What?! Bobby Kersee says Athing Mu may do 800/1500 double at next year's Olympics

Are we supposed to be impressed? The top girls can do that back to back. Mu needs recovery jogs.

where is the video of her doing this? this is actually indicative of superior speed. i would definitely give her a chance at making the podium with that workout.

It puts her nearer 4.10 than 4.00, which puts her coming off the final bend as gold crosses the finish line.

does he have a history of this? i am not very familiar with the spring coaches.

Athing needs to find a new coach. It's clear Bobby is prioritizing Sydney, wanting to avoid the 400m conflict. Not much history of world class 400m runners successfully moving to 1500m. I love both Athing and Sydney and can't wait to see what they do next, but they need to recognize that Bobby may be a great coach but it's always about him.

Kind of sad for you to actively wish on someone's downfall. Instead you should follow and root for someone else to win at USAs. Like Britton Wilson or Talitha Diggs in the 400 or Sage Hurta, Cory Mcgee, St. Pierre in the 1500. It sucks that they don't compete but the way the sport is structured allows them to get away with it.

If she doesn’t meet her goals this year, I could see a change of coaches happening, but who? At one time I thought Pete Julian might be an option for her (and Brandon Miller since he seems to be part of the decision making process behind her change of coaches) but Julian’s athletes don’t seem to be doing well. I’m scared to ask what event Kersee is going to have Miller running - will he move up to the 1500 as well?

it's madness. 48 at 400 wins the OG. Mu is one second off. and you need 352 1500 ability to get on the podium. so Mu needs to improve by 8 meters in the 400.

the 1500, you need some cross country, and that spells disaster for your basic speed max, but you can maintain somewhat.

sure, aerobic ability is going to be the key to the 800 WR, but dumb not to progress at 400 first.

this covid business, that's the flu. and at this point, not a bad one,

what you want to do is to get your speed up to par, and back off the super hard training, over distance.

once you get your foundation.

sure, improve the aerobic.

basically they are in fear, Mu is not physically at the top of her game, and can't take the heat with a loss.

they need to get back to basics and do 80 percent, solidify and move from there,

Which Coach has the most success with 800m runners

To win the olympic 1500M womens gold, you basically need to be a 5k/10K runner.

It's the athlete that can make it through the rounds with least fatigue that is going to win and have the ability to finish the last 400M flying. Speed matters of course, but if you are finishing the rounds absolutely full of lactate...good luck running a fast final.

I don't know if Kersee knows how to develop an athlete aerobically. i don't know many coaches that bridge that sprint/distance divide welll.

100% correct. Running 3 rounds of 1500M in the span of 5 or 6 days would never work today for a speed based 800M runner. Athing would need the Olympics or WC to be a straight final for her to have any shot of ever being competitive there.

I don't know why this is creating such a big stir tbh. This is a classic sprint coach thing to say because Bob Kersee is a sprint coach even if he coaches Mu who runs the 8. The basic logic is always "with his/her leg speed all we need is a little more endurance and they will destroy the slow distance guys at the end of championship mile races" (though it's usually in reference to the 800m) - which of course is such rudimentary theory and not in line with reality.

If you know some of these old coaches in particular you won't find this surprising. They all have this weird detached and deluded arrogance about what their athletes can do and it's all tied into their own visions of grandeur related to what their think about their own ability. The older they get the worse it gets and Bob Kersee is like 82 years old.

Mu will never even start a USATF trials 1500m race - just wait and see.

My total armchair read on the situation is that Sydney and Athing might be drawn to a highly structured and dictatorial coaching situation, which Bobby is obviously happy to provide. Both runners had sensational success in their late teens / early twenties, and have expressed in different ways how much pressure they felt from that success -- Sydney has talked about this a couple of times and even withdrew sharply from social media / interviews / ads for a while, and Athing has talked openly about quitting track entirely. Both are also very religious and therefore practiced in putting their faith and trust in god / coach / the process / whatever (not saying that in a derogatory way). It's too bad this comes off as a shadowy "us vs them" team style like the old NOP, but I can see it being appealing for two young people with so much noise around them.

It doesn't sound to me like Bobby expects Athing to switch to the 1500 -- it sounds like he wants her to use it as a tool to develop strength that can be applied back to the 800, but she's so good that just practicing with the 1500 will probably mean she's making teams in it. Being that Athing has never sounded or looked enthused about >800, I'm curious to see if Bobby can get her to buy into it.

Can't you read? What do you mean "it doesn't sound to me" ? Bobby Kersee literally said that he thinks that Athing Mu has a shot at winning the Olympic gold medal in the 1500. (He's full of sh!t of course, but that's what he said.)

Yes - if you've ever met or spoken any amount of words with Bobby then you will know why his comment should go in one ear and out the other.

No, I can't read. Could you please read this for me and tell me whether it sounds like Bobby wants Athing to switch from 800 to 1500?

“I think the goal is she needs to be under 3:59 or better to really get the benefit out of the 1,500 and with her speed ability to get the ultimate transfer to the 800 in order to break that other 30-year-old (plus) record at 800 meters,”Kersee said.
“I just think when she has that, that anaerobic threshold and being able to hold over that and take the 800 out at a decent speed, that’s going to allow her to go under 1:53.”
Kersee also raised the possibility of Mu attempting next summer to become the first woman to sweep the Olympic 1,500 and 800 gold medals since Great Britain’s Kelly Holmes in 2004.

One of the strangest things I have seen on this board. Mu is already strong enough for the 800M, she needs to run in the 48s for 400M and then we may possibly see a 1:54 for 800M.

There is zero chance she will medal in the 1500M, zero. She would have to improve to the 3:55-3:56 range, at least, in the next year, I am not sure that is possible.

Kersee desires the 'Kelly Holmes double'