Rita Gary (Furman Coach) tweets about foreign athletes

It’s more of a nuanced conversation than she might think. Like it seems Lemngole and the Bama coach isn’t a business transaction and he really cares. But then other schools are what she accuses them of.

I had no reason to single them out for more/less support before I was educated on their coaches.

Now I have been educated I have reason.

Again, they are going to be very unhappy to hear that

spitting facts.

On the upper end these "coaches" are more like GMs than track coach, and on the lower end of the sport they're just van drivers.

She is 100% correct. It's OK to name names- but the move to buying questionable success is short sighted and one of the many reasons our sport is suffering. Athletes aren't at fault for ruining track and field- it's self-interested track coaches. As much as Coach Gary is correct on this issue- she is also part of the problem- these distance-only programs are just as toxic to the future of the sport.

it is not always possible to find a full program. Please do not speak about something you have no clue about!

I’m just noting it’s not black and white. She even clarified that she agrees. But still plenty of people who will prejudge based on the country of athlete origin. To Gary’s point look at the W1500 stocked with old foreign athletes not from Kenya and many transfers.

Old and pro are the key issues more than international. You should not be 24-25 and running in the ncaa and you should not be a former pro road racer or track athlete.

Doesn’t Furman practice nepotism? Isn’t her husband the head coach?

This 👆👆👆👆👆. Let alone 27/28 years old is just plain wrong

Is there a reason they don’t just put an age cap at 24 (minus hardship waiver etc)? I understand this would get people even angrier at BYU.

Stop with that BS. If Cross Country wasn't a separate sport, hundreds of schools would have ZERO distance runners on their track team. As it stands, there are a ton of programs that put 99% of their scholarship money into sprints/field.

If your school just buys a bunch of east africans and other foreigners for the entire team, if and when your program gets cut nobody will care.

There is a place for international athletes but it should be a small percentage of your team.

Rita is RIGHT!

I have no problem with her stand unless she only targets Africans. There are also many overaged non-african foreigners too.

What we really need is the get this issue to the desk of a big right wing influence ala Tucker, Shapiro, Matt Walsh, ect. to post about it.

Regardless of your opinions on those guys, if you are against this, that is the best way to fix it. This would be another 80-20 issue just like the trans athlete situation if more Americans were just aware of it.

Hell you could even hit it from a woke angle by pointing out that a lot of the athletes having opportunities taken on the sprinting side are lower income African Americans who now will now likely not be able to go to college because a Nigerian took their scholarship at their state-funded school. Any American who cares about the future of our youth and sport should be against this.

I’m conflicted on this. In general I don’t like the older runners in the NCAA (Mantz, Clinger, Hacker, Ayyildiz, any of the 28 year old Kenyan freshmen), and I do think it’s lazy that coaches just fill their teams with ready made talent. But I do think there’s a lot of selective outrage focused mainly on Kenyan distance runners, including those who are (allegedly) a proper age. People use age as a cover for what they really want to say, and then that breaks down when the ages are all ‘normal’

Ceili McCabe is Canadian and graduated high school in 2019, but she was universally celebrated on these boards when she won indoors. All the foreign distance winners this weekend are (allegedly) younger than her by several months (Lemngole) or several years (Musau, Kosgei, Kipkirui). And to my knowledge, none of these 4 could be classified as pros before the NCAA either

Saw this video on Furman’s IG account… Rita seems to be a leader taking action to improve sports… what have you done lately?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK0XJspycB5/?igsh=NmU0NXk5aTVpc2d4

Kipkurui could be. I think your opinion is shared by most people. Though the schools recruiting a lot of Kenyans out of nowhere aren’t going to be broadly popular. I wouldn’t lump them all in together, as if the athletes stay 3-4 years and clearly develop ties and a culture on the team, it seems misguided. Age to me is the number one thing, too. NCAA feels like it should be a showcase of young, emerging athletes. Not the 6th year seniors or 25-year-olds who are finished products.