Athing Mu Update

Hoskins wrote:

We can make fun of her as much as we want, but try to look at the bigger picture and at things not as a track fan, but from her perspective—this is ultimately like despising all the fast kids in high school who chose to play soccer over running XC. It’s their life and why should they bust their arse doing a sport that brings them no joy.

There is a scenario where after her incredible 2021, simply goes home, celebrates a little, and goes back to training without much thought. Many of the most successful athletes are so good because they don’t think too hard, instead just training with discipline but also fun then competing for the win.

But maybe Athing understandably got home and realized she had so early in her career already reached the pinnacle and almost everything she had ever wanted to achieve. Now, the expectations for the rest of her career were clear. Spend 10 long, hard years winning everything, maybe beat a nearly impossible doped world record, and become the greatest female 800m runner ever. Anything less would be a disappointment. Sacrifice your opportunity at a normal college life and your 20s where you can grow into a woman, and instead leave college at 19 or 20 for relative isolation, living alone and forced to figure out how to become an adult yourself. Undergo 10 years of brutal training with frequent media responsibilities interspersed, where you’re so tired physically and of answering the same questions (while also having to conform to the media’s attempt to make you an Olympic beauty icon looking nice and skinny for magazine covers) that all you want to do is just go back home to your dark and quiet apartment. And, you’re trapped. If you try to escape this, everyone you know and don’t know would never let you forget it. This includes your family being disappointed about all the money and social prestige they've now missed out on.

A common reason people commit suicide is because they feel trapped and have no hope for the future. Would you rather force Athing Mu to remain a track athlete, or see in the news tomorrow her parents weeping after learning that their sweet baby girl just shot herself in the head? You can say I’m taking it to the extreme, but when there’s a 5% chance that staying in track results in this amazing woman ending her young life and causing lifelong, irrecoverable trauma to those around her, is that really a risk worth taking? That’s the question here.

Oh no, another sports bust. Get a grip and move on. It’s their life—literally.

BemkeFol wrote:

Hoskins wrote:

We can make fun of her as much as we want, but try to look at the bigger picture and at things not as a track fan, but from her perspective—this is ultimately like despising all the fast kids in high school who chose to play soccer over running XC. It’s their life and why should they bust their arse doing a sport that brings them no joy.

There is a scenario where after her incredible 2021, simply goes home, celebrates a little, and goes back to training without much thought. Many of the most successful athletes are so good because they don’t think too hard, instead just training with discipline but also fun then competing for the win.

But maybe Athing understandably got home and realized she had so early in her career already reached the pinnacle and almost everything she had ever wanted to achieve. Now, the expectations for the rest of her career were clear. Spend 10 long, hard years winning everything, maybe beat a nearly impossible doped world record, and become the greatest female 800m runner ever. Anything less would be a disappointment. Sacrifice your opportunity at a normal college life and your 20s where you can grow into a woman, and instead leave college at 19 or 20 for relative isolation, living alone and forced to figure out how to become an adult yourself. Undergo 10 years of brutal training with frequent media responsibilities interspersed, where you’re so tired physically and of answering the same questions (while also having to conform to the media’s attempt to make you an Olympic beauty icon looking nice and skinny for magazine covers) that all you want to do is just go back home to your dark and quiet apartment. And, you’re trapped. If you try to escape this, everyone you know and don’t know would never let you forget it. This includes your family being disappointed about all the money and social prestige they've now missed out on.

A common reason people commit suicide is because they feel trapped and have no hope for the future. Would you rather force Athing Mu to remain a track athlete, or see in the news tomorrow her parents weeping after learning that their sweet baby girl just shot herself in the head? You can say I’m taking it to the extreme, but when there’s a 5% chance that staying in track results in this amazing woman ending her young life and causing lifelong, irrecoverable trauma to those around her, is that really a risk worth taking? That’s the question here.

Oh no, another sports bust. Get a grip and move on. It’s their life—literally.

Oh my goodness, what an OTT post! Suicide? Jaysus!

Regardless of whether she harboured ambitions off the track (which is pretty normal and lots of athletes have other interests...) she was a full time athlete, she wasn't jetting off all over the globe with her portfolio, missing training & walking runways.

We have been over this a million times. Her problem was her coaching switch to Kersee. She went from 400/800 runner with a sensible competition schedule of pre US Trials meets over both distances, to 800/1500 runner, with just 1 pre Trials race one year, absolutely non another, and then freakin' 5ks and 1500s another.

The fact that the USA U20 record holder over 400m has not been allowed to run 400m at all under Kersee, yet has been entered in a 5000m is an absolute fcuking travesty & tells you everything you need to know.

Kersee. Has. Destroyed. Her. Career.