Athing Mu goes home DEVASTATED as she refuses to run on the rail!

This take of her being “mentally challenged” is ridiculous and cruel, and frankly makes me think YOU’RE more inclined to be mentally challenged. She’s only 20 years old, yet she has Olympic and World golds under belt. She’s questioning her career path. She didn’t appear as focused as she has in the past, yet she still finished 3rd in the world at something. Not bad, and far from “mentally challenged.”

Mu

this is the way to do it.

Run the tangent on a track!

Perhaps Mu can run an experiment to see if she can figure out if running near the rail is in fact shorter than running out in lane 2.

Athing Mu running wide around the turns isn't a "mistake" according to the actual definition of the word. She does that on purpose. It's a deliberate decision.

It's more correct to say that Athing Mu insists on making the same bad decision over and over.

Why does she insists on doing that? She won't say the reason except to say that's just how she runs. Which makes no sense.

Nope. It brings some satisfaction to you and many "American" fans here. You could be honest about that at least.

No surprises here. This is what happens when you are unfocused (why in the everloving heck would the 800m champion and best time holder for an active racer waste time on the 1,500 at the expense of the 800m?), apparently unmotivated and don't race enough. If Mu had actually been competing out here in the real world and focused on the 800 she would have crushed it today. Her PB is 1:55.04 (number 8 all time) and Moraa won in 1:56.03, which is only good enough for 31st in history.

Regardless, her words spoke for themselves as her press conference said it all, a disappointing mush of self-pity, resignation, and, candidly, defeatism. "I'm happy with the result"? Would Michael Jordan ever say this? Would Usain Bolt ever say this? Heck no! "I’ve just been going through a lot. Not just this year, but the past two years. There’s been no break for me.” Are you kidding me? She's barely raced over the last year. No one's even seen her for months. I actually have to work a regular job for a living, 60-70 hours a week. She hasn't had to do any of that.

Athing Mu lost a lot of fans today, and I'm one of them. If she's unhappy with her job she should do what the rest of us have to do, which is quit, do something else and stop whining.

GFY!

Many Moraa supporters were correct about today. And reporters got it wrong. This was not an upset. The better prepared, better performing racer won. Mu should never had been considered the favorite.

I missed it. I avoided this place today until after the race.............and i had to attend Holy Mass in the morning.

NBC is not serious at times. They make a lot of mistakes in how they cover races and athletes.

In a way she might be relieved to not win. She wins Gold and the expectations keep ratcheting up. The pressure of always being the favorite can be intense and really very few athletes can handle it well.

I agree with this. Athing Mu is so amazingly talented. I love watching her run, she has a great personality, and I hope she continues to compete.

But I also hope she doesn't continue to compete if she hates it. It can be hard to walk away from something you're so good at, but if it just makes you miserable you should stop.

I also wonder if maybe losing this race will take some of the pressure off of her. Maybe next year will be better for her mentally! But for the love of God I hope Kersee learns to have her race more.

Athing making her job very difficult. now everybody knows she is afraid to run in traffic and she WILL NOT hold the rail. She is going to have to be that much better than her comp every time she steps on the track. Tactically, she should get beaten every time. But she is good enough that when she is on, she can be good enough to beat everybody despite all this.

Everyone knows better. Don't run a longer distance than you have to. She literally ran 10 meters longer than needed.

After the semi, LetsRun had an article saying that she doesn’t run on the rail because of her longer stride.

letsrun.com

Athing Mu Survives Scare and Qualifies For 2023 World Championship Final

LetsRun.com

For the first time as a pro, Athing Mu didn't cross the finish line first in an 800 tonight but she still impressed us greatly. All 3 Americans will be in the final as well Moraa, Hodgkinson and Reekie.

Open link

“Even when she is by herself, Athing Mu does not like to run right on the rail. With long legs and long stride, Mu is more prone than most to get tangled up with an opponent.”

I feel like I heard this from a while back as well, but couldn’t find the article

Yes, Athing Mu did say that a while back, but it makes no sense at all.

Many of the top 800 men are as tall, or taller, than Athing Mu and they don't have any problems running on the rail.

This is two consecutive Worlds where she went wide and Keely snuck inside. Almost got her last time, did get her this time even while finishing second. And she really blasted by her this time.

Lots of weird assumptions about why she looks miserable on the line. She’s obviously going through something beyond track. For one, she just went through a breakup with someone she trains with. Two, there’s unbelievable pressure on her to maintain a win streak. If Kersee had just shut up Athing likely wouldn’t have received so much vitriol

100% agree.

Could this have been the result of typical 800 uncertainty? Sure, the 800 is very hard, and very hard to figure race-to-race. Maybe she was simply 3rd best today. But we'll never know and not racing regularly in season is a bad strategy for 800 runners. Moraa and Keely smelled the uncertainty, they knew there was blood in the water.

If Mu had dominated a few more recent races and put people in their places, Moora and Keely would have been thrilled with 2nd and 3rd.

And of course the was she/wasn't she running here was a disaster waiting to happen. You don't "maybe" run WC. You don't "pencil that in". You laundry marker that sh&* on your calendar as soon as the date is known.

You think Grant Holloway or Valarie Allman or Ryan Crouser ever considered for 1 microsecond whether to compete at WC?????????????????????

You want to go model??? GO effing model, goodbye. Or here is a wild thought, figure out how to walk and chew gum. Hot tip, your "modeling career" likely depends on your running career...so....

I would love to see Mu take a break and recover. And secondly, despite her incredible natural gifts, that she finds contentment and happiness in her life. Us track fans will surely find other athletes to rant about. We always do. Perhaps we will be the ones devastated.