Is Athing Mu update?

BemkeFol wrote:

The difference between her schedule under Mallard prior to her move to Kersee (Nov 22) is stark.

She enters 23 as the reigning World Champion. Kersee doesn't open her season until the end of June, just 12 days before the US Champs. He enters her in the 1500m. (Mallard would never. He may have given her the odd 1500 during January winter training for strength & endurance, but not peak season. ) She runs a very respectable 4:03...but this is not her event.

Kersee then doesn't race her again until the Worlds, so she has run just ONE 800m prior. No 400s. She finishes 3rd. With those 3 races under her belt, better raced, she runs a great race at Pre. But that is her one and only great race under Kersee. It is the last time she breaks 1:58.8. Let that sink in.

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

2025 and he opens her with a 3000/5000 & two 1500s at silly-slow pace. No 400s for speed again. Her speed has absolutely disappeared. Gone. It's left the building. Finally she gets to run ONE 800m before the US Champs but again disappoints, not even making the final. Post champs Kersee talks BS about "planning to run 400s, but...." blah blah blah. It's BS, trying to justify his approach to the critics.

His coaching experiment with Mu has been nothing short of a disaster. Separating her from McLaughlin in training was nonsensical. They could have gained so much from training together.

It's easy to say 'she should have left him' but in reality it really isn't easy. You have to give a new coaching set up more than 1 year. By the end of 2024, yes, maybe she should have left him, but I believe by then the damage was done (psychologically) and her head left the game.

the Mu timeline wrote:

Mu has raced 11 times in the past 921 days since her victory in the DL Final.

Sept 17, 2023 - 1:54.97 AR - DL Final 1st

Nine months with zero races.

June 21, 2024 - 2:01.73 - Olympic Trials Prelims - 3rd in heat

June 23, 2024 - 1:58.84 - Olympic Trials Semifinal - 1st

June 24, 2024 - 2:19.69 - Olympic Trials Final - 9th (fell)

July 19, 2024 - 2:00.29 - Holloway Classic - 5th (first loss to an American in a final in 1,617 days excluding her fall - Wiley, Baker, Gearing)

Nine months with zero races.

April 16, 2025 - DNF in 5000m - Mt SAC - ran 3000m in 9:42 before dropping out; practiced "running in a pack" with 3 other runners.

May 11, 2025 - 4:21.18 (1500m) - Cal State Last Chance Meet - 1st

May 24, 2025 - 4:10.70 (1500m) - Track Fest - 2nd

July 5, 2025 - 2:03.44 - Prefontaine Classic - 10th

July 12, 2025 - 2:00.42 - Ed Murphey Classic - 6th

July 31, 2025 - 2:00.06 - USATF Outdoor Prelim - 1st

August 1, 2025 - 1:59.9 - USATF Outdoor Semifinal - 4th

Hasn't been seen at a track in 237 days (just shy of eight months) and counting.

BemkeFol wrote:

the Mu timeline wrote:

Mu has raced 11 times in the past 921 days since her victory in the DL Final.

Sept 17, 2023 - 1:54.97 AR - DL Final 1st

Nine months with zero races.

June 21, 2024 - 2:01.73 - Olympic Trials Prelims - 3rd in heat

June 23, 2024 - 1:58.84 - Olympic Trials Semifinal - 1st

June 24, 2024 - 2:19.69 - Olympic Trials Final - 9th (fell)

July 19, 2024 - 2:00.29 - Holloway Classic - 5th (first loss to an American in a final in 1,617 days excluding her fall - Wiley, Baker, Gearing)

Nine months with zero races.

April 16, 2025 - DNF in 5000m - Mt SAC - ran 3000m in 9:42 before dropping out; practiced "running in a pack" with 3 other runners.

May 11, 2025 - 4:21.18 (1500m) - Cal State Last Chance Meet - 1st

May 24, 2025 - 4:10.70 (1500m) - Track Fest - 2nd

July 5, 2025 - 2:03.44 - Prefontaine Classic - 10th

July 12, 2025 - 2:00.42 - Ed Murphey Classic - 6th

July 31, 2025 - 2:00.06 - USATF Outdoor Prelim - 1st

August 1, 2025 - 1:59.9 - USATF Outdoor Semifinal - 4th

Hasn't been seen at a track in 237 days (just shy of eight months) and counting.

The difference between her schedule under Mallard prior to her move to Kersee (Nov 22) is stark.

She enters 23 as the reigning World Champion. Kersee doesn't open her season until the end of June, just 12 days before the US Champs. He enters her in the 1500m. (Mallard would never. He may have given her the odd 1500 during January winter training for strength & endurance, but not peak season. ) She runs a very respectable 4:03...but this is not her event.

Kersee then doesn't race her again until the Worlds, so she has run just ONE 800m prior. No 400s. She finishes 3rd. With those 3 races under her belt, better raced, she runs a great race at Pre. But that is her one and only great race under Kersee. It is the last time she breaks 1:58.8. Let that sink in.

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

2025 and he opens her with a 3000/5000 & two 1500s at silly-slow pace. No 400s for speed again. Her speed has absolutely disappeared. Gone. It's left the building. Finally she gets to run ONE 800m before the US Champs but again disappoints, not even making the final. Post champs Kersee talks BS about "planning to run 400s, but...." blah blah blah. It's BS, trying to justify his approach to the critics.

His coaching experiment with Mu has been nothing short of a disaster. Separating her from McLaughlin in training was nonsensical. They could have gained so much from training together.

It's easy to say 'she should have left him' but in reality it really isn't easy. You have to give a new coaching set up more than 1 year. By the end of 2024, yes, maybe she should have left him, but I believe by then the damage was done (psychologically) and her head left the game.

no___deal wrote:

BemkeFol wrote:

The difference between her schedule under Mallard prior to her move to Kersee (Nov 22) is stark.

She enters 23 as the reigning World Champion. Kersee doesn't open her season until the end of June, just 12 days before the US Champs. He enters her in the 1500m. (Mallard would never. He may have given her the odd 1500 during January winter training for strength & endurance, but not peak season. ) She runs a very respectable 4:03...but this is not her event.

Kersee then doesn't race her again until the Worlds, so she has run just ONE 800m prior. No 400s. She finishes 3rd. With those 3 races under her belt, better raced, she runs a great race at Pre. But that is her one and only great race under Kersee. It is the last time she breaks 1:58.8. Let that sink in.

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

2025 and he opens her with a 3000/5000 & two 1500s at silly-slow pace. No 400s for speed again. Her speed has absolutely disappeared. Gone. It's left the building. Finally she gets to run ONE 800m before the US Champs but again disappoints, not even making the final. Post champs Kersee talks BS about "planning to run 400s, but...." blah blah blah. It's BS, trying to justify his approach to the critics.

His coaching experiment with Mu has been nothing short of a disaster. Separating her from McLaughlin in training was nonsensical. They could have gained so much from training together.

It's easy to say 'she should have left him' but in reality it really isn't easy. You have to give a new coaching set up more than 1 year. By the end of 2024, yes, maybe she should have left him, but I believe by then the damage was done (psychologically) and her head left the game.

A lot seems to have gone wrong for Mu over the past years. There was the messy breakup with Brandon Miller in 2023. Then, sometime in mid-2024, also the constant posts and stories about her dog Benny suddenly stopped, despite him previously appearing regularly and even having his own Instagram profile. Maybe the dog died, which certainly wouldn’t help her mental state.

My guess is that it was Miller’s idea to move to L.A. in the first place. Then they break up, he leaves, and Mu is stuck there, with Kersee’s training clearly not working out for her at all. Fast forward to 2024, and this “finance bro” Yegor shows up, convinces her to just drop everything, invest her money and she follows him to Dallas.

BemkeFol wrote:

the Mu timeline wrote:

Mu has raced 11 times in the past 921 days since her victory in the DL Final.

Sept 17, 2023 - 1:54.97 AR - DL Final 1st

Nine months with zero races.

June 21, 2024 - 2:01.73 - Olympic Trials Prelims - 3rd in heat

June 23, 2024 - 1:58.84 - Olympic Trials Semifinal - 1st

June 24, 2024 - 2:19.69 - Olympic Trials Final - 9th (fell)

July 19, 2024 - 2:00.29 - Holloway Classic - 5th (first loss to an American in a final in 1,617 days excluding her fall - Wiley, Baker, Gearing)

Nine months with zero races.

April 16, 2025 - DNF in 5000m - Mt SAC - ran 3000m in 9:42 before dropping out; practiced "running in a pack" with 3 other runners.

May 11, 2025 - 4:21.18 (1500m) - Cal State Last Chance Meet - 1st

May 24, 2025 - 4:10.70 (1500m) - Track Fest - 2nd

July 5, 2025 - 2:03.44 - Prefontaine Classic - 10th

July 12, 2025 - 2:00.42 - Ed Murphey Classic - 6th

July 31, 2025 - 2:00.06 - USATF Outdoor Prelim - 1st

August 1, 2025 - 1:59.9 - USATF Outdoor Semifinal - 4th

Hasn't been seen at a track in 237 days (just shy of eight months) and counting.

The difference between her schedule under Mallard prior to her move to Kersee (Nov 22) is stark.

She enters 23 as the reigning World Champion. Kersee doesn't open her season until the end of June, just 12 days before the US Champs. He enters her in the 1500m. (Mallard would never. He may have given her the odd 1500 during January winter training for strength & endurance, but not peak season. ) She runs a very respectable 4:03...but this is not her event.

Kersee then doesn't race her again until the Worlds, so she has run just ONE 800m prior. No 400s. She finishes 3rd. With those 3 races under her belt, better raced, she runs a great race at Pre. But that is her one and only great race under Kersee. It is the last time she breaks 1:58.8. Let that sink in.

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

2025 and he opens her with a 3000/5000 & two 1500s at silly-slow pace. No 400s for speed again. Her speed has absolutely disappeared. Gone. It's left the building. Finally she gets to run ONE 800m before the US Champs but again disappoints, not even making the final. Post champs Kersee talks BS about "planning to run 400s, but...." blah blah blah. It's BS, trying to justify his approach to the critics.

His coaching experiment with Mu has been nothing short of a disaster. Separating her from McLaughlin in training was nonsensical. They could have gained so much from training together.

It's easy to say 'she should have left him' but in reality it really isn't easy. You have to give a new coaching set up more than 1 year. By the end of 2024, yes, maybe she should have left him, but I believe by then the damage was done (psychologically) and her head left the game.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

I don't think Kersee did a good job with Mu, but I take issue with some of the things you've written above.

2023: Mu raced sparingly, but are we sure that was Kersee's decision? He noted that season that they weren't even sure if she would run Worlds. 2023 was the year when Mu's desire for the sport seemed to be seriously waning and she didn't seem to be enjoying herself at all in Budapest. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one asking to race less.

As for running the 1500 that year, I was a huge skeptic (and still think it was the wrong decision to have her focus more on the 800/1500 than 400/800) but I have to give Mu and Kersee credit for how well she ran at USAs that year.

2024: As another poster already noted, Mu didn't have a niggle, she had a torn hamstring. I don't think she would have raced much before the Trials but the plan was definitely not to open her season at the Trials.

2025: I don't have a defense for this. Running the overdistance events early in the season didn't make sense at the time and accomplished nothing. But the bigger issue is that Mu simply wasn't in shape, which we saw at USAs.

I don't think Kersee was a good fit but I also don't think he deserves all of the blame for Athing Mu's struggles the last few years. After she won Olympic gold at 19, she was thrust into a massive spotlight and felt a lot of expectations to perform and by 2023 no longer seemed to enjoy running. And the 2024 Trials clearly left some lasting scars. Consider that this is a woman that is so concerned about tripping and falling in a race that she avoids the rail like the plague and voluntarily runs large amounts of extra distance in races. Then in one of the biggest races of her life, this nightmare scenario comes true: she falls and is prevented from defending her Olympic title. I can understand how that might have a traumatic effect on someone who only just turned 22 years old.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

BemkeFol wrote:

The difference between her schedule under Mallard prior to her move to Kersee (Nov 22) is stark.

She enters 23 as the reigning World Champion. Kersee doesn't open her season until the end of June, just 12 days before the US Champs. He enters her in the 1500m. (Mallard would never. He may have given her the odd 1500 during January winter training for strength & endurance, but not peak season. ) She runs a very respectable 4:03...but this is not her event.

Kersee then doesn't race her again until the Worlds, so she has run just ONE 800m prior. No 400s. She finishes 3rd. With those 3 races under her belt, better raced, she runs a great race at Pre. But that is her one and only great race under Kersee. It is the last time she breaks 1:58.8. Let that sink in.

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

2025 and he opens her with a 3000/5000 & two 1500s at silly-slow pace. No 400s for speed again. Her speed has absolutely disappeared. Gone. It's left the building. Finally she gets to run ONE 800m before the US Champs but again disappoints, not even making the final. Post champs Kersee talks BS about "planning to run 400s, but...." blah blah blah. It's BS, trying to justify his approach to the critics.

His coaching experiment with Mu has been nothing short of a disaster. Separating her from McLaughlin in training was nonsensical. They could have gained so much from training together.

It's easy to say 'she should have left him' but in reality it really isn't easy. You have to give a new coaching set up more than 1 year. By the end of 2024, yes, maybe she should have left him, but I believe by then the damage was done (psychologically) and her head left the game.

I don't think Kersee did a good job with Mu, but I take issue with some of the things you've written above.

2023: Mu raced sparingly, but are we sure that was Kersee's decision? He noted that season that they weren't even sure if she would run Worlds. 2023 was the year when Mu's desire for the sport seemed to be seriously waning and she didn't seem to be enjoying herself at all in Budapest. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one asking to race less.

As for running the 1500 that year, I was a huge skeptic (and still think it was the wrong decision to have her focus more on the 800/1500 than 400/800) but I have to give Mu and Kersee credit for how well she ran at USAs that year.

2024: As another poster already noted, Mu didn't have a niggle, she had a torn hamstring. I don't think she would have raced much before the Trials but the plan was definitely not to open her season at the Trials.

2025: I don't have a defense for this. Running the overdistance events early in the season didn't make sense at the time and accomplished nothing. But the bigger issue is that Mu simply wasn't in shape, which we saw at USAs.

I don't think Kersee was a good fit but I also don't think he deserves all of the blame for Athing Mu's struggles the last few years. After she won Olympic gold at 19, she was thrust into a massive spotlight and felt a lot of expectations to perform and by 2023 no longer seemed to enjoy running. And the 2024 Trials clearly left some lasting scars. Consider that this is a woman that is so concerned about tripping and falling in a race that she avoids the rail like the plague and voluntarily runs large amounts of extra distance in races. Then in one of the biggest races of her life, this nightmare scenario comes true: she falls and is prevented from defending her Olympic title. I can understand how that might have a traumatic effect on someone who only just turned 22 years old.

McRunnin wrote:

BemkeFol wrote:

2024 was a disaster. No races until the US Olympic Trials. She falls in the final. She was the fastest in the SF & probably would have Q had she stayed on her feet. Kersee talks of 'a niggle' that year, but Kersee being Kersee wraps her in cotton wool, rather than let her get any races in before the Trials. His paranoia means she was seriously under raced.

Mu had much more than just a "niggle" in 2024. She had a torn hamstring.

From the Sports Illustrated article on her in June of that year:

Mu was injured far more than anyone knew in the weeks before she traveled to Eugene. She had planned to compete at the Los Angeles Grand Prix in mid May, but some tightness in her left hamstring surfaced. Then, a week later, ahead of the Prefontaine Classic on Memorial Day weekend, Mu got an MRI. Doctors told her she had a torn hamstring.

Arceneaux had a press release mocked up to announce the injury, but he decided not to send it out. Mu remained in full-on, full-time recovery mode. She met with several doctors. She had “multiple PRP injections,” Arceneaux says. She was using either crutches or a one-legged mobility scooter, pedaling around by her healthy, right leg. “Four weeks before Olympic trials,” Mu says in a private video, dated May 16 and shared with SI on June 27, smiling as she scoots. “I tore my hamstring. So fun!”

Arceneaux and Kersee say Mu didn’t run for real until one week before trials. She could only partake in pool workouts through June 16. When she was finally cleared to run, she was also restricted, heavily. She completed two 300-meter sprints before she raced in Eugene.

Link:www.si.com/olympics/athing-mu-hamstrin...

It's amazing that she recovered fast enough to run 1:58 in her Olympic Trials semi on June 23. Sadly, recovering from the psychological damage from what happened in the final has taken much longer. It seemed like she was making progress on that front; she spoke about making it back to the starting line of the 2025 US Championships as a victory in itself. But she hasn't raced since then.

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQj8DRmKO3E

Dont be a food stay in school wrote:

Asking for a friend wrote:

How does that work being under a nike contract? She has no obligations to compete at all? Or has she simply broken the contract and is no longer sponsored by Nike?

An athlete with a Nike contract has to compete on a regular basis in order to maintain their contract, unless they are injured.

During the pandemic in 2020, when there weren't many meets, some Nike athletes convinced meet directors to do TWO meets on ONE day on the same track, one meet in the morning and one meet in the afternoon. That way the athletes could technically count it as two meets that they competed in. They did that because the contract of many of those athletes required them to compete in at least 10 meets per year in order to stay under contract with Nike.

So if Athing Mu doesn't race this year, then her Nike contact would be cancelled. However, Nike and Athing Mu don't have to publicly announce that her Nike contract has ended. And it's possible that Athing Mu didn't want to wait until her contract was cancelled, and she might have already told Nike that she is retired and she might have already asked Nike to cancel the contract.

Contracts almost always go from the end of one Olympics to the next Olympic year. Meaning that her Nike contract is most likely a 4 year contract from 2025 to 2028. So if she races, she would still get paid for 3 more years - this year, next year, and 2028.

It's amazing to me that someone would hate racing that much, that they would be willing to give up an annual income of $500,000 - $1 million just to avoid running a few races. Multiply that by three years, and that is $1.5 - $3 million she would give up. That's a lot of money to give up.