At each water stop Galen Rupp chucked off his old soaked hat and grabbed a new one from his coach. Rules?

Who says no one else was allowed to use the cold hat strategy? It seems to me that no one else thought of it.

^ The sad thing is the people who have a legitimate problem with the hat swaps have reasoning that is only marginally different than this troll post.

What is it you fear? wrote:

You are deathly afraid of learning what Salazar decided HAD to be done during the marathon that NO ONE else was allowed to do.

Why are you so afraid?

Afraid of what? Each team is welcome to use their own creative ingenuity of how to keep their athletes cool. It's already been mentioned that having ice and chilled products available is standard protocol at aid stations. The bigger question is why make a big deal of it? What are YOU afraid of?

So cold sponges are ok, but apparently cold hats are not. What about a cold hat made of sponge?

How could others be allowed to do something no one else thought of?

The competition rule is that coaches are not allowed in the competition area. It is looking more, and more, like it was Salazar himself, or one of his people, giving Rupp special hats.

He's afraid that Galen Rupp is playing completely within the rules, is totally clean, and is still competing with the Africans. That is beyond his minds comprehension.

Sponge Hat wrote:

So cold sponges are ok, but apparently cold hats are not. What about a cold hat made of sponge?

/thread

Sponge Hat wrote:

So cold sponges are ok, but apparently cold hats are not. What about a cold hat made of sponge?

Sponges are placed at the stations and can be picked by any runner. They are like water bottles; not assigned to anyone, and runners grab them themselves.

That was not the case with the hats. They were not left at the aid station. Someone monitored their distribution, and extended them out to Rupp, and only to Rupp.

Seriously??? wrote:

Except at this point no one has any proof switching hats mid-race and whatever was in them was cheating. This is gray area at most and gray area is still legal.

A coach, or their assign, are not allowed in the competition area. That seems be how the Rupp hat distribution was controlled. It is obvious from the uninterrupted replay videos of the race.

Seriously??? wrote:

^ The sad thing is the people who have a legitimate problem with the hat swaps have reasoning that is only marginally different than this troll post.

You are wrong about that. You, like the others, are afraid of finding out how the swapping was managed, and what exactly was in the hats.

The fear of Rupp's fans is very telling. You know something isn't right, and you want to hide your head in the sand.

Cold sponges wrote:

Sponge Hat wrote:

So cold sponges are ok, but apparently cold hats are not. What about a cold hat made of sponge?

Sponges are placed at the stations and can be picked by any runner. They are like water bottles; not assigned to anyone, and runners grab them themselves.

That was not the case with the hats. They were not left at the aid station. Someone monitored their distribution, and extended them out to Rupp, and only to Rupp.

Multiple other aids handed out bottles that only specific athletes got, which contained a type of drink they may have been the only athlete to use.

Someone monitored the distribution of every single bottle within the ATHLETE SPECIFIC aid station(s). You make it sound like it was a free for all except Rupp had his own special area with someone waiting for him that no one else could get to.

Sponge Hat wrote:

So cold sponges are ok, but apparently cold hats are not. What about a cold hat made of sponge?

Sure, as long as any athlete can take them, no one is handing out a special modified version to a targeted athlete.

Terrified wrote:

He's afraid that Galen Rupp is playing completely within the rules, is totally clean, and is still competing with the Africans. That is beyond his minds comprehension.

Then, there is nothing wrong with learning what the special secret is that is within the rules.

2018 wrote:

Cold sponges wrote:

Sponges are placed at the stations and can be picked by any runner. They are like water bottles; not assigned to anyone, and runners grab them themselves.

That was not the case with the hats. They were not left at the aid station. Someone monitored their distribution, and extended them out to Rupp, and only to Rupp.

Multiple other aids handed out bottles that only specific athletes got, which contained a type of drink they may have been the only athlete to use.

Someone monitored the distribution of every single bottle within the ATHLETE SPECIFIC aid station(s). You make it sound like it was a free for all except Rupp had his own special area with someone waiting for him that no one else could get to.

A hat is not a drink. That is why the BBC commentators were surprised it was happening.

Terry Fied wrote:

Terrified wrote:

He's afraid that Galen Rupp is playing completely within the rules, is totally clean, and is still competing with the Africans. That is beyond his minds comprehension.

Then, there is nothing wrong with learning what the special secret is that is within the rules.

I have a hard time believing no one caught, noticed, said anything about a person within the aid area that was not allowed to be there. I have a hard time believing there was anything wrong with what was done if no athlete, coach, or official filed a complaint. I have a hard time believing Salazar and Rupp would be willing to risk a DQ at the Olympics over something as trivial as fresh hats rather than getting it cleared beforehand.

We are talking about literally thousands of people (officials, athletes, coaches) not noticing an act or noticing something off and saying/doing nothing about it. Can anyone point to an occurrence in any prior race or even sporting event where something similar has happened?

2018 wrote:

I have a hard time believing no one caught, noticed, said anything about a person within the aid area that was not allowed to be there.

You have obviously never worked (volunteered) at an aid station during a marathon.

Here's what I think - There wasn't anything in the hats, he was just leaving behind some memorabilia for his fans. You remember how Elvis would put scarfs around his neck for a few seconds then throw them to the screaming women in the front row. That's what Rupp was doing, only he was throwing hats.

At an Olympic Marathon? No. No I have not. Have you volunteered at one of the most recent Olympic Marathons? If so please enlighten us to the experience.

Terry Fied wrote:

2018 wrote:

I have a hard time believing no one caught, noticed, said anything about a person within the aid area that was not allowed to be there.

You have obviously never worked (volunteered) at an aid station during a marathon.

There were black items in the hats. You would know that if you actually watched the race. The items were rectangular and identically located in the hats. Were wouldn't know the black item hats were not the same hat except for the race time shown in the video, and that the positions of the runners was different as the race progressed.

You should really go watch the race video.