Yup. You boys continue to confirm that this thread's is an attack on BTC and all of their athletes. The giveaway was in the title . . . cites Houlihan explicitly = Attack BTC!
Your anti-BTC team should able put up 10+ downvotes to this post within the next hour. Get to work trolling, boys.
"Trolling"--you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Do you publicly badmouth your employer whenever something bothers you at work? Your point is meaningless.
“I just had to overcome so much self-doubt and so many health issues. It felt like the whole year I was playing catchup adapting to the program at BTC and dealing with my relapse of Graves’ disease, and I don’t think I realized at the time what a big ask that was.”
“It’s definitely a very healthy, very positive, even nurturing relationship. Jerry gives what every athlete needs and when I came to him I was very broken – mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred. He always holds me accountable, but I’m able to be very open with him and he’s a very positive person.”
Some insta notes: gds liked a comment thanking her for standing up for clean sport.
Thanks for putting this together. That type of subtle communication is absolutely important and meaningful. Not sure who downvoted you - you just reported a fact.
Her loss (and Canada's). She'll never run as well again. Her career trajectory will be something like Shalane Flanagan's after she left John Cook. Coulda been a contender.
And such a self-contradictory announcement: she just LOVES the BTC but she's leaving it? Pretty muddled message. Makes no sense.
As I've said before, 2:00/3:56/14:44 aged 24 pre BTC, 1:58/3:58/14:31 bests with BTC aged 26. Don't think BTC was her only chance given she didn't even PB in her main event.
As to why she left a group she loves, crudely put, how many people like or love their girlfriend/boyfriend but know they ain't marriage material. Just because you like or even love something in one way doesn't mean you can't think you need to leave due to another.
To be clear in her IG post she did not trash Jerry or say anything bad about him or Shalane. She just said the stress of the Shalane event and its aftermath has continued to wear on her and be a distraction. I don't really see how her comments from the past in any way undermine what she said here.
Do you publicly badmouth your employer whenever something bothers you at work? Your point is meaningless.
“I just had to overcome so much self-doubt and so many health issues. It felt like the whole year I was playing catchup adapting to the program at BTC and dealing with my relapse of Graves’ disease, and I don’t think I realized at the time what a big ask that was.”
“It’s definitely a very healthy, very positive, even nurturing relationship. Jerry gives what every athlete needs and when I came to him I was very broken – mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred. He always holds me accountable, but I’m able to be very open with him and he’s a very positive person.”
None of this is incompatible with her announcement that she’s leaving the team. In fact, it isn’t contradictory at all.
“He always holds me accountable, but I’m able to be very open with him”
This sounds exactly like she found the training environment to be stressful, exactly like she says now. Otherwise, what’s there to be “open” about if everything is sunshine and rainbows?
“And I think it’s really important to consider who you associate with. We don’t get to choose our parents, but we certainly get to choose our friends and our coaches and who we want to include in our circle and put our faith and our trust in. I think it’s really important to think about who you include in your professional circle in this sport, and I think that who you choose to allow in says a lot about you.”
Final point on BTC and the group avoiding the gray-zone - why don't the group commit to list every single supplement that each athlete is using and any TUEs that they have? There's been a lot of talk about Schumacher's use of thyroid meds in the past, and he also sent athletes to Doc Brown. There's a lot of smoke around that group that they could do with addressing
An actual journalist (so, not letsrun) - probably one of the no bullshlt Irish guys who were a pain in Lance Armstrong's ass - should talk to Lisa Uhl.
If I recall correctly, it was claimed Flanagan's husband used to video the workouts Cook had her do. Once they didn't think they needed Cook anymore, she cut the ties. Sketchy if true.
If I recall correctly, it was claimed Flanagan's husband used to video the workouts Cook had her do. Once they didn't think they needed Cook anymore, she cut the ties. Sketchy if true.
How is it sketchy to cut ties from a coach that you don’t think you need anymore?
I think she’s a seeker type who thinks each new situation is going to be “the one” and then becomes discouraged when it’s not the immediate solution she was looking for. I think she wanted to medal at the Olympics and seemed like she was headed for a medal at worlds and she became disappointed when she just missed. It’s understandable that would be very disappointing but I think the narrative that it was Shelby’s test that affected her and that she could no longer ethically stand the training environment is a late edition to the narrative. Once she’s done with a situation it becomes that it was always terrible and broke her in some way.
She seems like a person who jumps headfirst into each new thing (marrying a man in 3 months) and then looks for the next new thing. It would not surprise me if in the next couple of months she comes out as non-binary or something and then tells us how everything in her life makes total sense now and before she wasn’t running with her whole self…she seems someone not stable or at home in her self and identity so is always looking for what’s next and the next thing that explains why she’s not as successful as she wants and why this time she has the answer. Hopefully she finds a good situation for her running and gets that medal finally because she’s obviously a huge talent.
Those who understand that WADA failed to adhere to its own testing recommendations in Houlihan's case do think that she's innocent.
Lol. No. Doing the "recommended" extra test to differentiate between ingestion and injection wouldn't have changed anything, because injection was never postulation.
Similarly, asking a 2nd expert for their opinion - as recommended - is pointless in such an open-and-shut case.
Finally, "failed to adhere" are strong words, when talking about "recommendations".
I think she’s a seeker type who thinks each new situation is going to be “the one” and then becomes discouraged when it’s not the immediate solution she was looking for. I think she wanted to medal at the Olympics and seemed like she was headed for a medal at worlds and she became disappointed when she just missed. It’s understandable that would be very disappointing but I think the narrative that it was Shelby’s test that affected her and that she could no longer ethically stand the training environment is a late edition to the narrative. Once she’s done with a situation it becomes that it was always terrible and broke her in some way.
She seems like a person who jumps headfirst into each new thing (marrying a man in 3 months) and then looks for the next new thing. It would not surprise me if in the next couple of months she comes out as non-binary or something and then tells us how everything in her life makes total sense now and before she wasn’t running with her whole self…she seems someone not stable or at home in her self and identity so is always looking for what’s next and the next thing that explains why she’s not as successful as she wants and why this time she has the answer. Hopefully she finds a good situation for her running and gets that medal finally because she’s obviously a huge talent.
Weird post.
Spending this much effort speculating about a stranger’s sexuality and personal life is not normal.
Those who understand that WADA failed to adhere to its own testing recommendations in Houlihan's case do think that she's innocent.
Lol. No. Doing the "recommended" extra test to differentiate between ingestion and injection wouldn't have changed anything, because injection was never postulation.
Similarly, asking a 2nd expert for their opinion - as recommended - is pointless in such an open-and-shut case.
Finally, "failed to adhere" are strong words, when talking about "recommendations".
Ayotte said they were oral and she would not be wrong. SH should have gone to prison for fraud and subject to a class action so to bankrupt her.And she should have been made to pay the prosecutors cost as well as all CAS costs.All that would sort the cheats out.
LRC Note. This person started a 2nd thread on GDS entitled, "GDS Adds More Clarity, Implies Shelby Is Still Training with BTC, Calls Situation "Grey Area" We are merging it into the original thread.
This makes her unhappiness with the situation even more understandable. I tend to agree with other posters that Jerry/Shalane are making a big mistake in not establishing boundaries with Shelby until she is actually exonerated (if that ever happens). I would definitely be uncomfortable training with her at the track. And if she was there, I'd want a legal explanation of why it was OK that it doesn't seem she's gotten.
Quotes from Canadian Running article on her departure. Tl;Dr, not just a mental health thing.
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She added that there is general confusion around what an athlete who is serving a competition ban is allowed to do vis à vis training. Given the lack of clarity surrounding the rules, DeBues-Stafford says she has concerns about operating in what she refers to as “the grey area.”
She adds that while the BTC staff and Houlihan’s lawyers have spent a lot of time and energy clarifying what she can and cannot do during her period of ineligibility, none of the other athletes have been given access to this information. “This absence of this clarity surrounding the boundaries between BTC and a banned athlete is the critical reason for my departure,” says DeBues-Stafford. “I need to know 100 per cent, black and white, word for word, all codes and guidelines that might be relevant to me or anyone associated with me in a professional capacity in this sport.”
