Are steeplechasers just rejects who couldn't make it in other distance events/cross country?

I'm a hurdler who was a very good, but not outstanding sprinter. I took my natural speed and worked my ass off on technique, and got a Div II scholarship as a hurdler. It takes a lot of guts to hurdle or steeple...you can easily hurt yourself pretty bad. Perhaps distance runners and sprinters are rejects who couldn't make it as steeplers and hurdlers!

its for runners who actually have an athletic bone in their body and arent puszies. good steeplers are way tougher than your average runner. many runners are one-dimensional, so you dont see a ton of people entering the event. people are too worried about getting hurt. a true steepler just doesnt give a fuk and just goes balls to the walls. i have more respect for a good steepler than i do for most other runners.

I wouldn't say that's correct... I know you said "most" but I immediately started in distance, the 1600 specifically, because I knew I was a tall, lanky person and that my build was more of a distance runner's... turns out my first real season of competitive running I ran 22.9 for the 200, 51.5 in the 400, and 1:58 in the 800. One can argue many people do sprints because they don't the endurance to do distance.

In the US, most steeplers are talented runners who weren't quite talented enough to make it in other events. In Kenya, not so much.

Trollist wrote:

In the US, most steeplers are talented runners who weren't quite talented enough to make it in other events. In Kenya, not so much.

Wrong. Most of those Kenyan Steeplers are 3:3x and 13:0x+ guys. Aside from Saif Saeed Shaheen and Kiptanui, these are guys who arent going to make the Kenyan team in the 1500m or 5000m. You have a lot of guys like Boulami, Koech, Mateelong, Koskei, and Misoi....some of these guys cant break 13:20 or 3:36!

Koech's 5k PR is 13:02 indoors.

Trollist wrote:

Koech's 5k PR is 13:02 indoors.

What did I say? 13:0x, didn't I? And in most years, that would be dicey to make it, wouldn't it? His best outdoor mark in the 5k had him the 18th Kenyan that year!!!!

Because everyone runs up to their potential on 200m tracks in February.

Is that true about Solinsky? How many more guys will do this? Is it possible that we get 18-28 Trials A standard guys in?

runn wrote:

Is that true about Solinsky? How many more guys will do this? Is it possible that we get 18-28 Trials A standard guys in?

I think he meant to say Jager but I would like to see it.

Wrong. Steeplers are baller.

3:59.7 wrote:

What about our Olympic team?

For the most part, steeplechasers just seem like rejects who were good but not great at distance events/cross country so switched to steepling to get more attention.

No, those are the walkers.

runn wrote:

Is that true about Solinsky? How many more guys will do this? Is it possible that we get 18-28 Trials A standard guys in?

This is an old thread and that was an old post. Solinsky was talking about moving to steeple before he set the AR in the 10k, which changed his plans. Schumacher's assistant Paschal Dobert is an old steepler so I think his group has had steeple on the radar for a while if they came up with the right guy.

To get back to the original question, some steeplers are "rejects" in the sense that lots of runners are soccer "rejects" -- athletes who change their events trying to find the event they are most competitive in.

With steeple, it's not run much in high school and it takes additional skills to flat running so almost everyone switches FROM flat distances TO steeple (or from flat sprints to hurdles). However, if everyone started with the steeple it wouldn't be lots of people's best event and they would switch FROM steeple TO flat events. That wouldn't really make them steeple rejects, just athletes trying to find their most competitive event.

On top of that, the glamour events in track are the 100m, the mile/1500, and the marathon so if you are a professional there are probably financial reasons why, for example Jenny S. wants to be a miler instead of a steepler as a professional. If it's not a matter of money, however, it makes sense for every athlete to try to find the event the athlete is most competitive in.