Sydney OUT of Worlds!!!

For people who can't see the story:

ibb.co

2023-08-11-14-34-36-3167193264277113545-3676074145

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Ridiculous, they never race and now injuries and Modeling appointments. Femke Bol will still be there and Mary Moraa and Keely Hodgkinson as well....

Those poor 400m and 800m WRs are so dead next year.

I never said the Olympics mattered any more.

The sport should be followed more than one week out of every year. When you elevate the Olympics and Worlds to the end all be all, then you’re the problem.

Tennis, Basketball, Soccer, Boxing. None of those sports put the Olympics over the rest of the sport. Track should do the same. Often times the best runners don’t even compete because countries can only send three. Watered down fields. Too infrequent to matter.

Her and Ating Mu are literally two of the worst athletes I’ve ever followed. Just retire already if you hate the sport that has given you millions of dollars. They are not good for the sport both here at home and around the world.

Bush league. “Minor injury”?? Toughen up cupcake. No pride in representing your country. This is just bad.

Everyone knows this is bullsh!t, just 2 days ago they announced that she would be running in Brussels. You mean she didn't have an injury then? They added a race to her schedule 2 days ago, so if we are to believe the timeline, some time between August 9 and today she got a minor but serious enough injury to put her out of Worlds?

BULLSH!T

She got popped and they are hiding it while she appeals/makes excuses/invents a narrative.

(allegedly)

diamondleague.com

Bol to face McLaughlin-Levrone in Brussels

Dutch 400m hurdles star Femke Bol will face US rival Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, while Erriyon Knighton and Eleanor Patterson will be looking to secure qualific...

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Season schedule for most American professional T&F athletes:

- train for months, throw out a couple insta posts to maintain some semblance of fan support, sit down for a hand full of puff pieces, maybe a photo shoot or two;

- run 1, maybe 2 “tune up” races a couple weeks ahead of national championship meet;

- go back to training and hiding until it’s time for large global meet of choice (worlds, pan-ams, Olympics, world relays, whatever);

- following global meet, maybe chase a PB on the DL circuit, but no more than 2 times because it’s been “such a long season.”

- hide out and train for 8-9 more months until it’s “racing season” come June of the following year.

I feel like sponsors have turned a blind eye for a while to this. But if other athletes start sandbagging international meets to “gear up for the next Olympics,” there’s gotta be a change to the system. Hell, there’s gotta be a change right now.

Athletes clearly don’t care if fan support wanes. But if the money starts drying up, maybe then they’ll be motivated to get their arses on a starting line.

I’m going to have a hard time cheering for the Kersee prima-donna’s when/if they race again. Both are immensely talented and have made millions utilizing those talents in track & field. So now - whether it’s Kersee’s or their decisions - they are bailing out on that sport? How about respecting that sport and your competitors and getting out there and racing!

What happened to the crazy Nike reduction clauses Kara Goucher wrote about? I seem to recall her jumping into any random local chip-timed races she could find just to meet her annual race requirement. Goucher and several others took gigantic financial hits due to failures to hit the annual competition volumes.

Has the pendulum swung back too far in the athlete's favor? Our current stars are just openly bypassing giant chunks of the season - are they really avoiding any sort of financial penalty? I understand these are two generational talents, but shoe companies have to be operating with a bit more caution moving forward. Will future female runners be forced back to the Goucher-era contract stipulations due to Mu and SML's disdain for racing?

Can you imagine being at the point where you pretty much are a shoo-in for a gold medal and the $80,000 purse accompanying it and just being like "Nahhhhh, minor knee injury." And plus whatever New Balance pays her for qualifying/being there. Sigh.

Since ValbyMania is on a minor sabbatical until the Fall XC season starts, I will be expending all my energy in full support of FemkeMania!!!

I think Bobby, Sydney, and Athing Mu need to take media training. Their comments make bad situations even worse. They have a tendency to:

1. Only share partial information that leads us to speculate. Why not tell us exactly what type of injury she has?

2. Frame the issue as insignificant (“minor knee issue”), which leads us to get upset that they are missing a major competition.

3. Make it seem as if the only thing that matters is getting ready for the Olympics. Yeah, we know the Olympics are most important, but that doesn’t mean you have to dump on the world championships.

So annoying!

Okay, this is more acceptable to me, but still “Worlds is just not a big deal” is egregiously wrong. I think it’s a shame when people say things like “Championships are the only thing that matter”, but the way I see it every DL race is a 5, the World Championships are a 9 and the Olympics are a 10.

And sometimes that 5 looks like an 8 and that 9 looks like a 10 depending on one’s subjective state.

Makes you appreciate Aaron Sahlman racing HOKA and NIKE on a TORN IT BAND!!! Boss.

You mean like if Keely’s racing?

Agree with all of this. If all of this is honest too is Bobby a highly flawed coach? His athletes are constantly dealing with minor injuries it seems. They seem to need a whole year to prepare for one race, whereas other athletes are able to be ready after a few months and run well at less than 100% without long-term issues.

And I laugh about thoroughbred racehorse trainers saying that three races of roughly that duration in five weeks (the Triple Crown) is too hard on a horse. Gimme a break.