Fred Kerley said that high schoolers competing against the pros is "hurting our sport."

Sprinters are always bitching about this, they don't want to compete against college kids either JUST because they "aren't professional." Who cares, and 6th at the trials is good enough for the relay pool. He sounds like an idiot

Sorry honey, high school age kids have been competing at the highest levels for ever, they just mostly came for Africa but since Jakob some Europeans have joined the party and certain 18 year old Americans who ran 3:34 1500 in high school like Hobbs Kessler,

They are certainly not hurting the sport.

3) as a US soccer fan in an era rife with snobby fans who think we should only schedule the best teams even if we lose, my response is a team in a building era needs some incubation to learn to do things right, and some space to learn lessons from how elite meets go.

one reason to me the US national team sucks is there are few low hanging fruit games where the team can tinker with personnel and confirm they have learned the tactics. it's instead a constant barrage of mexico, canada, brazil, colombia games. most of which we don't win lately.

they then don't seem to get the lesson to slow down and figure out why it's happening and reconsider the selection of personnel and tactics. it's on to the next tough one. and it being a tough one there is result pressure. the same experienced players get called as supposedly the best chance to win even if they have lost lately. similar mistakes are made. they lose some more.

4) which, to me, a developing thing needs room to incubate. it needs at least some "easy" just to work on the details. it only needs "hard" when the details are sorted.

5) does 47 in that heat seem like he's completely sorted? no. that's wildly inconsistent. he needs more incubation/cooking.

6) a NBA or NFL draft flop who saves their money is still set for life. that is not track's economics. what we call sponsorship operates almost more like their salary. you get prize money based on finish. on the highest level DL circuit, those prizes are hard to come by. a limited number of pros are making bank.

7) and he can make NIL in college now, with room and board covered.

at which point we circle back to the questions of, is he a football player or a runner? and if he's a runner, what's best for his development and consistency.

to me the "but he's running 44" mentality is ahead of itself. he didn't dominate the olympics. he had an ok day at trials, 6th, after good rounds. he had a lousy day at paris. he is a prodigy on the times but in none of these scenarios was he actually winning these pro races.

8) just because you're destroying kids in HS races doesn't mean you're not working on things. to me a less contested HS race is actually a better environment to work on technique, mindset, etc. unlike US soccer, he doesn't have to constantly worry about the level of competition same time he's trying to execute. to me the harder you make it the more likely to lean back on bad habits. "dance with what brung ya." except that's what people maxed out on their talent card say. people with even more upside should take some risks.

For all the HS athletes that are taking NIL money or that race against the pros and skip high school meets - their HS eligibility is over.

Already I see the better runners and their coach, all who spend too much time on LR, only running a couple meets a season to save them for post season meets. No problem - but they should forgo HS and join a club team like IMG, Montiverde, Bullis,.

FK makes a very good point. Many olympic sports are struggling with this problems whether you agree with him or not. Kids need to develop mentally first. Admittedly, I don't know what the right age is.

FWIW I have to imagine that if Fred Kerley was thinking about (albeit without naming) any specific individual, he probably meant Christian Miller, who made the final in the Trials and finished 5th. (Quincy Wilson got a lot more attention, so we forget about him.) I don't have any special reason to believe Big Fred has any beef with Miller, but I got the sense he was talking about his events specifically, not a hypothetical about some other event or a blanket statement about all events (it is clear for instance that he wasn't talking about women's events).ne

I think it is not only possible but highly likely that he was talking about the one in his event.

Quincy Wilson is racing people at his level. Just like a 'normal' high schooler running 50.5 in the 400m races against people that live in his part of the state and are on a similar level as that person. Quincy racing against professionals doesn't harm him, it's just racing. People are overcomplicating it.

I honestly think the intention of what he was trying to say was different than what exited his mouth. Which doesn't exactly surprise me because I don't know how sharp and articulated Fred Kerley is.

Track and Field is not just a tough sport physically but it's even more brutal mentally/emotionally. You are very alone, you have basically complete control over your physical performance yet at the same time are at the mercy of how others have controlled and executed theirs. You don't have teammates to prop you up on a bad day and you rarely get a second chance to make amends for a mistake - like a dropped pass, turnover, miskick, whatever.

I think Kerley was trying to say that exposing HS kids to the extremities of the heightened mental stress etc at the professional level is not necessarily good for them and breaks more than it makes. Obviously breaking/burning out physically talented kids mentally before they have even fully matured isn't a good thing for the sport because the primary outcome is that these talents simply disappear. And history is littered with examples I'm not even going to bother putting names down.

This is what I think Kerley was trying to say - what he actually said clearly sounded far less eloquent and kind of boorish. But again, I hate to say that's not exactly surprising but it isn't.

This right here. The kid already ran 1:50+ with probably little/no actual middle distance type training. He's got more of a future as a 400/800 runner, and popping on 4x4s. Would be nice to see someone in his camp actually recognize that as opposed to pigeon-holing him in the 400 or think he could also compete in the 200.

In the Olympic 4X100, why was Kerley switched from the 2nd leg in the prelims to anchor leg in the finals?

Was it for his ego?

That switch cost the team Gold

it's after the Olympics so no sponsors are around anymore

Warniner had a terrible coach who burned and churned all his athletes. Warniner was the one who was tough enough to put up a few good performances before flaming out.

He made the team - it was earned regardless of how he performed at the Olympics. Not long ago I remember a lot of people crying about that female 800 meter runner (it's telling I even forgot her name) not being put on the team. You earn a spot you go.

I understand what FK is saying. He doesn't want sideshows getting in the way of him (and others) making money for the, maybe 10 years, they have at this level.

That being said, the kid belonged.

He also got to see how a pro meet is set up. He got to get stared down by whomever. But most importantly he got jerked around by the USATF and NBC. That will be the best lesson for long-term growth.

Fred Kerley said that high schoolers competing against the pros is "hurting our sport."

I completely disagree with this

Rubbish.

Its not a contact sport, and entry to races are generally based on times.

If you run the time its fine. If you don't, you're in a division of your peers.

My advice to the kids is they should by land

Can't agree with that.

The guy coached Michael Johnson