Wheating a top 5 competitor in the world? Not so sure about that.

insightlessness wrote:

In fairness to him, he made the team and saw the other two make the top 4 so he figures he should be there too without his injuries.

But I think his fun loving nature that makes him likeable and helped him adapt to high pressure racing earlier has become his achilles heal. I bet he doesn't take the professional ranks seriously enough, but in his attempt to do so he instead just adds pressure to performance and now expects so much from himself that he fears the failure and races trying not to screw up.

My guess is: he needs a more dedicated lifestyle to training, and find enjoyment by displaying a killer instinct in races.

Listen, it is possible for the guy to be a goofball in an interview, to have made a handful of "comedy" videos over a long winter while injured -- and still display a killer instinct in races.

Review his NCAA career.

Since his 1500PB, he's been dealing with injury issues.

I think he is serious about his running; and also an affable and funny guy. He is not a screw off or lazy.

I passionately think he needs to get the heck out of Eugene and to Portland...for a bunch of reasons...mostly to train with Centro, and a coach who has time for him (Salazar) and a coach that will micro manage in positive ways his health and injury avoidance.

Running on Empathy wrote:

There was a story earlier this year that Wheating had incurred some injury after the Trials 1500 that made him limp when he walked, yet he took the time to hit every post-Trials late night party instead of nursing his injury.

That's dedication ......

How does late night partying interfere with healing from an injury? You're one of those guys that makes distance runners seem boring and socially lame. Admit that you're just socially awkward and stop blaming it on injuries or "I can't do this and that because I'm training"

No offense to him, but I'm not even sure he's top 5 in the US.

Centro, Manzano, Lagat, German soon enough, and I'm sure Rupp and/or Andrews will be taking him soon. Or maybe I'm wrong and he's going to run 3:28-3:29, but it seems like a longshot

Wheating is extremely talented and has the potential to be a top 5 competitor. He needs to get healthy and then start performing well, which for him means either winning or finishing in the top 3 of races consistently.

How many "potentially" great mid distance/distance runners have we seen never even come close to fulfilling the potential they showed at one point? Hopefully, Wheating won't become a member of that club.

Wheating's parents sent him to boarding school so they can afford to have Andrew train at OTC to win a medal. He should move now since Moscow 2013 is coming up soon. Los Angeles / San Diego won 53 medals at London 2012 including 18 in Track & Field.

how many of you have made jokes at one time during the day and been extremely serious at another time on the same day? making videos doesn't mean he's unserious. but he just said that he needed to be more serious about his training and we know that he is an incredible talent because he ran 3:30 in his first Euro 1500m after college. A year out of college, even Centrowitz, who boasts a bronze and a 4th finish (at the moment), plus a third at Lausanne, is still 1 s away from that. As for recent performances, he did run 2:17 or 2:16 1k before heading back to VT for a couple weeks. Maybe when he gets back to Europe, he'll run closer to his 1500 and 800 pr's and then get a healthy offseason. At full strength, if he ever gets there again, he will run some Kiprop like times, maybe better.

In what universe in Andrew Wheating not top 5 in the U.S.? He finished 3rd in the trials after like 3 races coming off of a injury. He beat the shit out of Robby Andrews and Galen is not going to be moving down to the 1500...thats a joke.

At Wheating's level, you don't keep improving by being a sissy and going "well golly gee I just hope I can squeeze out a PR again someday, because I've been injured and I have to be realistic."

That's for small-minded fools and cowards. Wheating has already shown he can run with the best in the world when healthy. Now it's a matter of staying healthy and being up there consistently, BELIEVING he belongs there.

When Manzano made his first few teams out of college, he didn't run particularly well at the major championships. We heard on the boards that Manzano only peaks for the national meet, that he doesn't have the "killer instinct," that he just isn't good enough to make finals, much less medal, etc. One Olympic cycle later, Manzano still isn't necessarily Mr. Consistency, but he's not as erratic as he used to be, and this time, in the major championship, he ran awesome and came away with the silver medal.

Right up into the final, people were saying "Manzano just isn't good enough to realistically expect a medal." However, if you had asked Manzano back in January, "hey, Leo, do you think you can medal?" I'm going to guess he would have said something like "of course I think I can medal, I just have to stay healthy, work hard, and believe."

That kind of confidence seems misplaced when an athlete is coming off a less-than-perfect season. Then when an athlete puts things together, people go "oh wow, that came out of nowhere!"

It could be that Wheating never stays healthy long enough to run up to his potential (I hope not). It's entirely possible. But during each rehab, each buildup, each period of "oh jeez, I can't believe I just did 10x400 at 62 and it actually hurt, I'm so out of shape" he and any other athlete with the A-standard is going to be saying "Keep on this grind, you can medal, you can be one of the best, keep being smart and working hard..."

A Duck wrote:

Listen, it is possible for the guy to be a goofball in an interview, to have made a handful of "comedy" videos over a long winter while injured -- and still display a killer instinct in races.

Review his NCAA career.

Since his 1500PB, he's been dealing with injury issues.

I think he is serious about his running; and also an affable and funny guy. He is not a screw off or lazy.

I passionately think he needs to get the heck out of Eugene and to Portland...for a bunch of reasons...mostly to train with Centro, and a coach who has time for him (Salazar) and a coach that will micro manage in positive ways his health and injury avoidance.

You're making my point for me - he hasn't taken care of the details in the past. Guys like Rupp, Manzano this year, Centro do the little things and find the coaches who look at the little things to succeed. I'm not saying he shouldn't be a fun loving guy, but I think it has impacted how he perceives taking things more seriously. When he ran 3:30 it was just plain going out and having fun - not worrying about the result. Listen to his interviews since then - he's constantly worried about screwing up. His efforts to be more serious are more about building up race results in his mind with so much pressure that he's trying not to fail.

I think he should be his natural self, with a coach who takes care of every single thing, and that he just needs to be in the environment where all the details are thought through.

And yes it's possible for him to display the killer instinct, but he doesn't listen to his interviews during the trials - he was worried all the way through.

in ping pong ?

So, you think he's getting into "head case" territory? I hope he's just used to playing it safe after being injured and can get healthy and get over being careful. But, he did have some PF issue cropping up at trials. He said he felt a pop in his left (?) foot. So that sucks. I hope he gets over it and starts running at his potential again. I like Wheaty.

I'm sure Wheating puts in a lot of work when he trains. I don't like the way he races though. He always hangs out in the back of the pack and attempts to outkick as many people as possible in the final 200m. Of course, this only works in collegiate-level races. I'd like to see the guy mix it up more and look like he's actually trying win. He's huge. He can take a few elbows.

Wheating should work out with the medalists in Colorado Springs or Chula Vista. He'll never amount to anything stuck in the boonies.

This shouldn't even be on the message boards. The fact that his name would even be mentioned as a top 5 competitor in the world is absolutely absurd

training with centrowitz again would be a great idea. but centrowitz is not a guy who has in the past taken care of all the little details. in that nick thompson/malcolm gladwell olympics blog, they write that centro hadn't even done more than 50 situps or pushups at a time before coming to salazar. they indicated that salazar thought of him as a huge talent because everything comes so easy for him and he hasn't done a lot of the things that others typically do.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/08/the-thin-man.html

Wheating has openly admitted that Russell Brown is a harder worker than him, so yeah, if Russell Brown is working harder than you, and Wheatings pr is still 4 seconds faster, I'd say that Wheating isn't the hardest worker. You're an idiot.

This isn't NCAA's anymore, its the world stage. His "killer instinct" you speak of is nothing more than being more talented than the rest of the field at the collegiate level. Wheating is nothing more than the 2nd coming of Nick Symmonds. He hasn't made a WC/OG final yet in his young career but likely will later on. He thinks too highly of his kick, will run at the back of races and expect to go from 8th to 1st/2nd/3rd in a championship race in the last 150m. NEWS FLASH, at least 3 or 4 guys in front of you aren't coming back even if you close the last 300 in 39. Until he changes his tactics, he'll never be on the medal stand.

sjc wrote:

This isn't NCAA's anymore, its the world stage. His "killer instinct" you speak of is nothing more than being more talented than the rest of the field at the collegiate level. Wheating is nothing more than the 2nd coming of Nick Symmonds. He hasn't made a WC/OG final yet in his young career but likely will later on. He thinks too highly of his kick, will run at the back of races and expect to go from 8th to 1st/2nd/3rd in a championship race in the last 150m. NEWS FLASH, at least 3 or 4 guys in front of you aren't coming back even if you close the last 300 in 39. Until he changes his tactics, he'll never be on the medal stand.

Ya, he hasn't made a championship final yet. I'm being the fourth fastest american all time at 1500m and making two Olympic teams by the age of 24 is an okay consolation.

The dude ran his first track season at age 18. Granted, he has a lot to learn, but every bit as much potential as any other mid distance runner in the country. I'm willing to bet he WILL change his tactics, and barring injury, bring home some hardware.

hdhsh wrote:

Running on Empathy wrote:

There was a story earlier this year that Wheating had incurred some injury after the Trials 1500 that made him limp when he walked, yet he took the time to hit every post-Trials late night party instead of nursing his injury.

That's dedication ......

How does late night partying interfere with healing from an injury?

You're kidding, right? How does putting unneeded stress on injured parts of the body while consuming large quantities of alcohol and getting little sleep interfere with the healing process?!

Common sense - you lack it.