No O'Keeffe in marathon?

Japan too. They pulled their NR holder Maeda out the day before the women's marathon and didn't put in the sub. Maeda got injured before the last Olympics and jogged it anyway instead of letting the sub run.

MRIs are the gold standard for checking for stress fractures, not x ray. MRI is more sensitive.

such a f**king joke as if MRIs don't fail to catch bone stress injuries in early stages often (this happened to Heather McLean for example (Tokyo 1500m Olympian) last year, femoral stress fracture was not caught on MRI initially and it took 6 MONTHS to return to health). Plus even if it was "soft tissue" Fiona looked PITIFUL from the gun. no miracle was gonna happen. everybody and their sister can see that. "she proved health" my a**.

plus, no one has even said this but she wasn't even in her full racing kit (with the racing briefs like at the Trials). girl was still in her warm-up split shorts bc she knew she wasn't going anywhere but straight back to the med tent.

as for the fueling issues which anyone with EYES can see. look at her Insta post from when she visited a few months ago to tour the course. one of the last pics on the post is a food pic: classic ED food pic (one dry multigrain piece of toast with nothing on it on top of a small pile of arugula with no dressing. full plate and about 0 calories but can skirt by when dining out with others).

It is all about their contracts. If they don't run they don't count as Olympic Athletes and don't get their bonuses. So, if you're a professional runner, this is the only way to do it. Because the Substitute will not pay you the lost money...

That's actually very hard to pull off. UKA asks marathoners to "prove fitness" and in Tokyo we had two DNFs on the men's side because they were clearly unfit, and two women who ran hobbyjogger times in the 2:50s. For Paris, the men all proved fitness by running marathons this year (Seville and Paris) while the women proved fitness by running half marathons well below their best times. This resulted in Calli Thackery dropping out and Rose Harvey running 2:51.

The upshot is, you're reliant on athletes being honest with themselves and with the team. I do feel for O'Keeffe but I also think she has at least two more opportunities to be an Olympian and do herself justice, she's only 26. I could understand her decision more if she was older and this was her one and only shot.

Hopefully, this is her last Olympic team and that she drops out of sight and mind.

If they can't sub out an injured athlete, why did they name an alternate after the Olympic Trials (and also fly her to Paris earlier this week)? This is the part that still doesn't make sense to me. Why have an alternate if an athlete who can barely run is allowed to start?

how ridiculous would it be if one of the members of the gymnastics team was injured and could barely do a tumbleset and went out and performed? it would be a top news story and people would be outraged. she's "lucky" that the marathon flies under the radar and that the announcers are nice and gave her a pass.

I read that post and immediately thought "femoral neck stress fracture." If you have an MRI too soon, it won't appear. No hip flexor issue would cause you to limp and have to drop out within 5km.

Great job Fiona and Sinhead, selfish athletes who wanted to have fun experiencing Paris and call themselves Olympians instead of making the right choice and letting teammate compete who could actually have shot at medal.

A real shame as I had very high hopes for Fiona, hope she recovers and is able to lay down some crazy performances in the future.

You are wrong. The MRI is highly sensitive and will pick up a stress fracture or even stress reaction very quickly, within a couple days. You are thinking of an XRAY, which takes weeks. If she is telling the truth and her MRI came back clean, then I can totally understand her trying to go out there and run.

It’s funny that you mention gymnastics because that’s the only other sport I follow closely in addition to running. Gymnastics has a high rate of injury, so teams are very ready to sub out athletes right up until the deadline. There were 3 serious contenders for the US team who were taken out by injuries during the gymnastics Olympic Trials weekend. Just one bad landing can tear or break something, or aggravate an existing injury. So gymnastics team alternates know there’s a chance they’ll be called on to compete. This did not happen with the US in Paris but it did on other teams such as the Dutch women.

A different scenario can happen with gymnasts who qualify by themselves as individuals without a team. They typically don’t have an alternate from the same country, and especially not in the situation of an injury or illness that happens right before the competition. In that case, there have been gymnasts who take 2 swings on the uneven bars and call it a day. I don’t think people look poorly on that because there’s no one else who can take that spot.

I think this is why I’m so confounded by USATF naming an alternate and flying her to Paris before a very injured athlete hobbled down a small portion of the marathon course anyway. Why have an alternate?

She was limping getting to the starting line there was no way she was winning a medal or even coming close to finishing. Horrible look at the way around for everyone involved

26 and you think she has another shot? How many of the US marathoners were on the team in Tokyo and in Paris? Oh right, ZERO! Damn right she was selfish to run and she had every right to do it. Jess took 4th at trials. She should have finished top 3 if she wanted to race. Sucks for her. Those of you talking crap about Fiona are crappy people who have absolutely no idea what it feels like to be her. So shut your mouths, control your fingers, and get back in the hole you came from.

Tell us you are slow as shi$t without telling us...clown

Yes, you’re slow. We get it.

So in summary, a ton of people without any facts, passing judgement. Typical LRC.

As a side note, I have had 3 bad stress fractures (2 Fibular, 1 Tibial). In 2 of the cases, including the Tibia 2 years ago, the fracture did not show up on the MRI until a second MRI weeks later.

one other point, USATF recently announced a 35,000 grant to Fiona. Was this dependent on her starting the race? Do we know what her contract with Puma assures? How about additional team contract stipulations? Conservative estimate of $100,000 total. I am certain that 95% of you complaining about this situation would have run if that is the case.

The up votes and down votes tell us a lot about how the board feels about this entire situation.

1. Most people think Fiona made the wrong decision.
2. Most feel that her decision has changed their opinion of how they feel about her.
3. Most feel that her Coach/Agent (same person) did not act responsibly.
4. Most feel Des/Hansons made the same poor decision in 2012.

These are all facts and have shown in the up votes and down votes. You can disagree but you are in the minority. People are entitled to their opinions.

The disappointment for me is that 12 years later Des is still too stubborn to admit she was wrong. Des went on to make another Olympic team and win Boston. It is a shame that she can’t admit she made a mistake. Kara backing her buddy is equally annoying.

You may know people, but apparently you don’t know Des or the Hansons. What you’ve stated here is not at all factual.