Infeld beat Huddle at the line for the bronze! incredible lean!

rewdy wrote:

EOtS wrote:

I suppose I don't understand the point of "celebrating" coming in third (ostensibly, in this case), medal or no, in the first place.

For someone to be satisfied with one's performance, with, say, winning a bronze medal, sure, I get that. But to celebrate on the track the moment of one's achievement, when that achievement isn't actually winning race? I don't get that.

Truly, the self-absorption of athletes today is remarkable.

Seriously? I could write an essay explaining how wrong your are, but I won't. Instead I'll just say that you are a huge idiot and leave it at that. I had to at least get that off my chest. You giant f**king idiot.

Oh. Okay. You've convinced me. I think it was your incisive use of profanity that prompted me to rethink my position. :-)

In global championships, 2nd and 3rd placers always celebrate, it is quite appropriate, especially if they weren't necessarily expecting it.

TrackCoach wrote:

EOtS wrote:

I suppose I don't understand the point of "celebrating" coming in third (ostensibly, in this case), medal or no, in the first place.

For someone to be satisfied with one's performance, with, say, winning a bronze medal, sure, I get that. But to celebrate on the track the moment of one's achievement, when that achievement isn't actually winning race? I don't get that.

Truly, the self-absorption of athletes today is remarkable.

In global championships, 2nd and 3rd placers always celebrate, it is quite appropriate, especially if they weren't necessarily expecting it.

If 'quite appropriate' means that occasionally the person celebrating forfeits their medal to someone who didn't celebrate, then sure. I get that athletes who train for these things want to soak in the moment with a personal celebration. But had she waited just 3 more strides, she could have done it AND actually had the medal.

Huddle is clearly the better 10,000 meter runner. but complaining that Infeld was only in the race because it was slow is another indicator as to why Huddle has no medal. SHE had the responsibility for herself and her racing effort to put the race out of contention for another competitor by simply running faster. She didn't do that. So...Athletically superior??? yes!!!...Tactically superior?? Not so much. Hopefully she learns her lesson and can perform better in Rio.

Jsjks wrote:

Who did Huddle think she is? Steve Ovett?

This! Ironic that she was coached by Ray Treacy. Begin discussion whether this is irony or not in 3...2...1

Tesco huddle wrote:

Arms in the air in celebration as she crossed the 2m-before-the-line finishing line, only to spot Infield coming up on the, er, infield

Too bad that's not her last name moron.

Ignoring the 3rd/4th finishing drama for a minute, that was a damn impressive showing by all three Americans! If you told me yesterday that they'd put two in front of Kipyego and three in front of Saina, I wouldn't have believed it. In fact, if you scored this one XC style, the US would have won it!

US - 13

Kenya - 14

Ethiopia - 18

Hindsight is always 20/20 and I think we all know that she will have a hard time dealing with this over the coming days and weeks. At least she has the Olympics coming up within the year. This will allow her to train on pure hate for the next 365 days.

But I do want to mention to the guy who called Huddle out for doing this at XC Nationals in 2012... I never saw that as a celebration. It just looked like she was raising her arms over the comically small finishing tape that those two guys were holding:

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=9&do=videos&video_id=58821

Could those guy snot give the ladies a little more room? Damn... That finish always irritated me because they had like 3x the amount of room to give the ladies and they crammed them into like 3 feet of finishing space.

I am not even necessarily a big fan of Huddle, but I think she got a raw deal on that XC finish...

Yeah but they don't u knobjockey

The 10,000 is a long race, and Huddle was pushing a lot there towards the end. I would think that there would be an almost subconscious temptation to ease off, to release that pressure, as soon as you think your finishing spot is secure. (A temptation that Infeld withstood better than Huddle, so Infeld earns the bronze.)

Reminds me of the description in Once a Runner about the orb or sphere or whatever in Cassidy's mind that he's trying to hold together and keep from falling apart.

None of this is an excuse for Huddle, but people keep saying that they don't understand why Huddle couldn't just run another three steps and then celebrate. I'm guessing that at least part of the reason is that she had just run her guts out and was completely drained mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Congratulations to Infeld for keeping it all together the whole race and teaching Huddle a constructive lesson that will hopefully mean even more medals for the US women in the 10,000 in Rio.

Turk wrote:

Jsjks wrote:

Who did Huddle think she is? Steve Ovett?

This! Ironic that she was coached by Ray Treacy. Begin discussion whether this is irony or not in 3...2...1

Brother John Treacy is the one that pipped Ovett.

This is a fundamental misreading of the circumstances and, frankly, an insult to Infeld. Huddle did not win a medal and did not deserve to win one, because she failed to run through and line and so was passed for the bronze by Infeld. It wasn't a fluke, it wasn't underserved or lucky. Infeld beat Huddle. It was a 10,000m race, not a 9,999m race. There's no justification for saying Huddle "should have" won a medal.

The Dingo^3 wrote:

It's totally understandable. This was minutes after losing out on a WC medal when she should have won one

EOtS wrote:

I suppose I don't understand the point of "celebrating" coming in third (ostensibly, in this case), medal or no, in the first place.

For someone to be satisfied with one's performance, with, say, winning a bronze medal, sure, I get that. But to celebrate on the track the moment of one's achievement, when that achievement isn't actually winning race? I don't get that.

It's a subconscious physical thing (no, that's not an oxymoron, stay with me). Celebrating releases positive hormones in the body, the more the better, kinda like the opposite of what depression and/or depressive thoughts do to the overall system. This is also related to the phenomenon of winners often continue to win whereas losers often continue to lose - so never, never, ever miss a chance to celebrate being competetive even if you didn't win - or to find an angle on your performance that let's you give yourself permission to celebrate.

Unless of course it's premature celebration...

AGREED. It is stupid to call her an idiot or other names. She ran a great race and was exhausted at the end and made a mental mistake. She isn't the first runner to do it and she won't be the last runner to do it.

Ackley wrote:

Turk wrote:

This! Ironic that she was coached by Ray Treacy. Begin discussion whether this is irony or not in 3...2...1

Brother John Treacy is the one that pipped Ovett.

My bad! Gotta lay off the sauce before noon...

NESeattle wrote:

Ignoring the 3rd/4th finishing drama for a minute, that was a damn impressive showing by all three Americans! If you told me yesterday that they'd put two in front of Kipyego and three in front of Saina, I wouldn't have believed it. In fact, if you scored this one XC style, the US would have won it!

US - 13

Kenya - 14

Ethiopia - 18

If it wasn't for if all sorts of things could have happened. For starters 31:40 is ridiculously slow for an event where the winner usually clocks 29 high or 30 low. Ingrid Christiansen of the 80s could have won this one lapping every single one. Paula Radcliffe in her prime could have won it running the last lap backwards. Meseret Defar could have won it pushing a baby stroller. Tirunesh Dibaba could have won it 8th month pregnant!

And Ghenzebe Dibaba could probably have gone for the unique 1500, 5000, 10000 triple without even needing an extra massage before her 15000 finals tomorrow...

lot of concentration for 10k wrote:

None of this is an excuse for Huddle, but people keep saying that they don't understand why Huddle couldn't just run another three steps and then celebrate. I'm guessing that at least part of the reason is that she had just run her guts out and was completely drained mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Just another weak-willed, self-centered drama queen, then.

In other words, she quit. She sacrificed the gift.

rewdy wrote:

EOtS wrote:

I suppose I don't understand the point of "celebrating" coming in third (ostensibly, in this case), medal or no, in the first place.

For someone to be satisfied with one's performance, with, say, winning a bronze medal, sure, I get that. But to celebrate on the track the moment of one's achievement, when that achievement isn't actually winning race? I don't get that.

Truly, the self-absorption of athletes today is remarkable.

Seriously? I could write an essay explaining how wrong your are, but I won't. Instead I'll just say that you are a huge idiot and leave it at that. I had to at least get that off my chest. You giant f**king idiot.

Can't bother to explain yourself, but willing to hurl around strong insults. My guess is that the writer wasn't being "nice enough" - daring to be judgmental about non-winners celebrating like they're winners. Rock solid argument against this behavior? Of course not. But defensible to question it? Sure (ESPECIALLY in what seems to be an ever-increasing look-at-me FB/Twitter world). But, you're MUCH nicer than this - and prove it by calling the person a "giant f***** idiot." So, my turn: God, I hate a****** like you. And there are way too many.

Oh, please. What complete nonsense this is. You've just concocted some gibberish to justify the machinations of the look-at-me/I'm-special "selfie" generation.

Actually, now that I think a bit more about it, I realize that you're not being serious. So, you know, bravo. You got me.

Ive just watched thefinish and to me it looked like the raised arms were so close to the line that it had no impact, Infield was finishing 3rd regardless of what Huddle did.