The media folks who show up at these things are pretty knowledgeable ....they're mostly Internet specialists on running. Not one single newspaper outside of the Southwest even sent a reporter to these Championships, so the few folks that ARE there pretty much know what they're talking about.
If Nike doesn't tell Rupp that he has to show up and talk, then he probably isn't going to.
jjjjjjj wrote:
salazar and his athletes talk a lot before races and often underperform but sometimes do great. when they do great, they talk or salazar talks. when they do badly, only ritz talks.
This is a load of BS. I took Ritz a good 6 months to talk about the last NYC marathon he ran and under performed at....again.
I'm glad you have some weird obsession with Ritz though that clouds your judgement.
I am a nobody wrote:
fame and fortune wrote:Rupp wants fame. Criticism comes with the territory. Rupp wants fame but not what comes with that.
When did he say he wanted to be famous?
People want to run fast, get as much from themselves as they can.
Fame? Most everyone knows this is superficial, but apparently not you. You are warped.
I think "fame" is the wrong word but the premise is correct. If you aspire to be the fastest distance runner in the United States, be ready for the criticism when you get close and you put that goal out there. It's going to happen. A bad relationship with the media when you are supposedly the next big thing or you are breaking records is not a good idea. Just come out, be honest (in this case, admit you got blasted), train harder and smarter, and come back faster at OT's. He's got to be willing to take the lumps after a bad race and talk about it. Just be accessible after good races or hiding behind his coach is getting old. I'm a fan but he's not a high school phenom or an NCAA stud anymore. He's a PROFESSIONAL athlete.
two saun wrote:
But the thing is that Rupp stopping 30 seconds for an interview doesn't do anything to promote Track and Field, despite how self-important you think you as a media figure are.
Are you serious? Of COURSE it promotes a sports for its biggest starts to speak to the media.
(I'm not a media figure, by the way. Just someone who loves the sport who wishes more officials, coaches and even athletes at the top seemed to love it, too.)
As with the republican debates, the interview can ask the questions but the person being interviewed gets to decide what to say. A smart/wise person can give an insightful or inspiring reply to the worst of questions.
It would be nice if every reporter were well prepared and knowledgable, but that ain't the case and it won't be. I have always assumed this to be the case, but if it isn't already doign so the USATF should be teaching/coaching our best athletes how to speak to the media.
I greatly respect Rupp and what he has accomplished and think he has been pretty classy in all of his contact with the media, even when that hasn't been a two-way street.
However, I think he blew it here. As difficult as it might have been, it would have been great for him to step up give us some insight into what he was thinking before, during, and after the race. He could have ignored any obnoxious/inane questions by simply praising the efforts of Lagat and Lamong.
Knowing how he thinks and what he feels could have gone a long way to humanizing a sport most people don't understand well.
@running_comment wrote:
You're welcome to that opinion, but don't wonder why the sport gets no media attention if you think it's fine for the top-billed athletes, salaried by the meet sponsor, to blow off media.
The sport can barely even get people to watch the actual races, and you think it's lack of interviews that are going to hurt it? Rupp not being interviewed means squat to the casual viewer or fan (and that's who they'd need to appeal to to build the sport).
This thread is total bs. Who the f#ck gives a crap if the third place finisher gives an interview shortly after a race where he obviously wasn't at his best? I want an interview with the winner, not the guy who just wants to get away for a few minutes. Why would anyone post this kind of crap, unless they have their own agenda? Galen Rupp has been exemplary throughout most of his career, and he has had very few poor races, so why would the poster want an interview after one of those less than stellar races? Give Rupp a break. We don't know if he was exhausted (he has apparently had a minor cold over the past couple weeks). One of the greatest runners of all time, Steve Ovett, never gave an interview after a loss or poor race, did that hurt the sport. No, and I suspect this thread isn't about Rupp damaging the sport so much as the personal vendetta angle. One more thing (while I'm on this tirade), would you be too interested in giving an interview so soon after the embarrasing Wejo "interview" of a week ago? Do some of you aholes really think an interview at this time would have done anything positive for the sport? I doubt it, I suspect it has more to do with an effort to harrass an athlete? Grow up, guys.
A few things here. With the incredibly vile level of comments he gets on this website, he would only be feeding the sharks. The level of discourse on the boards has driven me away from reading them. The running discussion is great, but the inhumane way folks act when they are not publicly visible, ugh. You have perhaps trained Rupp to shut up.
Oh, and he was disappointed.
Oh, and he had another race today, the 1500, not his strongest distance. He did well, but I won't give it away. I respect the guy. He talks with his races. Not all wins, but so many good performances I am in awe of him. And Lagat. And Lomong. And, as someone else said, interviews usually do go to the winners, not those who had hoped to win.
@running_comment wrote:
some of us would like to see decent track coverage on TV
Just move your beer and chips to the computer and watch it on there.
I am 100% positive that Rupp speaking to the media yesterday would not have won over a single non-track fan in the United States. Don't kid yourself.
@running_comment wrote:
You're welcome to that opinion, but don't wonder why the sport gets no media attention if you think it's fine for the top-billed athletes, salaried by the meet sponsor, to blow off media.
suburbanxcore wrote:
The sport can barely even get people to watch the actual races, and you think it's lack of interviews that are going to hurt it? Rupp not being interviewed means squat to the casual viewer or fan (and that's who they'd need to appeal to to build the sport).
^this^
In my opinion the biggest surprise and the most drama came from ritz's 4th place at the Oly trials, missing out by such a small margin, and his heartfelt comments following the race.
post race comments from winners are easy, its the sincere ones from the losers that humanizes an athlete and makes us root more for them the next time they toe the line.
I am a nobody wrote:
When did he say he wanted to be famous?
People want to run fast, get as much from themselves as they can.
Fame? Most everyone knows this is superficial, but apparently not you. You are warped.
Seriously? You really think that Rupp does not want the whole "rich and famous" crap? Sorry, but he is being quite handsomely paid which is only possible by corporate sponsorship of his running which is only provided because of...wait for it...fame.
Rupp not having any reasonable (as opposed to legal) obligation to the sport is simply not the same as you (presumably) and I (certainly) not having any obligation to the sport. You and I may simply want to run fast... Rupp is being paid a ton to do so. Don't want to have any obligations? Fine, don't take the money.
what some of you fail to understand (typical but really unfortunate) is that Rupp is NOT in a spectator-entertainment sport like Football, Basketball, etc. (with big money that comes from owners, etc.). He is in a sport where this really doesn't matter - and that is not going to change easily - look at how indoor track has gone from many meets to very few in the past few decades. Being a "Pro" now (other than better money) is little different than when Prefonatine, Shorter, etc. were at the top. The Olympics are still the top game in town for the sport (technically amateur). Those who think, therefore, that athletes have a similar responsibility to media as do "Pros" in other "team" sports, really don't get it.
The only people who care would be Nike, since he doesn't belong to a team really or even a city (Portland or Eugene?). Nike have so many athletes on their roster throughout other events that it doesn't really matter what Rupp says or not. The only people who care at all are the geeks that frequent this site. Runners here seem like the physics geeks from "Big bang theory" and are about as media "smart" as them. In other words, mainstream track/running means nothing to the general public outside of finishing the local marathon, you can count the rest of the interested on two hands (almost).
That doesn't mean that competitors aren't trying to be the best they can, it's just that no one in the "real" world cares. Maybe that's not such a bad thing (big contracts aside) since then they have no one to answer to (media or fans) except their shoe sponsor. I enjoy watching Rupp run, I don't give a damn what he thinks. There is no gem that it going to come from him that says "do this and you can be like me". This is real, whereas the media hype from other sports is trite and nauseating, really - who should give a damn what these guys say about anything?
@running_comment wrote:
You're welcome to that opinion, but don't wonder why the sport gets no media attention if you think it's fine for the top-billed athletes, salaried by the meet sponsor, to blow off media.
suburbanxcore wrote:
The sport can barely even get people to watch the actual races, and you think it's lack of interviews that are going to hurt it? Rupp not being interviewed means squat to the casual viewer or fan (and that's who they'd need to appeal to to build the sport).
You see? You JUST DON'T GET IT.
No, nobody except for those who run or have run seriously cares to watch 15 laps of an indoor track. If you think that it is all about the "actual races," thinking like that is exactly why track gets no viewers.
It's about people. Rivalries. Success. Failure. Narrative. You've obviously never worked in TV, but is that so hard to understand?
For the >99.999% of Americans who don't read Letsrun, if those things aren't in the broadcast, they might as well be watching a horse race. At least jockeys talk to the press and explain the races.
I get a lot of sports channels, and yesterday could watch darts and billiards, but not the best runners in America competing. Seriously, do you think that darts is a more interesting spectator sport than running? Or maybe, just maybe, the people involved sell it better?
asfasdfsfasfdfdddd wrote:
post race comments from winners are easy, its the sincere ones from the losers that humanizes an athlete and makes us root more for them the next time they toe the line.
This^^^
Interviews with athletes actually expressing some of their hopes, personality (if he has one), etc, are EXACTLY why people know and care about athletes.
I guarantee that the thousands of people who read the recent Independent profile of Yohan Blake are far more interested in him now that they know something about him other than his results.
Look, Lagat's "Daddy can still kick" quote is getting repeated by athletes in other sports already. This stuff isn't that hard. It would be great if Rupp had something to say for himself, too. Lagat is certainly gracious in defeat as well as victory. Same for Ritz.
Other than personal narrative, where's the interest in a guy like Rupp? Let's get real: he is just a middling hope in a world/Oly 10k final. If it was just about PRs, there would be a dozen Kenyans we'd pay more attention to. But of course, we care because of some perceived affinity with him since he's from the US. Leaving it at that is a waste. Many people would get interested in the child prodigy angle, the master-apprentice angle with him Salazar, the friends-rivals angle with Farah, and so on. But Rupp keeps running away from the media.
How can he do an interview when you're supposed to congratulate the winner and he's not it? Trolls all of you.
I watched the ESPN broadcast last night.
Rupp spent about 10 minutes on camera being excited for the sport (and 25k for the visa award).
I think that is about 930 more than anyone else this weekend. I think the not available after the race means they didnt really make an effort to talk to him, other than wanting that canned post race interview (which is supposed to be with the winner as noted above).
I'm not a huge Rupp fan, but he seems pretty ok, and does what he should for the sport, offers up interviews, get SI stories. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to trade lagats postrace for 15 seconds of rupp saying he didn't know why he didn't have a kick and he's in heavy training. That's boring. Lagat with his kids after throwing down on the track was awesome.
Spot on.
USATF has an obligation as well as shoe companies to media train the athletes.
A simple program of staging athletes post race , athletes would be made aware of the obligation and yes they do get used to it even after a bad performance.
We talk about "going pro" , understanding full circle what it means beyond toeing the line would help the sport all around of really being a "pro".