Jerry Dial wrote:
Komen run himself into the ground. Too many races in too short a period. His agent abused him for a quick buck.
This was typical of many Kenyans who also ran themselves into the ground during the 1990s: Richard Chelino, Ishmael Kirui, Lydia Cheromei, Stephen Cherono, Sally Barsosio, Wilson Boit Kipketer, Bernard Barmasai etc etc etc..
All shone brilliantly for a very short period then their careers were over in 2-3 years. This was the era when Kenyans ran themselves into the ground early.
The sudden end of their careers had nothing to do with EPO testing. They were all finished by 1998, which is like 10 years before a test for EPO was ever discovered.
http://running.competitor.com/2014/06/features/what-ever-happened-to-daniel-komen_27486Matt Fitzgerald has a slightly different interpretation:
Komen actually got his first taste of international competition in Canada, at the Brooks Spring Run Off, an eight-kilometer road race. He won and set a world junior record of 22:35.
“All of a sudden we knew we had someone fairly special,” Gaskill says.
That was April. In July Komen doubled in the 5,000 meters and the 10,000m at the World Junior Championships in Lisbon, Portugal, winning both events. The following year should have been Komen’s breakout year, but he came down with malaria and was unable to race much. Even so he managed to set a junior world record of 12:56 for 5,000m, narrowly losing to his Kim McDonald group mate, Moses Kiptanui, who set a world record of 12:55.30.
Several years older and a natural leader, Kiptanui served as a critical role model to Komen as the younger man learned how to be a professional runner. And Komen was wise enough to follow.
“I think at that point Daniel basically just did what Moses did,” says Tom Ratcliffe, an agent who represented Komen’s interests in North America. “He looked to him for guidance.”
By this time Komen had discovered, as many Kenyan runners do, that the more he raced, and the better he performed, the more money he took home, and he began pressing his managers for more payday opportunities.
“When Kenyans come over here they come to make their future wealth,” Gaskell says. “They grab it with every hand they’ve got, and actually put quite a bit of pressure on managers to race more often than sometimes you would like.”
But then....
“They had a system in Kenya, when they went home in October through the winter, where guys like Moses Kiptanui would look after some of the younger guys and their training,” Kennedy says. But Kiptanui could not force anyone to do anything, and he lost his influence over an increasingly rebellious Komen.
“That relationship changed,” Ratcliffe says. “Daniel decided he could make his own way.”
Before long Komen’s British managers lost control of their star athlete as well.
“Daniel, after the first year of success, was much more single-minded, and rebelled a bit against others’ advice,” Gaskell says. “He knew best.”
One day Komen casually told one of Tom Ratcliffe’s assistants, “I don’t have to train as hard anymore. I’m already here.” As if the hard work required to become the best runner in the world was like a one-and-done vaccination.
“I think he became a little overconfident, maybe even arrogant,” Gaskell says. “He just found it too easy. He thought he could walk on water—that he could do great performances without having to flog himself in training.”