

people pay attention to these boards

and i think this message is out there my several others

said

because a guy like Andrew Wheating, I saw as a potential world record holder in the 800

not 1500

sure he ran the great hoover race in the 1500 and exaggerated his time by several seconds, and it went to his and coaches heads.

terrible

wheatings 800 times however were no exaggeration and represented the minimum

this guy with a 45 high 46 low with a 50 percent high octane, 50 percent max aerobic

while not guaranteed to be injury free that would be the plan

"AL SAL doped all this athletes!!!"

"AL SAL made Murphy slow!!!"

He had a great career but at 30 it’s time to focus on the rest of your life beyond running. Lots of 30 yr old pros out there men and women ready to move on in the next year or so.

His climb from 1:54 to 1:45 was nuts. Makes you wonder how undertrained he was in HS🤣 or how good drugs are 😛. Realistically he always felt like a mid 47 guy where running low 1:43 is about the limit. It never worked out but I can see how off running a 3:52 mile as like a 23 year old how he could imagine getting a bit faster and being the kicker in those championship finals.’ And it is hard to remember how in that pre super shoe era how few people were running 3:32. He had to feel he was in one progression away. In retrospect it didn’t work out.

I was sorry that he never quite regained that 2016 form, but he had a pretty good career and I hope his post-track life is successful. Anyone know what he plans to do?

his good mile run was in the middle of a bunch of guys in a 349 race

there is the type of guy, wolhuter, wottle, wheating, jaquim cruz who sniffed or more than sniffed good results in the mile.

with no flowers

wottle you would think could have been a great miler, but was too fragile for mileage? and entirely speculative, as i guess his open 400 was not that quick,

that's where you can go really wrong, assumptions without real data.

with a WR 800 and closing in an even 52 seconds, you are not slow

wolhuter i though might be a 46 400 guy, and 1k seldom run AR, is indicitave that that was his sweet spot.

For the life of me I cant imagine how athletes conscience will let them cheat. Anything for fame, wealth and glory for some I guess

He became an instant classic when he burst onto the scene. Mid-major athlete that suddenly clicked. The other thing that I will remember him for is simply bringing it when it counts. There were times when he was a question mark until on the start line and then he would win the championship race. You couldnt count him out.

He made it fun to watch.

1:42.93 in 2016 is equivalent to 1:41.50 in 2025

Correct. Not sure why everyone is acting like he was a never-was. Great racer, just didnt seem to find form in late 20s

Al cared about disyance runners, not 800 guys like Murphy you disingenuous moron. Salazar is a garbage person, filth.

Wottle ran in the BGSU program that routinely did 100 mpw, and he did pretty good in cross country, so I don't think he was "too fragile." He had several good mile races, including the 1973 one against Pre that put him, I believe, in the top 5 all-time then. His problem, similar to Ryun's, was that there was no money in running then and he had a wife to support.

Wottle not only won the 800 at the trials but also tied the world record of 1:44.3 seconds by New Zealand’s Peter Snell.
“It was a shock, improving my time three seconds in two weeks,” Wottle said.
Despite his world-record tying time, Wottle had serious doubts about his ability in the event.
“I never really thought of myself as a half-miler because I never felt I had the leg speed,” he said. “I could maintain a pace, but I didn’t have the speed a lot of half-milers had. I had more endurance. I never felt that I could stick with them, especially when they went out fast.”
That doubt would change dramatically at the Olympics.
At the Olympic track stadium on Sept. 2, Wottle, a certified miler, stormed from last place to claim the gold medal in the 800-meter dash final by a fraction of a second, an event he had run only a handful of times.
“I always tell people I was half-miler for about three months — from the AAU meet before the Olympic trials through the Olympics,” Wottle said. “Other than that, I was a miler.”
After suffering tendonitis in his left meniscus at the Olympic training camp, Wottle was forced to slash his workouts from 70-80 miles a week to zero for a couple of weeks. He only managed to return to 20-25 miles a week before the Games.
"I went into the Olympics not feeling overly confident, but when I stepped on the track I was like every other competitor. I figured I was gonna win."

the thing about Wottle

he BELIEVED that his speed was limited

i wonder how plastic some runners really are

i mean, running a WR, on what? miler schedule of 70 miles a week?

surely his strength won the day,

but

ontop of some real speed, there is no other way.

if you can improve 3 seconds in your off event the 800

what can you do to improve your quarter?

especially given you have no clue you can improve in the 8 by a quantum leap

same thing goes for that Norwegian who said he had the lowest level of talent and speed of all 1500 guys and then closes in 50 high....

at a lower level, i was outsprinted by lousy guys at first, and later on had very fast turnover, fastest guy on the soccer pitch or closed to, at university level, ....

one fast black dude on my team says, you can't beat me in a 200, wants a race ...

i just wonder about stepping down instead up

what is the plasticity of some dudes?

I suspect Wottle was one of those guys that may have struggled to run 49 amongst a training block and cried about it.

I can see a guy going 50.1 400m on a so so day, alongside a speed based 800 guy, who runs a 48 flat and he's not particularly great....

after dropping the mileage and speed work

that 50 can come in 48 high in a couple of weeks

and with actually focus on long speed? how fast then?

i made the 800 Junior finals Auckland as an adjunct

it was a horrible race

my training was built around 63 second lap pace

and could not turn over and finished DFL

not a bit tired and nothing i could do about it.

weirdest thing

and demoralizing, the studs are opening in 53 or whatever and the race is over at 200m

it was the training however

i did like 2 speed workouts period and small ones at that.

later on, different story with different work