Almaz Ayana has again withdrawn from a Diamond League meet

Thank you for intelligent post wrote:

Jonathan Gault wrote:

I reached out to her agent Jos Hermens. He explained that she is healthy and training well and wanted to run Monaco. But he said that Ethiopian federation isn't letting her compete in Monaco as they put together their own training camp before Worlds and take control over the athletes. That's why athletes like Genzebe Dibaba and Letesenbet Gidey aren't competing either.

Hermens said that she did have an injury earlier in the year, but she is still planning on running the 5k in London.

Federation's taking over and ruining athlete's training is a major issue in some countries, and why such countries are failing to have the success that they should.

Yes, supposedly this is what ruined the Kenyans (1500) before the 2012 Olympics. Not sure why they do it.

I'm curious what this looks/sounds like when you do it. Do you say, "Hi Mr. Hermans. My name is Jonathan Gault and I work for a website called Letsrun.com. I was wondering if you might have a minute to answer a few questions about one of your athletes?"Or is it more,"Hey, Jos, it's Jonathan at Letsrun. Why isn't Ayana running in Monaco? Will she be in London?"Just curious...

Jonathan Gault wrote:

I reached out to her agent Jos Hermens.

Appreciator wrote:

I'm curious what this looks/sounds like when you do it. Do you say,

"Hi Mr. Hermans. My name is Jonathan Gault and I work for a website called Letsrun.com. I was wondering if you might have a minute to answer a few questions about one of your athletes?"

Or is it more,

"Hey, Jos, it's Jonathan at Letsrun. Why isn't Ayana running in Monaco? Will she be in London?"

Just curious...

Jonathan Gault wrote:

I reached out to her agent Jos Hermens.

If it's someone I haven't spoken to before, I'll use something similar to the first one.

For people I've interacted with a few times, I'll generally use the latter. I've spoken with Jos a few times so in this case, my email was pretty close to the latter format.

And I always make sure to say thank you!

Thanks. Would you say people like Hermans take you seriously? And do you ever get to chew the fat with someone like him? Ask him what it's like to run an Olympic final, or are you only emailing these folks.

I'm curious to see how the international reputation of Letsrun is growing.

Appreciator wrote:

Thanks. Would you say people like Hermans take you seriously? And do you ever get to chew the fat with someone like him? Ask him what it's like to run an Olympic final, or are you only emailing these folks.

I'm curious to see how the international reputation of Letsrun is growing.

I'd like to think he takes us seriously. I don't think he'd bother responding if he didn't.

But I also respect that someone like Hermens is a busy man. So if I'm doing a preview of a race or have a question about one of his athletes, I'll generally just try to keep it to that subject out of respect for his time.

If I'm actually at a meet, it's different. I'll talk to anyone and everyone who wants to talk shop. Occasionally it might be someone of Hermens' stature (though I've only ever had one or two brief interactions with him in person) but it could be anyone -- agents, fellow journalists, current or former athletes, fans.

How much money do the athletes stand to lose by being barred from competition?