Athing Mu Update

Hoskins wrote:

We can make fun of her as much as we want, but try to look at the bigger picture and at things not as a track fan, but from her perspective—this is ultimately like despising all the fast kids in high school who chose to play soccer over running XC. It’s their life and why should they bust their arse doing a sport that brings them no joy.

There is a scenario where after her incredible 2021, simply goes home, celebrates a little, and goes back to training without much thought. Many of the most successful athletes are so good because they don’t think too hard, instead just training with discipline but also fun then competing for the win.

But maybe Athing understandably got home and realized she had so early in her career already reached the pinnacle and almost everything she had ever wanted to achieve. Now, the expectations for the rest of her career were clear. Spend 10 long, hard years winning everything, maybe beat a nearly impossible doped world record, and become the greatest female 800m runner ever. Anything less would be a disappointment. Sacrifice your opportunity at a normal college life and your 20s where you can grow into a woman, and instead leave college at 19 or 20 for relative isolation, living alone and forced to figure out how to become an adult yourself. Undergo 10 years of brutal training with frequent media responsibilities interspersed, where you’re so tired physically and of answering the same questions (while also having to conform to the media’s attempt to make you an Olympic beauty icon looking nice and skinny for magazine covers) that all you want to do is just go back home to your dark and quiet apartment. And, you’re trapped. If you try to escape this, everyone you know and don’t know would never let you forget it. This includes your family being disappointed about all the money and social prestige they've now missed out on.

A common reason people commit suicide is because they feel trapped and have no hope for the future. Would you rather force Athing Mu to remain a track athlete, or see in the news tomorrow her parents weeping after learning that their sweet baby girl just shot herself in the head? You can say I’m taking it to the extreme, but when there’s a 5% chance that staying in track results in this amazing woman ending her young life and causing lifelong, irrecoverable trauma to those around her, is that really a risk worth taking? That’s the question here.

Oh no, another sports bust. Get a grip and move on. It’s their life—literally.

Hoskins wrote:

We can make fun of her as much as we want, but try to look at the bigger picture and at things not as a track fan, but from her perspective—this is ultimately like despising all the fast kids in high school who chose to play soccer over running XC. It’s their life and why should they bust their arse doing a sport that brings them no joy.

There is a scenario where after her incredible 2021, simply goes home, celebrates a little, and goes back to training without much thought. Many of the most successful athletes are so good because they don’t think too hard, instead just training with discipline but also fun then competing for the win.

But maybe Athing understandably got home and realized she had so early in her career already reached the pinnacle and almost everything she had ever wanted to achieve. Now, the expectations for the rest of her career were clear. Spend 10 long, hard years winning everything, maybe beat a nearly impossible doped world record, and become the greatest female 800m runner ever. Anything less would be a disappointment. Sacrifice your opportunity at a normal college life and your 20s where you can grow into a woman, and instead leave college at 19 or 20 for relative isolation, living alone and forced to figure out how to become an adult yourself. Undergo 10 years of brutal training with frequent media responsibilities interspersed, where you’re so tired physically and of answering the same questions (while also having to conform to the media’s attempt to make you an Olympic beauty icon looking nice and skinny for magazine covers) that all you want to do is just go back home to your dark and quiet apartment. And, you’re trapped. If you try to escape this, everyone you know and don’t know would never let you forget it. This includes your family being disappointed about all the money and social prestige they've now missed out on.

A common reason people commit suicide is because they feel trapped and have no hope for the future. Would you rather force Athing Mu to remain a track athlete, or see in the news tomorrow her parents weeping after learning that their sweet baby girl just shot herself in the head? You can say I’m taking it to the extreme, but when there’s a 5% chance that staying in track results in this amazing woman ending her young life and causing lifelong, irrecoverable trauma to those around her, is that really a risk worth taking? That’s the question here.

Oh no, another sports bust. Get a grip and move on. It’s their life—literally.

rojo wrote:

This has got to be one of the worse posts in LRC history. And yet it has a 4 to 1 up to down vote ratio? I need to check if bots are voting.

1)You call her a sports bust. Hello? She's was the NCAA record holder in the 400 and Olympic champion. She's an all-timer if she never runs a step again.

2) You incorrectly assume she was forced to give up a normal college live to go pro.

"Sacrifice your opportunity at a normal college life and your 20s where you can grow into a woman, and instead leave college at 19 or 20 for relative isolation, living alone and forced to figure out how to become an adult yourself."

What are you talking about?

You can easily attend Texas A&M and run a pro track schedule in the summer. No one forced her to give up the normal college life. She chose to give it up. Most people in life would kill to live in LA with a 7 figure contract. If she wanted the normal college life, she would have stayed and trained at A&M.

She wanted to live the highlife in LA>

And why do you assume you are isolated as a pro? There are a ton of track groups she could join. She can get roommates , etc.

3)Undergo 10 years of brutal training with frequent media responsibilities interspersed, where you’re so tired physically and of answering the same questions (while also having to conform to the media’s attempt to make you an Olympic beauty icon looking nice and skinny for magazine covers) that all you want to do is just go back home to your dark and quiet apartment.

Undergo 10 years of brutal training? Please. She's an 800 runner. You think training for that for 9 months out of the year pulling in 750k a year is harder than working a normal office job? No one was trying to make her a beauty icon. She is the one who wants to be the model/

And then you try to make us feel guilty by bringing up the S word. Maybe once a month do I see a post this bad and I'm not sure I've ever seen a post this bad with so many upvotes.