So that's it ... Companies invest millions in you for you to "run a measured race to attain the best possible position for yourself"? Any wonder why Asians dominate in Post-Graduate and Doctoral Programs? ... Nothing says American Mediocrity better than "run a measured race to attain the best possible position for yourself" ... No Sacrifice Required!!!
# of Days since an Goucher won a World Championship / Olympic Medal = 5,375
# of American Women to have won a World Championship / Olympic Distance Running Medal since Kara Goucher = 1 [Molly Seidel]
Amount of USD Expended by NIKE, Brooks, Adidas, Saucony, HOKA to produce 2 American Women Medalist over the past 5,375(+) Days [and counting] = MILLIONS
The American Market; Where losing Pays handsomely!
NOTE: Excluding Bernard Legat. The picture is marginally better for men.
Think your forgetting Infeld won bronze in the 10K in 2017 I believe.
You're correct! That moves the total to 2 in 5,000(+) days and several million dollars invested! Really, Really, Really great payouts to the American athletes! I'm betting American shoe and apparel companies paid the East Africans a miniscule fraction of the investment made into American Distance Runners. I'm betting the ROI on East Africans is at least 10X.
Anyone can go out hard and blow up. It takes skill to run a measured race to attain the best possible position for yourself.
Truly, there were zero medal chances for anyone on the US teams for the marathon, regardless of silly fan delusions. Our only current hope for a marathon medal is Seidel.
In World Class racing, the object is not "Participation"; its about going for the WIN. If one happens to "Blow Up" in that quest, the fans still appreciate. But if you're never going to "Go For It", what's your purpose other than earning a "Participation Medal". This ain't your local fun run. If American Marathoners want respect, then, they need to "Go For The Win"!
Mate have you ever heard of running your own race, especially in a longer event like the marathon? Sticking to a plan and running a pace that you know will give you the best chance of potentially winning. I have seen countless marathons and ironmans etc where athletes have done exactly this and ended up catching the leaders who blew up before the finish and then winning. Sure this didn't happen for Sara Hall but she should be proud of her performance and ran a smart race.
Exactly. And it worked for Sara Hall at the London Marathon. Where she caught Chepengetich and landed second.
Molly Sidell went for it an Medaled! That's what world class sport is all about - GO FOR IT!!!
First, spell her name right since you’re such a big fan. Second, she literally DIDN’T go for it. Three women broke away from her and she RAN HER RACE and stayed back. Kosgei, Chepengetich, and SALPETER went for it. How’s that strategy work out for Salpeter in Sapporo? And how about Molly’s strategy of NOT covering a move at a pace she couldn’t sustain?
There is no way that was too conservative. 2:22 to 2:23 is about their ability level, and they knew that.
And it's shocking that 2:22's on a pretty great weather day on fairly quick course was 5th 7th and 8th. They were over 4 minutes off the win, that's like a bunch of guys running 2:09 being 5th, 7th, and 8th place. Rupp was a exactly 4 minutes off the win and less than 3 minutes from bronze and he was way back in 19th place. For the women that similar gap equals 5th place??? How is there such a lack of depth on the global level for women? Men running 4:48 pace for the marathon means the top 20 men were all less than a mile from the finish line when the first man completed the race, half of them within a quarter mile of the bronze. Women running 5:20 pace means only 7 women were within a mile of the winner, and only 4th place was within a quarter mile of bronze.
You have to remember that the women really went for it. They went out crazy fast—half of the massive lead group at the beginning were running well below their PRs. At least 3 dropped out that I know of. And at least 1 lost steam to Sara Hall.
The men didn't do anything special until Tola broke it up late into the race. If the women had run as slow and steady as the men, the women's 5th place would probably be 9th at least, maybe farther back.
So we have the solution. We need to find the three American men and three American women with the most "pride", and throw them in the WC and Olympic Marathons. Ignore their training, genetics, etc., just make sure they have "pride". I greatly respect Crouser, Lyles, Holloway, McLaughlin, Felix, Allman, etc., but I doubt they have any more "pride" than our marathoners. The marathoners have to "put it on the line" for over 2 hours, treading the fine line between a PR and "bonking". Pushing the limits in throwing (1.6 seconds) or the 400 (43-50 seconds) doesn't carry quite as much risk.
BTW- I coached high school track and cross country for 40+ years. My distance runners looked up to athletes like Sara, Molly, Jared Ward, etc., more than East Africans. Maybe they were a little more relatable.
And who is this "Arrington" Knighton that your athletes keep talking about? I wonder if he's related to the Knighton that runs the 200 for the U.S.
So that's it ... Companies invest millions in you for you to "run a measured race to attain the best possible position for yourself"? Any wonder why Asians dominate in Post-Graduate and Doctoral Programs? ... Nothing says American Mediocrity better than "run a measured race to attain the best possible position for yourself" ... No Sacrifice Required!!!
I thought the top 8 got paid? So really anything 8 or higher is not losing because you are still getting a considerable reward. If you want to talk about really winning, then 2nd and 3rd also have to be considered losers, even if they medal. Almost everybody in the world is not good enough to place 1st at this sort of race, including those American ladies. So they choose to be realistic and get the best they can realistically get - in this case top 8.
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