Devastating Femur Stress Fracture for Simeon Birnbaum

A femoral stress fracture is a common injury?

Yes, a femoral stress fracture in men is specific. The body is too light and the training too heavy. It's a calling card for training mistakes.

Also of interest:

thedartmouth.com

Coaching changes, athlete turnover and injuries abound: Former men’s cross country and track runners expose challenges of past two years

From 2022-23, the men’s cross country roster shrunk from 24 to 15 runners. The Dartmouth interviewed former team members and a parent of a former team member to find out why.

Open link

It'd be interesting to see what his bone density is. Some runners seem to get stress fractures a lot, some never get them. The ones who get them a lot seem to be the most 'talented' because when they're healthy they're often the fastest, and they return to form quickly. I wonder if it's because due to their lower bone density, they are lighter at the same muscle strength. We're talking a few pounds, nothing crazy, but a few pounds less skeletal mass is pretty significant since it's the muscles that make you move fast, not your bones. So given two identical athletes, equally strong, equally fit, equal body fat, the runner with lower bone density will be lighter (and faster) but I guess more likely to get stress fractures. People's bones weigh a little over 20 pounds, and people's bone densities vary +- 10%. So someone with really low bone density would be 4 pounds lighter than someone with high bone density, or 2 pounds different from 'normal'.

With the injury laden team in boulder (klecker, Monson, Hoare, McDonald) and his intimate experiences with gray area substances, couldn’t the same be said for Dathan.

This thread disgusts me. A college freshman gets a very common injury - stress fracture and all the armchair experts immediately blame the coach.

Experience showed me the following

1)Stress fractures for distance runners, particularly those not done growing are common.

2) Yes injuries can be the result of training mistakes - too much intensity - but often times it has little to do with the training - people are either injury prone or not. I had a guy come into Cornell who had like 3 stress fractures before he even got there. We barely ran him - like 30 or 40 mpw and he was still injured all the time.

The reality is Jerry's own son has been injured a TON in his life. Same thing with agent Tom Ratcliffe's son. If there was a secret to keep people from being injured, I've long joked they'd have used it on their own offspring or had the coaches at Stanford do it.

3) When I was at Cornell and a young guy got injured I'd always tell them, "I think having a little adversity in your career will ultimately prove to be beneficial. When everything goes perfectly well, you don't appreciate how the #1 thing in running is staying healthy. Now you will realize it and appreciate it when you are healthy."

Best of luck to him. I think he's going to be a monster. I also think it's not really a big loss as he wasn't making the Olympic team this year. It's a big loss for Oregon developing momentum however.

I felt bad for having the same thought. Then again, I'm sure he's met his own absurdly high goals more than a few times on his path to where he is now.

A femoral stress fracture in a 18 year old male who previously talked about cutting weight to race? Not even about eating healthier near your peak race, cutting weight.

Troll comments? Innuendo? Bashing teenagers? Slagging coaches? Drug accusations and jokes? Armchair "experts" spouting nonsense?

I. AM. SHOCKED.

Why do people think that they can write such things and get away with it on The World Famous Message Board, Rojo? It's like they have always been able to do it without consequence!

Chickens coming home to roost or something.

I personally don't blame Jerry in this - kids are going to run as hard or as easy as they want. The purpose of the coach is to guide them but at the end of the day, athletes are going to make mistakes and do what they think works for them despite what a coach tells them. Where I do think you missed the mark in your post is, mentioning stress fractures happen all the time and it's normal. It's not normal for a young male athlete to get a femoral stress fracture. That is a very big, strong bone that cracked and that only typically happens from blunt force trauma or bone density has been compromised. Simon will probably come back just fine, probably not on his own timeline. If I were his coach, trainer or family, I'd push for a DEXA scan so nutritional adjustments can be made.

Oregon and DEXA scans. That might be an issue nowadays.

Imagine having this guy as a coach lol. You get injured and he just decides that you're "injury prone" and then spits out some cliches about adversity.

Yep that’s Rojo for you. Always on the defense of his buddy Jerry.

I have some serious issues with rojo, but I also view him as a true fan of running & an owner of this website who is willing to speak his mind, that’s rare & it’s called integrity.

All I know is this kid was fine training and improving in HS. He comes to college and gets injured. We don't know the circumstances behind it (nutrition, training, or otherwise) but we do know it happened after arrival to Oregon under Jerry's watch.

Sure, it might have happened in any college to any freshman but ask yourself if Coach Smith at NAU, for instance, would have not caught the symptoms sooner. That is the job of the coach to identify and prevent potential issues (mental or physical) before it becomes seasonally terminal like a fracture. I have no doubt Jerry is a good coach, in general, but is he paying attention to details? Is his naturally introverted nature hurting him from establishing a pipeline of communication with this athletes?

Contrast this to Coach Smith who has a pulse on everything going on in his team. He knew exactly how to raise Nico's talent from freshman year to now. Not all coaches are equal.

I didn't tell them that and we hardly EVER had a star injured. I had a long term plan for success and was very adamant about realistic mileage goals and taking easy days easy (not sure Jerry does this), running on soft surfaces.

But Ritz was constantly injured whether at CU, NOP, etc.

Some people have perfect biomechanics and foot strikes . Some dont.

The guy just ran 3:45 and is talking about the Olympics or bust…

he’s an incredibly annoying gimp.

just glad we don’t have to hear about this guy for a while now.

Oh come on we know Jerry allows for zero adjustment in his program. If Parker Valby was at Oregon running under him she might be a double amputee at this point.

A good coach adjusts their training to the individual athlete. They develop athletes slowly. They let them race! They don’t run them into the ground and see who survives. There are many quotes stretching back from Solinsky all the way through the Fisher that says Jerry refuses to adjust for anyone.

90% of injury issues can be solved or prevented. Whether it’s volume, nutrition, or biomechanic issues. You have a coach who has produced nothing in 2 years, who coached a convicted doper and continued to coach her illegally after her conviction and, my favorite part, someone who fully believes they are the best coach in the country who has recently lost top guys that are now running better than ever under other coaches! Jerry's time is over and it’s his own fault. Those who don’t adapt, fail.

This kid is pure talent. He would do much better training with Ronnie or someone else who knows his event and the best part is he would make it to the line every so often.

Simeon's coach was Parker's coach.

If anyone other than Jerry was the coach of Oregon you would be ripping their program. They have no results for 2 years and superstar talents are getting worse/injured.