LateRunnerPhil wrote:
CGeorgeRun wrote:
Running Perspective - she has world class talent. And that doesn't go away. If she has a good training year, anything is possible.
HR/Risk Management - she's a stirrer? She was treated terribly by her coach as a very young adult. And the treatment was acknowledged by several witnesses. When I think of a stirrer - I imagine someone who complains for no reason or intentionally wants to create trouble. By all accounts, she was a model teammate.
And yes, an employee can be terminated at will. But the terminated employee will be eligible for unemployment and health benefits after termination. That's a heck of a lot better than being an independent contractor who can get reduced or outright canceled after which the contractor is left with no income and no way to pay for health insurance.
It's not about talent/innate ability - it's about development over time and the history of an athlete.
Like you said, she was abused by her coach. He destroyed her with super-hard training that he thought is necessary to reach the top. Imagine yourself as young, 17-year old HS kid. You just PR'ed in the mile in a super competitive race, beating other, older runners who were favored to win. Time to celebrate right? Nope, it's time to go to another track, for the "hardest post-race workout of your life". 3-mile tempo, despite never having done one before, followed by cutdown 600-400-300-200 (closing in 27 flat). You thought after the mile PR where you suffered so much your coach would finally be happy and take you out to dinner or celebrate it, but not, he thinks it's necessary to let you run and train even harder. That's gonna mentally destroy a young HS kid. Then you got all the other things, obsession with optimizing weight, etc., but the main thing was the abuse. He also forced her to run easy days on 6:30/mi. He treated her as a machine with running talent, not like a human.
Then performances deteriorated over years, new coach wasn't successful either, stuck in a loop of "what could have been". This runner was mentally broken over many years. Now claiming to prepare for Tokyo 2021 is just gonna cause another burnout/disappointment. None of her recent races in NYC indicated potential or shape to be top 3 in the 1500 in the US. It's extremely competitive, I can list you at least 10, if not 15 runners who have a higher chance to qualify based on their current form and race forms (using Cain's recent 9:07 3k race as reference point).
Also, anyone seriously training for the Olympics next year would not take on a full-time job. It's only gonna distract and take-away from the training. Do Houlihan, Schweizer, Purrier, etc., some of her potential competitors, have full-time jobs? Claiming to have a chance to qualify for Tokyo WITH a 40+ hour job in NYC, after many years of no exceptional race, purely based on talent and outstanding times in HS is an insult to all runners who devote 100% of their life to the Olympic dream, and don't secure their future career by already having a job and getting job experience.
I think she made the right decision by taking on the full-time job, but her goal should not be Tokyo 2021, but to get fitter again, and run closer to her PR's. A bit of realism and modesty go a long way!