Valby deletes Instagram. Parker Valby update? We have an update - She's on comeback from minor injury

She also said she regularly deletes Instagram from her phone when she’s preparing a big race. That explains why she doesn’t post much. Taking it down entirely is a step further, but it doesn’t surprise me at all. She hates it.

I can. I expect it to get even bigger until we get a statement.

1) Parker Valby was one of the greatest collegiate runners we've ever seen.

2) Ms. Valby is paid A TON to race for New Balance. She is a first year pro and hasn't raced once outdoors. Virtually every healthy pro runner in the world has opened up by now.

3) She's also known for her looks and photos and yet she deletes her instagram page.

If you put #1, #2 and #3 together, that's not normal.

Maybe she's just injured? Well Jonathan Gault bumped into her NB coach Mark Coogan last week in Boston and Jon asked him something along the lines of "Has she been injured."

He didn't answer the question and said something along the lines of, "We hope to see her racing soon."

There really aren't that many options.

1. Running injury
2. Non-running medical issue
3. Mental issue - wants a break from the sport, unhappy with team, doesn't like pro running, depression, etc.
4. Contract dispute
5. Doping issue - tested positive, whereabouts, etc.
6. All is fine and she's just trolling the fans along with those closest to her by not racing and not making any statements

I have reached out to Coach Coogan for comment. Jonathan has reached out to Mr. Valby for comment. We will let you know if we hear anything.

Serious question: If there is nothing behind all of these posts/rumors/speculation and it is really just for her to "focus" on training.....why on God's green earth wouldn't someone in her camp come out and squash this thing with a public post.....none of it makes sense.

On a personal note I hope it's not doping related, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was.

She is attention seeking.

Well it's not like this has been brewing for a long time. It all started from this thread, which exploded overnight. I have zero clue what's going on here, but maybe they don't feel the need to immediately put out a statement whenever someone anonymously posts a rumor?

I don't think fans of any sport do well with a complete lack of information. When Lamar Jackson misses a practice without explanation and it's relayed via beat reporters, it sparks massive panic amongst Ravens/fantasy football fans. Of course, the team usually puts out a statement a couple of hours later citing personal reasons or whatever, "rest"/ "maintenance day" etc. Then everyone relaxes. With running, fans are if anything more invested and there is no transparency sometimes from high-profile athletes on what the heck is going on. It's unsurprising that Valby who has raced once in 9 months is sparking interest after disappearing from public view the last 3 months, missing a race that was thought to be in the works (the Ten), deleting IG, and offering no clarification on any of it.

Is this all just some big build up for a race announcement? Killer marketing tactic if true.

If she’s injured, I don’t believe she or Coogan are obligated to put out a statement. Runners go dark all the time for various reasons, including injuries, yet these demands are not made in this manner. I would probably just ignore it.

They certainly aren't legally obligated, but I totally feel like they need to issue a statement. A basic level of professionalism needs to be expected from our stars. We should know what Athing Mu is doing, Parker, etc. The Orioles give out injury updates all the time.

yus

This is kind of a sensitive topic with me. They announce a new starting pitcher on the DL daily.

I wish we could avoid unsubstantiated speculation and wait until we know the facts.

Today was already difficult since she wasn't there on Instagram to blow kisses at me.

Parker has famously been scammed on the phone for $10,000. It is very likely her Instagram was hacked or compromised and it just needed to be recovered. It is back already. It is true she hasn't been racing but she has been injury prone and could be focused on training. The speculation being made in this thread takes some big leaps and assumptions.

All of her other social media accounts remained active, such as TikTok. She even commented on Erin Browns TikTok about her, which was made because of this thread and speculation.

It would take them 5 seconds to say that there is no truth to the rumor. Yet we have radio silence. And that after a very curious series of events. My initial reaction was to deride the competence and willingness of our august antidoping authorities to actually catch dopers. I still think the USADA would work to suppress a positive test. But stranger things happen.

Why would her or her team respond to this? It's a LR thread not a real news source. Putting out a statement would only make her look suspicious to the 99% of people who follow her who have nothing to do with this site or the 2 random people who tweeted about it lol

All it would take is simple "no truth to the rumor" email response. Not only has this rumor been on this site all day but has been echoed on social media. The head of the biggest running site on the internet asked for a comment and nothing.

I do agree that the sport could use more transparency across the board with regards to injuries, etc. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable statement to make for all T&F athletes.

I certainly don’t think that NB or Parker is obligated, however, to release a statement responding to all of this speculation from message board posters. At this point, nobody in actual T&F media to my knowledge has actually reported anything. Don’t feel like they owe us anything yet.

If you think this sort of nonsense rises to the level of warranting communication from the athlete’s sponsor, and you believe communication from the athlete’s sponsor in a case like this would be in the best interests of the athlete and the sponsor, then you really have terrible judgement indeed.

I would love to see regular updates on athletes’ training and racing plans, injury status, the sorts of things rojo mentions above. But nobody in their right mind is going to waste time and energy to deny so patently ridiculous a story. PV was mocked for not understanding tangents; now she looks like she’s playing 5-D chess to LR’s hive mind checkers.

How can anyone who loves the sport downvote this? Ok, some of you hate Rojo and blindly downvote everything he posts - you are stupid, considering context (like, you are on the site he started), but whatever, fine. But to not want updates on the sport you follow? I don't get it.