mu and kerley speak to the difference. mu farted around in the 1500 the year before the olympics, moderate response. kerley -- what's going on now aside -- suddenly shows up doing 100m in the 2021 olympic year, "what the heck are you doing?"
now, mu was back running the 800 by worlds, but non-olympic years are just a bit less serious.
i think american fans are somewhat protected from it because our trials are unrelenting meritocracy. so we just move on to the next fast thing who wins a trials. in other countries that do a coach's selection, the first year of the new cycle might see a personnel sea change preparing for the next 4 years.