Running UberNerd wrote:
I’m not sure why it benefits the shoe companies to draw up contracts with the incentives they have. It doesn’t exactly promote your brand to see an athlete hobbling around as a shell of themselves in the most important race of their career only to drop out at mile 2. I’d like to think if shoe companies stopped creating perverse incentives that basically harm everyone involved, that maybe we could avoid a repeat of this unfortunate situation.
Shoe companies don't get to define who an Olympian is. But they pay differently depending on whether someone is or becomes an Olympian.