Mo Farah upset by 13:50/28:50 runner Ellis Cross in his return to racing in London's 10km this AM

How sure are you?

2012-2022
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Mo Farah Medals: 10
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Kenya Oly 5K: 1
Kenya Oly 10K: 1
Kenya WC 5K: 2
Kenya WC 10K: 5
Ethiopia Oly 5K: 2
Ethiopia Oly 10K: 3
Ethiopia WC 5K: 5
Ethiopia WC 10K: 2
USA Oly 5K: 2
USA Oly 10K: 1
USA WC 5K: 1
USA WC 10K: 0
=
USA/Eth/Ken 25 - 10 Farah

and if you want to add in Beijing & Daegu which Mo competed in but you conveniently left out, you can add an additional:

Mo: 1x
Kenya + Ethiopia: 9x
USA: 1x

=

Farah 11 - 35

furthermore, Mo might be laughing to the bank with his appearance fee, but he's already taking the p*ss with the large amounts of money he is collecting from Nike and the disproportionate % of the UKA funding and UK Lottery funding he is taking up as he tries to keep his career competitive whilst bouncing between events, which is continuously detracting from the money that could be offered to up and coming and/or other British Elites, despite rarely ever popping up to show face and support the sport at a grass roots level, yet makes time making many endorsements for Oral B toothbrushes, Huawei smart watches, the Djibouti Shipping Port etc

I would echo that. I believe he's off lottery funding at long last after failing to qualify for the Olympics last year. Amazing he was only required to run the qualifying time in a distance race once as well...)

He barely ever races and he doesn't appear to have ever carried out the few community support appearances that I assume are part of UKA contracts for everyone else, even those that don't get lottery funding. Since every other remotely elite level athlete on funding seems to do them except Mo.

Agreed on the lottery funding. He should have given that up back in 2012 - it is pocket change to him but could be life-altering for another athlete. He could have retained the access to UKA rehab and support. You're also right that he could do more for grassroots sport. He does the occasional high-five at really profile events like the GNR but, for example, he was nowhere near the campaign the to save the UK schools athletics championships which almost disappeared last year due to lack of funding, and by funding, I mean the lack of around £100k a year so not huge amounts.

As for whatever Nike is giving him; I have no problem with that. He's brought them gold medals and he's been the most high-profile T&F athlete of the last decade outside of Usain Bolt and Allyson Felix. If they want to give him money, that's on them. I think it's more understandable than 99% of contracts that US pro distance runners have which are basically acts of charity.

Whilst I agree with your point, to play devil's advocate - in this situation are Nike paying him to be the athlete he is now, or for the namesake of who he was? Same question goes to Jordan Hasay.

These realistically are no longer competitive elite athlete's, who are still living off a very inflated pay packet (relative to peers) based off performances many years ago. Now granted you could say "they earn't that" and at the time they did, but honestly no: your job doesn't pay you for something you once did, however impressive - if it was a long time ago, they pay you for the job and standard you deliver presently. Obviously there is some grace period where for a handful of years you allow the athlete some room and still capitalise off of their likeness, but it reaches a point where their likeness is the only thing you make money off of, and when there are new world-beaters on the scene, the investment (should) becomes less attractive.

also to this point I think it goes against the nature of professional contracts. You dont get a contract once you already have Olympic medals in your pocket - you get a contract for the potential and promise you show based on your ability relative to the landscape of your field.

Contracts are there to support an athlete reach a higher level, not just pay them once they are already at the top.

The way you're looking at contracts is wrong, in my view. This isn't like athletes signing for pro teams in soccer or basketball. T&F contracts are sponsorship deals with performance incentives written into them. It's like the difference between Lebron James' contract with the Lakers (paid to play basketball well) and his contract with Nike (paid to endorse sneakers and leisure wear). The fact is, Usain Bolt, even in retirement, is more valuable to an athletic brand than 99% (maybe even 100%) of active athletes. Nike's contracts are there to shift merchandise, if they think Farah does that, then fine, it's a business decision, not a sporting decision. If it was at all about performance, there'd be less than a dozen US distance runners with pro deals. Like I said, T&F contracts are largely acts of charity.

Good riddance to this whiny, self absorbed dope cheater.

No he wasn't "fast and talented before NOP". He was stuck at 13:07 for 4 years - in what would be the prime years of most careers. He was an also-ran in the big meets. He'd been in an Olympics and 2 World Championships, and showed absolutely no sign of breaking through. Then in 2010, something changed (presumably drugs). He got down to 12:57. 2010 was a transitional year for Farah. Then he hooked up with Salazar in 2011, and refined whatever it was that allowed for the previous year's quantum leap.

So you have 2 Mo Farahs:

pre-2010: journeyman

2010 and after: greatest runner in the world

And I'm not buying the claim that "one day he suddenly got motivated and never struggled with motivation again, or even had a bad race again (until late in his career)". If he was so incredibly talented, he would have at least had the occasional race in the pre-reformed days when everything happened to be right with the timing, training, etc to allow him to run something amazing. That's how it works with super-talented people. There would have been glimpses.

Just going to point out that he improved his 5k by 9.06 seconds in 2010, and at the time, he had already run 3:33 for 1500. This year, Grant Fisher improved his 5k by 18 seconds and has only run 3:36. He was a couple of years older than Fisher when he made the leap but still in his prime years. I'm not saying we shouldn't ask questions about Farah, but Fisher should be treated by the same standards

Its tough to quit when you have no other skills.

Beautiful work! Farah was even more impressive than I realized - especially when you factor in all the gold medals (9 in 10 attempts). He truly dominated all of those countries by his lonesome.

So, again, why are the Kenyans and Ethiopians falling out of their chairs laughing?

Farah is 39, has absolutely dominated over the last 10 years (10 medals, 9 gold), and is still collecting bigger appearance fees than most just for staying in mild shape. Dude is living the dream.

He was a 3:33 (2009) and 12:57 (2010) guy.

He ran 3:33 in 2009.

Sure, like his 12:57. Feel like I'm going in circles with you.

10 gold medals, plus 2 silvers. Still not sure why Ethiopians and Kenyans would be laughing at his decline. You get to laugh at someone who talks big but never achieves anything. You can laugh at a 39 year-old coming up short in a 10k race if you like but in the end, he has more global titles than any other distance runner in history and more than most countries have collectively. I feel like the last laugh is Farah's.

Some of the above stuff about Lottery funding misses a key point that the 'lifestyle' funding is means tested so MF would not have had any of this for at least a decade. He would have retained access to UKA staff and support services when needed and given how closely involved he was with NOP for several years this would have been low demand over those years. Though, at major Champs he was obviously one of UKA's top priority athletes so staff resource was heavily channelled on him there. Given that the UKA funding was to earn global medals that's not really a surprise. Whether people like him is a separate manner

Separate matter

You mean he thought he had no competition in the race and had his victory assured?
Not the first time. Hopefully the last.

FIFY

Look at this for a flex from Ellis Cross. Farah's podium kit had already been placed behind the top step and cross had to move it