jordan hasay...another record!

doug225550 wrote:

i think its interesting, we always hear stories of african kids running 10 kilometers to school and back, 20 km a day 5 days a week plus usually work like on farms and/or playing sports like soccer. and this is often theorized as the building foundation of their success in running, when an american or european does similar volume and/or intensity, a lot of people say the kid will burn out. british coaching great frank horwill says running fast at a young age wont burn out a kid, look at the africans they dont burn out, they get fired up to dominate the running world.

I tend to agree with you. I don't really believe young prodigies really "burn out," although all people need a break from their sport at certain times.

What i think really happens is that many prodigies reach the limit, or close to the limit, of their natural ability at a much younger age. When their times don't continue to improve in their late teens, people say they've burned out. There are exceptions (Dibaba is an example), but most young prodigies, especially girls, do not continue on to the elite level as adults.

Hasay, like Decker, may indeed be one of those exceptions. Only time will tell. But, as I've argued before, parents that allow their daughter do the amount of training and racing necessary to be a prodigy in the first place are taking a big gamble. Their child's happiness and ultimate satisfaction with the sport are at stake. A girl who runs the fastest times of her life between the ages of 13-15 will probably not leave the sport later on with the same level of satisfaction as the girl who progresses at a more reasonable pace.