But Dakota was the star She was with the leaders more than halfway and she looked strong and healthy. Yes Dakota did the USA proud even though she came in 12Th. She did America Proud.
Fiona O'Keeffe has explained everything that went down that resulted in her dropping out of the Olympic marathon here:
-
621
-
Jzs wrote:
Enough is enough!
Our energy needs to be put into Fiona O'Keeffe‘s health (mental, emotional and physical); this is over.
LetsRun needs to lock down this thread and file it away, no more comments; this is over, it’s not at all healthy.
I’ve contributed to this thread and I didn’t agree with her decision to start the race. It’s over and done ✔️. We’ve all had our fair chance to voice our opinions of her decision along with her team in regards to the matter, it’s done and over.
This thread is a negative black hole, where no good is ever going to come of it. Forgiveness and better decisions are needed, not more negativity.
I don’t disagree with you but perhaps this negativity can change things.
1. Action should be taken against the athlete’s coaches and agents. They should be stripped of coaching by Safesport or at least defunded by their sponsor. They have more than one unhealthy athlete and are not making decisions that are best for the athlete. There are threads about this situation dating back a couple years.
2. Fiona needs help and turning our heads is not fair to her or others in the group.
3. This thread draws attention to a situation that needs addressing.627 -
Jzs wrote:
Enough is enough!
Our energy needs to be put into Fiona O'Keeffe‘s health (mental, emotional and physical); this is over.
LetsRun needs to lock down this thread and file it away, no more comments; this is over, it’s not at all healthy.
I’ve contributed to this thread and I didn’t agree with her decision to start the race. It’s over and done ✔️. We’ve all had our fair chance to voice our opinions of her decision along with her team in regards to the matter, it’s done and over.
This thread is a negative black hole, where no good is ever going to come of it. Forgiveness and better decisions are needed, not more negativity.
I agree with you. Obviously, she had made a big fat mistake, But we need to move on from criticizing the athlete. Because, I don’t believe she’s the one who’s making the final decision (I think her Coach / Agent is the real culprit for this mess)
1313 -
midpackgal wrote:
Des Linden defending her on Twitter saying, “She proved health. There was always a chance it could’ve worked out.”
total BS
Des Linden is also being nasty and immature defending her on instagram. Someone commented on Fiona's post:
"Im sorry but the back-up was called to Paris over a week ago. There is no way you can run 3 miles and be surprised you had to drop out. I hope you get better soon and I hope you take a moment to reevaluate your team around you"
Which is a very respectful way to tell her they don't agree with her decision.
Des replied:
"consider getting a clue and then coming back to apologize 👍"
Which is actually pretty rude. I wasn't following running in 2012 so those games don't really affect my respect for Des but the way she's handling all this does
806 -
i_call_bs wrote:
midpackgal wrote:
Des Linden defending her on Twitter saying, “She proved health. There was always a chance it could’ve worked out.”
total BS
Des Linden is also being nasty and immature defending her on instagram. Someone commented on Fiona's post:
"Im sorry but the back-up was called to Paris over a week ago. There is no way you can run 3 miles and be surprised you had to drop out. I hope you get better soon and I hope you take a moment to reevaluate your team around you"
Which is a very respectful way to tell her they don't agree with her decision.
Des replied:
"consider getting a clue and then coming back to apologize 👍"
Which is actually pretty rude. I wasn't following running in 2012 so those games don't really affect my respect for Des but the way she's handling all this does
Lmao Des.
313 -
armchair runners wrote:
95% of you would do the same in O’Keefe’s position. She has been training her whole life for this moment. Especially if her livelihood (bonus) depends on her being an official Olympian. McClain didn’t earn that spot. Fiona did.
No one trains their whole life to start an Olympic marathon incapable of running marathon pace for 100 yards.
481 -
armchair runners wrote:
Joan ran the 1984 marathon on a surgically repaired knee just 17 days prior to the race without any clue how it would turn out, but apparently she has your deepest admiration because she miraculously won.
It’s called taking a chance and having bad luck, Dave. I guess if Joanie didn’t finish in 1984, you’d have a completely different and “horrified” opinion of her.
Joan's surgery was 17 days prior to the Trials, not the Olympics. She wasn't taking anyone's spot by competing and obviously knew she was ready to give it a shot.
480 -
Seriously do this wrote:
i_call_bs wrote:
Des Linden is also being nasty and immature defending her on instagram. Someone commented on Fiona's post:
"Im sorry but the back-up was called to Paris over a week ago. There is no way you can run 3 miles and be surprised you had to drop out. I hope you get better soon and I hope you take a moment to reevaluate your team around you"
Which is a very respectful way to tell her they don't agree with her decision.
Des replied:
"consider getting a clue and then coming back to apologize 👍"
Which is actually pretty rude. I wasn't following running in 2012 so those games don't really affect my respect for Des but the way she's handling all this does
Lmao Des.
I'm slowly but surely losing love for Des Linden with these "hot takes" of hers. But her bias is obvious here. She literally wrote in her own book that her situation in 2012 was fine bc it was "my race my call." But, I fundamentally disagree. A World Marathon major sure (and top athletes can earn the same or more by lining up there), but in the Olympics athletes are on a team, Fiona was ostensibly representing the USA not just herself, and there is a base level of sportsmanship which is supposed to guide the whole Games...
Plus the fact that Linden is being so nasty in her comments in response to several very measured responses demonstrates how this whole conversation is still personal to her. Though that's pretty clear already since she and Kara are some the only people I've heard to back Fiona's choice here...
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.744 -
I have a feeling many pro runners may speak differently if they were offered anonymity.
352 -
All of you lying haters need to get off your moral high horses. Everyone knows exactly what you would do if a significant chunk of cash was on the line — we see it every day in from the poorest to the richest in greedy America — and nearly every one of you would make the same call as Fiona did without a doubt. It’s not like she has been raking it in her whole career either. She’s made peanuts up until very recently. So you can STFU and cope.
5655 -
Cole Hocker winning the Gold Medal in the 1500 is up to 15 pages on the LETSRUN Meassage Boards. This thread about Fiona, Alistair, and Desi is up to 20 pages.
In most of the comments about this issue are not in favor of the decisions made. This is even more evident in up/down votes.Because the Des situation happened 12 years ago, it is obvious that this situation will not age well and that all parties involved will forever be viewed on the wrong side of history by the majority of the fans of the sport.
432 -
O'Keefe's agent has sent us Q&A they did with her where she explains the how things went from her last hard track session to her DNF.
O'KEEFE: The last five weeks or so leading into it, we got in a really solid training block up at Mammoth Lakes. I was logging good marathon mileage, getting in good long runs, getting ready for the hills. I was feeling good about the training and where I was at. Things weren’t perfect, but they never are and it was a good body of work that I was happy with.
When did the issue arise?
O'KEEFE: I did my last real track workout on Friday (August 2) and that was a good workout. I felt strong, no issues, and then on Saturday on my run I started having a little bit of tightness in the left hip. I didn’t think too much of it, but then the next day, Sunday, it was worse during the run. I was supposed to run 90 minutes, I ended up running 80, but I thought: OK, we’re just being smart. But then walking around the rest of the day didn’t feel very good so that’s when it started. We decided to come back to Paris. We were up in Strasbourg. We came back to see the doctors and physio and try to get ready for the race.
What did they tell you?
O'KEEFE: That’s the thing that’s a little confusing. It feels like nobody’s been able to pinpoint it so far. I’ve seen several different people and the Physios seem to mainly think it was an issue of how my hips were aligned and I had an ongoing tight calf so it was possibly compensation because it was on the opposite side. That’s the best explanation I’ve been able to get. Later in the week, I did end up seeing the USATF doctor and getting an MRI done and their read on the MRI was it was clear there was no evidence of muscular damage or anything in the bone. So going off that information, it was like: OK, based on the information we have, there’s not going to be further damage from running on it so we may as well try and see what’s possible.
On those final days, were you able to run?
O'KEEFE: Yeah, I was able to run some. It was definitely not pain-free, but I got a couple more treatments. The last one was Friday morning and I felt quite a bit better walking out of that office so we were thinking: OK, we’ll take the rest of Friday off, see how that treatment settles, hopefully it sets in overnight. Then the next day we’ll run and hopefully we’re good to go. So I did run Saturday morning, just a couple of miles and it wasn’t very good, honestly. But the deadline to declare or not for the race was Friday evening. The deadline had passed and it would have been too late to sub in an alternate at that stage and I was like: OK, if this is a nerve or something, maybe it’ll respond and I’ll wake up on race morning and it’ll settle down a little way into the race or maybe I’ll wake up and it’ll feel different. I didn’t want to have that regret of not having tried and not having given myself a chance.
The morning of the race and in the race itself, what were you feeling?
O'KEEFE: It was really painful. It felt like my body wouldn’t let me run the way I needed to from the get-go. I did a short warm-up and I didn’t feel like there was much point in continuing on if I wasn’t able to compete effectively. I think I made it about a mile into the race and we knew it was definitely possible I would drop out, I thought I’d do it a little later on if so, but it was trying to make a smart call for the day and for the upcoming months.
What’s your next step from here?
O'KEEFE: I need to figure out what exactly is going on with my body because I feel like I don’t have the answers. I need to know what the best treatment approach is. I was going to take time off now anyway with it being after a marathon, so it’s a good time to reset and start assessing how I can train better in the future so I can get to the start line fully healthy and ready to go.
This post was edited by rojo 3 hours after it was posted.934 -
She’s straight up lying at this point to try to make herself look better. “I made it about a mile into the race and we knew there was a definite possibility I would drop out.” I would think you would have known that the moment you were getting gapped by the universality athlete and the motorcade had long since left you behind.
6857 -
jldubee wrote:
https://x.com/ChrisChavez/status/1823326157351088458?t=BpKD3N0fBZe0Q5GfIKYdPg&s=19
Chris Chavez this update🇺🇸 An update from Fiona O'Keeffe on her injury that forced her to drop out of the Olympic Marathon.
The following Q&A was provided by her agency @kimbia to share further details on her decision to race...How did the lead-in to Paris go for you?
O'KEEFE: The last five weeks or so leading into it, we got in a really solid training block up at Mammoth Lakes. I was logging good marathon mileage, getting in good long runs, getting ready for the hills. I was feeling good about the training and where I was at. Things weren’t perfect, but they never are and it was a good body of work that I was happy with.
When did the issue arise?
O'KEEFE: I did my last real track workout on Friday (August 2) and that was a good workout. I felt strong, no issues, and then on Saturday on my run I started having a little bit of tightness in the left hip. I didn’t think too much of it, but then the next day, Sunday, it was worse during the run. I was supposed to run 90 minutes, I ended up running 80, but I thought: OK, we’re just being smart. But then walking around the rest of the day didn’t feel very good so that’s when it started. We decided to come back to Paris. We were up in Strasbourg. We came back to see the doctors and physio and try to get ready for the race.
What did they tell you?
O'KEEFE: That’s the thing that’s a little confusing. It feels like nobody’s been able to pinpoint it so far. I’ve seen several different people and the Physios seem to mainly think it was an issue of how my hips were aligned and I had an ongoing tight calf so it was possibly compensation because it was on the opposite side. That’s the best explanation I’ve been able to get. Later in the week, I did end up seeing the USATF doctor and getting an MRI done and their read on the MRI was it was clear there was no evidence of muscular damage or anything in the bone. So going off that information, it was like: OK, based on the information we have, there’s not going to be further damage from running on it so we may as well try and see what’s possible.
On those final days, were you able to run?
O'KEEFE: Yeah, I was able to run some. It was definitely not pain-free, but I got a couple more treatments. The last one was Friday morning and I felt quite a bit better walking out of that office so we were thinking: OK, we’ll take the rest of Friday off, see how that treatment settles, hopefully it sets in overnight. Then the next day we’ll run and hopefully we’re good to go. So I did run Saturday morning, just a couple of miles and it wasn’t very good, honestly. But the deadline to declare or not for the race was Friday evening. The deadline had passed and it would have been too late to sub in an alternate at that stage and I was like: OK, if this is a nerve or something, maybe it’ll respond and I’ll wake up on race morning and it’ll settle down a little way into the race or maybe I’ll wake up and it’ll feel different. I didn’t want to have that regret of not having tried and not having given myself a chance.
The morning of the race and in the race itself, what were you feeling?
O'KEEFE: It was really painful. It felt like my body wouldn’t let me run the way I needed to from the get-go. I did a short warm-up and I didn’t feel like there was much point in continuing on if I wasn’t able to compete effectively. I think I made it about a mile into the race and we knew it was definitely possible I would drop out, I thought I’d do it a little later on if so, but it was trying to make a smart call for the day and for the upcoming months.
What’s your next step from here?
O'KEEFE: I need to figure out what exactly is going on with my body because I feel like I don’t have the answers. I need to know what the best treatment approach is. I was going to take time off now anyway with it being after a marathon, so it’s a good time to reset and start assessing how I can train better in the future so I can get to the start line fully healthy and ready to go.
What I read from this is that she's been basically injured since, what, June? She dropped out of the NYRR mini-10K because her right calf was "grouchy" when she started moving into heavy marathon training (her own IG post). I can't tell if saying she got in a good training block in the last 5 weeks is a smaller block within a normal marathon block, or if she just got about 5 weeks in of solid running for some other reason.
Either way, it's clear she was injured and ignored it because "nobody could pinpoint" a cause. Dude, it doesn't really matter what the cause was. She couldn't run OR walk without pain. "Yeah, I was able to run some... It was definitely not pain-free." Who on earth thought, "Yeah, a 26.2 mile race against the top competitors in the world seems like a good idea"?
Furthermore, who decided that based on one MRI, it's safe to assume you are not going to cause further damage to your injury by continuing to run because "there's nothing wrong." That's some high school football coach logic if I've ever heard it. "Just run through the pain! There's nothing wrong!"
742 -
jldubee wrote:
https://x.com/ChrisChavez/status/1823326157351088458?t=BpKD3N0fBZe0Q5GfIKYdPg&s=19
Chris Chavez this update🇺🇸 An update from Fiona O'Keeffe on her injury that forced her to drop out of the Olympic Marathon.
The following Q&A was provided by her agency @kimbia to share further details on her decision to race...How did the lead-in to Paris go for you?
O'KEEFE: The last five weeks or so leading into it, we got in a really solid training block up at Mammoth Lakes. I was logging good marathon mileage, getting in good long runs, getting ready for the hills. I was feeling good about the training and where I was at. Things weren’t perfect, but they never are and it was a good body of work that I was happy with.
When did the issue arise?
O'KEEFE: I did my last real track workout on Friday (August 2) and that was a good workout. I felt strong, no issues, and then on Saturday on my run I started having a little bit of tightness in the left hip. I didn’t think too much of it, but then the next day, Sunday, it was worse during the run. I was supposed to run 90 minutes, I ended up running 80, but I thought: OK, we’re just being smart. But then walking around the rest of the day didn’t feel very good so that’s when it started. We decided to come back to Paris. We were up in Strasbourg. We came back to see the doctors and physio and try to get ready for the race.
What did they tell you?
O'KEEFE: That’s the thing that’s a little confusing. It feels like nobody’s been able to pinpoint it so far. I’ve seen several different people and the Physios seem to mainly think it was an issue of how my hips were aligned and I had an ongoing tight calf so it was possibly compensation because it was on the opposite side. That’s the best explanation I’ve been able to get. Later in the week, I did end up seeing the USATF doctor and getting an MRI done and their read on the MRI was it was clear there was no evidence of muscular damage or anything in the bone. So going off that information, it was like: OK, based on the information we have, there’s not going to be further damage from running on it so we may as well try and see what’s possible.
On those final days, were you able to run?
O'KEEFE: Yeah, I was able to run some. It was definitely not pain-free, but I got a couple more treatments. The last one was Friday morning and I felt quite a bit better walking out of that office so we were thinking: OK, we’ll take the rest of Friday off, see how that treatment settles, hopefully it sets in overnight. Then the next day we’ll run and hopefully we’re good to go. So I did run Saturday morning, just a couple of miles and it wasn’t very good, honestly. But the deadline to declare or not for the race was Friday evening. The deadline had passed and it would have been too late to sub in an alternate at that stage and I was like: OK, if this is a nerve or something, maybe it’ll respond and I’ll wake up on race morning and it’ll settle down a little way into the race or maybe I’ll wake up and it’ll feel different. I didn’t want to have that regret of not having tried and not having given myself a chance.
The morning of the race and in the race itself, what were you feeling?
O'KEEFE: It was really painful. It felt like my body wouldn’t let me run the way I needed to from the get-go. I did a short warm-up and I didn’t feel like there was much point in continuing on if I wasn’t able to compete effectively. I think I made it about a mile into the race and we knew it was definitely possible I would drop out, I thought I’d do it a little later on if so, but it was trying to make a smart call for the day and for the upcoming months.
What’s your next step from here?
O'KEEFE: I need to figure out what exactly is going on with my body because I feel like I don’t have the answers. I need to know what the best treatment approach is. I was going to take time off now anyway with it being after a marathon, so it’s a good time to reset and start assessing how I can train better in the future so I can get to the start line fully healthy and ready to go.
This is so weird. I wish she’d just rest and heal and stop doing press to defend herself.
461 -
Bob Sack wrote:
She’s straight up lying at this point to try to make herself look better. “I made it about a mile into the race and we knew there was a definite possibility I would drop out.” I would think you would have known that the moment you were getting gapped by the universality athlete and the motorcade had long since left you behind.
The punctuation makes it hard to understand, but I think there are two separate thoughts in there: "We knew I might end up dropping out and thought that, if it happened, it would be well into the race." And, "actually, I only ended up making it about a mile."
190 -
badform wrote:
jldubee wrote:
https://x.com/ChrisChavez/status/1823326157351088458?t=BpKD3N0fBZe0Q5GfIKYdPg&s=19
Chris Chavez this update🇺🇸 An update from Fiona O'Keeffe on her injury that forced her to drop out of the Olympic Marathon.
The following Q&A was provided by her agency @kimbia to share further details on her decision to race...How did the lead-in to Paris go for you?
O'KEEFE: The last five weeks or so leading into it, we got in a really solid training block up at Mammoth Lakes. I was logging good marathon mileage, getting in good long runs, getting ready for the hills. I was feeling good about the training and where I was at. Things weren’t perfect, but they never are and it was a good body of work that I was happy with.
When did the issue arise?
O'KEEFE: I did my last real track workout on Friday (August 2) and that was a good workout. I felt strong, no issues, and then on Saturday on my run I started having a little bit of tightness in the left hip. I didn’t think too much of it, but then the next day, Sunday, it was worse during the run. I was supposed to run 90 minutes, I ended up running 80, but I thought: OK, we’re just being smart. But then walking around the rest of the day didn’t feel very good so that’s when it started. We decided to come back to Paris. We were up in Strasbourg. We came back to see the doctors and physio and try to get ready for the race.
What did they tell you?
O'KEEFE: That’s the thing that’s a little confusing. It feels like nobody’s been able to pinpoint it so far. I’ve seen several different people and the Physios seem to mainly think it was an issue of how my hips were aligned and I had an ongoing tight calf so it was possibly compensation because it was on the opposite side. That’s the best explanation I’ve been able to get. Later in the week, I did end up seeing the USATF doctor and getting an MRI done and their read on the MRI was it was clear there was no evidence of muscular damage or anything in the bone. So going off that information, it was like: OK, based on the information we have, there’s not going to be further damage from running on it so we may as well try and see what’s possible.
On those final days, were you able to run?
O'KEEFE: Yeah, I was able to run some. It was definitely not pain-free, but I got a couple more treatments. The last one was Friday morning and I felt quite a bit better walking out of that office so we were thinking: OK, we’ll take the rest of Friday off, see how that treatment settles, hopefully it sets in overnight. Then the next day we’ll run and hopefully we’re good to go. So I did run Saturday morning, just a couple of miles and it wasn’t very good, honestly. But the deadline to declare or not for the race was Friday evening. The deadline had passed and it would have been too late to sub in an alternate at that stage and I was like: OK, if this is a nerve or something, maybe it’ll respond and I’ll wake up on race morning and it’ll settle down a little way into the race or maybe I’ll wake up and it’ll feel different. I didn’t want to have that regret of not having tried and not having given myself a chance.
The morning of the race and in the race itself, what were you feeling?
O'KEEFE: It was really painful. It felt like my body wouldn’t let me run the way I needed to from the get-go. I did a short warm-up and I didn’t feel like there was much point in continuing on if I wasn’t able to compete effectively. I think I made it about a mile into the race and we knew it was definitely possible I would drop out, I thought I’d do it a little later on if so, but it was trying to make a smart call for the day and for the upcoming months.
What’s your next step from here?
O'KEEFE: I need to figure out what exactly is going on with my body because I feel like I don’t have the answers. I need to know what the best treatment approach is. I was going to take time off now anyway with it being after a marathon, so it’s a good time to reset and start assessing how I can train better in the future so I can get to the start line fully healthy and ready to go.
What I read from this is that she's been basically injured since, what, June? She dropped out of the NYRR mini-10K because her right calf was "grouchy" when she started moving into heavy marathon training (her own IG post). I can't tell if saying she got in a good training block in the last 5 weeks is a smaller block within a normal marathon block, or if she just got about 5 weeks in of solid running for some other reason.
Either way, it's clear she was injured and ignored it because "nobody could pinpoint" a cause. Dude, it doesn't really matter what the cause was. She couldn't run OR walk without pain. "Yeah, I was able to run some... It was definitely not pain-free." Who on earth thought, "Yeah, a 26.2 mile race against the top competitors in the world seems like a good idea"?
Furthermore, who decided that based on one MRI, it's safe to assume you are not going to cause further damage to your injury by continuing to run because "there's nothing wrong." That's some high school football coach logic if I've ever heard it. "Just run through the pain! There's nothing wrong!"
Then you didn't read it.
49 -
Jzs wrote:
Enough is enough!
Our energy needs to be put into Fiona O'Keeffe‘s health (mental, emotional and physical); this is over.
LetsRun needs to lock down this thread and file it away, no more comments; this is over, it’s not at all healthy.
I’ve contributed to this thread and I didn’t agree with her decision to start the race. It’s over and done ✔️. We’ve all had our fair chance to voice our opinions of her decision along with her team in regards to the matter, it’s done and over.
This thread is a negative black hole, where no good is ever going to come of it. Forgiveness and better decisions are needed, not more negativity.
O'Keefe is not entitled to be shielded from entirely justified criticism of her selfish decision. She made her choice, and now she can live with the consequences. It's not up to her (or you) to decide when "enough" criticism has been voiced.
This is doubly so now that she's chosen to broadcast an obviously dishonest excuse. (The idea that someone can rock a workout and then a week later do nothing more than hobble a few K without doctors being able to detect any specific problem just doesn't pass the smell test.)
605 -
i_call_bs wrote:
midpackgal wrote:
Des Linden defending her on Twitter saying, “She proved health. There was always a chance it could’ve worked out.”
total BS
Des Linden is also being nasty and immature defending her on instagram. Someone commented on Fiona's post:
"Im sorry but the back-up was called to Paris over a week ago. There is no way you can run 3 miles and be surprised you had to drop out. I hope you get better soon and I hope you take a moment to reevaluate your team around you"
Which is a very respectful way to tell her they don't agree with her decision.
Des replied:
"consider getting a clue and then coming back to apologize 👍"
Which is actually pretty rude. I wasn't following running in 2012 so those games don't really affect my respect for Des but the way she's handling all this does
Des has always had a little bit of a grouchy edge to her, which definitely came across in her guest commentary on NBC the other day. Like many keyboard warriors she feels entitled to criticize the other side of any argument while considering it illegitimate for anyone to hit back. To be fair to her, she did live the pro runner life unlike most keyboard warriors, so she has some more insight into the current situation than most. But it is also feeling more and more like her spirited defense of Fiona is not motivated by legitimate support for Fiona, but is more of a proxy defense of herself and her prior Olympic DNF.
511 -
"Yeah, I was able to run some." No injury improves in a marathon, it's not a side stitch. She believed her own lie that it would be fine come race day.
291
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