Eric Holt Goes Home Devastated

(in response to NERunner03533 and Tough draw on page 2)

"His kick, unfortunately, just didn't look there, even in rd 1. Still hope he gets a contract -- he's everything right with the sport. Hard worker, believes in himself, keeping the dream alive, etc."

"Holt just isn’t much of a kicker. Probably would have done much better in the second semi running closer to all out from the gun. He’s probably still not going to beat guys like Hocker, Nuguse, Kessler in a final, but at least he would have been there. He does seem to be a bit of a workout warrior."

Agreed.

As soon as it was apparent the initial pace was slow, Holt should have taken the initiative by moving to the front and pushing the pace. He's got 3:33 / 3:34 strength, but not an insane kick. Keeping the pace high from the beginning would have been a reasonable tactic to either drop or at least numb the finishing speed of the younger / better kickers.

This thread remains but the same exact thread about Addy Wiley gets taken down. Why are the mods so invested in defending her?

So we can continue wasting breath about another mediocre cis, hetero, white man instead of focusing on truly deserving athletes who actually will represent Team USA

There are lots of 'pretty fast' people without contracts who have never made a US national team. Many are higher ranked in the world than him.

If you make a world/olympic team you'll get some sort of contract. If you're a top tier NCAA contender, you'll likely get a contract. But if you're 'irrelevant' (getting 10th or lower in NCAA championship or USATF championship races) then you're not going to secure the bag.

Oversimplifying a bit. He is a guy who is typically fighting way too hard at slower speeds. He doesn’t know how to relax in the pack and wait. He closed in under 53 at NYCGP in a 3:34 race, which is a really good kick. But with no pacemaker/guy mimicking one like Yared did, his energy is gone by the time to kick.

Fully agree.

What was weird about his performances in the 1500m is that in the past he made his name by actually over-indexing on his talent and being extremely savvy in events like the US Nationals. This time around after clearly upping his level of performance over both 8 and his preferred 1500m, that element seemed to move backwards. It is a shame, but you couldn't put it better - he just didn't run well.

As for the 800m? If he even made the final I would be extremely impressed. What is his path to even the final? There are multiple guys in the field that can go through 400m in 53.5 and run under his PR of 1.45.9. So if the races are slow he simply has no shot - if they are fast he doesn't have the power to run well under 1.45.0 like at least 6 of the field do.

It's a bummer but his Olympic dreams ended after that semi-final in the metric mile.

Also agree. Was he just so amped up/on-edge/nervous/determined that he seemingly overreacted to every move that was being made in the pack? I always remember being impressed at how a guy with his obvious deficiency in relaxed form, would just always pop up in a good position with 200 to go and make something happen. I think almost tragically this was a case of someone just wanting something so bad they lost sight of how to make it actually happen.

2021 and 2022 he was totally under the radar, so barely missing the final in 2021 then getting 4th in 2022 were big overperformances. The last 2 years now he's been much more in the spotlight, and hasn't handled it well, flaming out in the 2023 final and not even qualifying this year. So there definitely could be a mental component to it.

Physically, the super intense training is not necessarily the problem, because overall it's clearly working. The problem is that he's mistimed his peak two years in a row. Last year he ran that insane workout (wasn't it like a 2:19 1k followed by some more fast reps?) just before USAs, and this year it was that frankly awesome performance in NYC where he closed in 52.96 in a 3:34.0 race. That's the kind of performance that could get a guy into the world final, much less a USA final.

I think if he and his coach can figure out their training cycle and tweak it just a bit to get him to peak at the right time, he can make the team, but until then he's just on the outside looking in - and unfortunately at 29 he doesn't have much time to make it happen anymore.

I think this is ultimately the crux of it all. Because it is not like the production line of quality 1500m runners is slowing down is it - look at this final tonight just loaded with guys that just finished NCAA's two weeks ago. For all we know in 4 years time Cole Hocker and Jared Nuguse could be yesterday's newspaper figuratively speaking - that's how good the level is in the US right now. Bummer but EH simply has no time to make it happen anymore.

So much attention for a mediocre 1500 runner instead of the outstanding performances by queer POC athletes smh