Natosha Rogers calls out Nike runners from 2012

Dumb question.

Why?

is expecting our country’s elite to perform for the right to represent their country reducible to team tactics? It looks bad . You don’t see Kenya doing that, or Ethiopia. And they tend to destroy USA globally. So?

Team tactics? Quit trying to conflate Flanagan slowing down for Uhl with an athlete not pushing the pace if they already have the standard. Doing so, or not even understanding the difference between the two, is why it was a dumb question.

Those two things are not related as you are trying to make them. Team tactics were seemingly employed by one athlete to benefit another athlete. I’ve not mentioned anything abt an athlete not pushing the pace (though I agree she should have done that). It recalls to me when no one helped Zack lead the us trials at the marathon this year. Zack may go down as a hero while Clayton and the other guy go finish what top15 at the olympics? For what ? USA finished 11-12-13 in rhe 10k at Oly in 2012. Is just making it to the Olympics all that matters? To go there and fall to pieces because you have no heart because you can’t put on for your city ?

Now you are getting off into idiotic babble to try and cover up your first mistake of trying to equate: (1) Nike’s Flanagan slowing the pace to help Uhl, with that of (2) athletes already having the Oly Standard not pushing the pace in a Championship Final.

This conflating of these two different points is sort of what Rogers did in her Insta Post, but she didn’t write a book to try and explain it all out, like has already been done in this thread, if you understand the circumstances.

Amy Hastings was with Brooks (not Nike) at the time. She too had the Oly A Standard prior to the race, and therefore had no incentive to get out and help push the pace for the likes of Rogers (not having the Standard). And yet Hastings was with Brooks and Nike’s Flanagan (who also already had the A Standard) was with Nike. So no, it was not the case where Hastings was conspiring with Flanagan to slow the pace using “team tactics” (they were not on the same team).

The OP said, “no way I'm pushing the pace to appease the non-standard holders either.”, which is common sense. Your question, “as a competitor, is that really the way you wanna do it?”, was simply dumb, because OF COURSE that is the way an intelligent competitor would want to do it!

Look no further than the women's 5000 final in those same 2012 trials to see the perils of pushing the pace even though you already have the standard. Julia Lucas had the standard going into the finals; Kim Conley did not. Julia could have cruised in, but instead she pushed the pace trying to win the race. It not only cost her the win when she fell apart on the last lap, it cost her a spot on the team when she pulled Conley to the standard when Conley nipped her at the finish line for 3rd place.

Dude, she made the WC team in both the 10k and 5k just last year. Ran both of her PBs in 2023, too. Why tf wouldn’t she be “running toward” her Olympic dream? Even if the Trials are a disaster, if I were her I’d try to make the 10k team for Tokyo next year and then go all in on the marathon for one more OG cycle.

She has admitted in several interviews that she does not have the mentality to be successful in the marathon.
Trying to train with Fiona exposed this.
Her resume is lacking one thing. OLYMPIAN.

She sees the writing on the wall because she has been hurt. 2024 is her last chance and she knows that she is not fit enough to make it happen.

Interesting. This was the topic of my first "super hot" thread on LetsRun 12 years ago.

Same as now, most people disagreed with me that Shalane Flanagan and Lisa Uhl deserved some of the blame for Rodgers not hitting the 'A' standard since they intentionally slowed down the race (which is at least partially responsible for Rodgers' fall). That's not to say I think Rodgers is blameless. She did no leading herself and didn't try and push the race faster so she needs to take ownership of that. But she was young and inexperienced and I would say pretty naive for an NCAA champion.

Maybe her college coaches take some responsibility for not getting her in a faster time trial race before the Trials or advising her to help lead if it went too slow in the Trials. On the other hand, maybe the thought of her getting the 'A' standard and top-3 seemed so unlikely before the race, they didn't even really consider it.

Either way, in hindsight, it's clear that Rodgers was capable of running the 'A' standard and Flanagan's actions hindered her chances to do it in that race.

Pretty Ironic that she is calling out Nike in that race, yet she was running for a Nike Sponsored School and wearing Nike gear.

Do any of you actually remember 2012? There were no NIL deals, Nike had a strangle-hold on the shoe market. There were no Sound Running 10k time trials. She raced with ballz at both NCAA where she finally beat Aliphine and ran tough as nails at the trials. I doubt her and her coach had making the Olympic team on their radar earlier that year.

I spent some time last night trying to find the full trials video as it seems like most of you either never watched it or forgot it. Alas, I couldn't find it.

Ok. You Go Girlfriend! 🍸

What I'm curious about is why she quit the sport the year after finishing 2nd at the trials. She quit her college team and just kind of disappeared for a while.

Seriously. This is old news and we talked about it 10 years ago. She was naive and she’s bitter and that’s ok. But that’s where it ends. Let her vent.

I don't see any problem with this. In cycling, if/when one of the leaders takes an unfortunate spill (generally one at no fault of their own, as opposed to a large group pileup,) it's often customary for the other top competitors to hold off from attacking until the leader rejoins the pack. Uhl's shoe coming untied would be a pretty dumb reason for her to not make the team and it feels like the right thing to do, to me at least, to slow the pace down and allow her to rejoin the pack. That said, if someone saw her shoe come untied and decided to launch a move because of that, that's fair game as well. It's just unfortunate that Natosha fell.

Yeah seems like sour grapes. You needed the pace to be fast and could have pushed the pace from the front, instead you complain that people who did not need a fast race didn’t push the pace? Wow. Is she expecting people with the standard to rabbit those without? *eyeroll*

Oh... Are we at the stage when it is cool to hate on Shalane Flanagan? I must have missed that memo.

Kids, you need the standard. First and foremost. You need the standard. That is life and sometimes it really sucks, but them's the breaks.

Also... if you're going to call out Shalane, don't be passive-aggressive and shifty about it. She can handle it. Say what you mean. Be clear and do not backtrack in the comments.

You come at the Queen, you best not miss!

Agree. I love that she called out Nike team tactics, but at the same time, distance runners have known for a while that they cannot rely on running the standard at the Trials.