Katelyn Tuohy and NC State blasts Flotrack's Gordon Mack

Or maybe they were just standing up for a teammate after she had a tough race. And the take from the podcast was dumb as usual. Just seemed very random. Flo has done these type of podcasts about Tuohy before. When she was coming back from injury and did not make the outdoor finals in 2021, Flo had a segment writing her off, and always seems to have the strangely negative take even when she wins. But at least there we are talking about one of the highest profile athletes in the sport. Doing a podcast singling out the team's 4th/5th ranked runner was odd.

I don't necessarily see how your first sentences and what I said are incompatible. I'm pointing out that comparing Gordon's clip to the scrutiny that college football and basketball athletes receive so as to minimize why people may have found it in poor taste doesn't make sense. I'm also saying that intense scrutiny or ridicule has an effect on the mental health of athletes across sports; it isn't particular to female athletes or to less-covered sports.

Sure, "pressure is a privilege" is a common phrase in the sports world. But there are different types of spotlights, and those spotlights can feel different depending on who is directing them. A coach saying, "you're an important part of this team, and your teammates are trusting you to give it your all out there" is a type of pressure, but it could likely be received positively, because it comes from a place of others holding you in high regard due to your prior conduct. A commentator singling you out because your performances have been trending downward and could endanger your team's title chances is a type of pressure that probably lands differently. It's external from the team that knows you, and focuses on what you've been doing wrong, rather than why people have come to have high expectations of you. Some people thrive off of the "I'll show them!", chip-on-the-shoulder, bitter type of energy that that kind of pressure can create, but I understand why it doesn't work for everybody.

I'm not saying that Gordon's hot take is incredibly cruel or anything, but I can understand why people are having a negative reaction to it.

Also, why would anything Flotrack says or doesn't say affect whether or not Sydney thinks she can be "a difference make for her team"? Of course she can be, and she already knows that. If you watched the ACC race, you would have been able to see in her facial expressions and body language just how much she knows her performance can impact the team.

Bye felicia!

Sick of people like Gordon Mack and Chris Nickinson profiting off of amateur and sometimes underage runners. Good for them for calling this crap out.

Is it your proposition that sports commentary....which is all this is/was and is not particularly critical in the first place....should cease?

No, it's not. I'm a fan of a few sports, including running, and I consume quite a bit of sports commentary in various forms. I'd be fairly bummed out if it suddenly ceased to exist.

However, I do think it's worth remembering that athletes are real people with emotions, private struggles, etc. when we discuss them. I don't think it's unreasonable for a commentator to point out that an athlete has had a few bad races or has performed below her potential recently. I think that's probably pretty obvious to people who follow the sport enough to know who the athlete is, and she's certainly self-aware enough to recognize it herself. I also think it's prudent for a commentator to consider how they phrase that observation: do they lean into more dramatic, clickbait framing? Do they come at it from an angle about potential for improvement? Do they actually have to single out just one athlete in order to make whatever point they're trying to make about a team?

I also believe that there should be differences (not legally, but just thinking from a personal standpoint) in how we discuss college athletes who aren't getting paid, when compared to professional athletes who play sports as their career. Additionally, the media landscapes of less-covered sports like running are different from the media behemoths that move billions of dollars and employ thousands like the big four sports. This means that runners are more likely to feel that they're part of the same community as the media personalities that cover them or the fans that post about them, and thus expect a different type of person-to-person care or thoughtfulness. There's a different balance of power between a college cross country runner and a commentator employed by FloSports than there is between an NFL starter and someone on one of the endless podcasts that cover football. Some people may believe that there shouldn't be a difference between those two scenarios, but I think that to argue that there isn't one would be pretty obtuse around levels of notoriety, audience size, monetary compensation, maturity, etc.

As I mentioned above, I'm not wildly taken aback by Gordon's clip, though I can understand why people are expressing negative reactions to it in the Instagram comments. The point of my initial post here was to say that comments about how athletes in other sports have it worse are immaterial to how the particular athletes on NC State's team might have felt about this clip. They help neither those other athletes under worse scrutiny, nor the NC State runners (and if you've actually paid attention to studies of college athletes' mental health, maybe we should want to be helping, or at least not harming them!). All comments like that serve to do is to minimize people's concerns, and I just generally think that's weak from both a logical and ethical frame of reference. That's all.

Yes, I agree she already knows she can be a difference maker. I’m not saying she learned that from the commentator. I’m just saying the combination of that knowledge and the attention placed on her would push me to excel for my team.

A big problem is people (athletes and non-athletes alike) can’t handle criticism or others pointing out when they aren’t doing well. I’ve seen it many times in the workplace. We saw it this week with Klay Thompson saying it “hurt his heart” that Charles Barkley accurately commented that Thompson isn’t the same level of player that he was before his injuries, and that’s one of the reasons his team is struggling this year. Barkley wasn’t being mean. He was just making an honest observation.

The Flotrack guy was making an honest observation about a struggling runner. As long as he isn’t being mean in his delivery, I don’t see the issue with accurately pointing out that a runner has been struggling and continued struggles by that runner could cost her team the title. Was he being hyperbolic by saying that Seymour would single-handedly determine the team title? Sure. But hyperbole comes with the territory of sports commentary.

The bottom line for me is Seymour, not Mack, is the one with the power here. Seymour is the one who will be out there running, not Mack. She has the opportunity to be a hero that helps her team win the NCAA championship. I would have relished such an opportunity.

you call yourself a TuohyFan?? should change your anonymous name to Two-Faced

What's the BIG EFFIN' DEAL??? A writer criticises, and he's torn to shreds? What country are we in??? He gave his OPINION, and that was bound to peeve certain people. Apparently some think they live in ivory towers and should never be on the receiving end of an unfavorable point of view. Well, they're seriously wrong! Yeah, it's gratifying to be supported by your teammates, but it's more than gratifying to know that one writer, and the NC State women's XC runners, are allowed to express personal points of view, even if those views will be unpopular. I see a correlation to the current political scene in this country.

They are NCAA runners. This isn’t high school they need to lean to deal with the comments. Every single NC State runner should not have responded. Very unprofessional. College basketball players deal with that pressure, football, cross country should be no different. Bunch of babies! Entitled!

A very bad look for NC State. Coach should be held accountable for their reaponse.

He's not a writer, just a middle-age man who does podcasts for a living.

Well, people are just voicing out their opinions about this matter, just like how gordon does every single day of his life ...so whats the BIG EFFIN' DEAL???

DONT DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU DONT WANT OTHERS TO DO UNTO YOU.

its okay when he does it but not when we do it??! ahahaha how does that work?

PATHETIC. let me post this dumb comprehension of yours.. youre a valby fan right?

The team is saying that EVERYONE impacts their chances and that its a team sport.

Wow. I feel like many people are missing the point here. This was basically the exchange:

Mack: Runner XXX is going to play an important role in winning the national title.

NC State and friends: Why are you a high-school girl obsessed pervert?

Was Mack being hyperbolic? Yes. Was his delivery clickbait-y? Sure.

But some of those replies were wildly offensive and seemingly baseless. That is bad for the sport.

Argue with the take. Argue with the opinion. But don’t act like he’s beating up on a little girl. These are college women competing in an NCAA D1 sport. Journalists and fans will always have things to say. Smart teams and athletes should delete their social media accounts to start the season.

…If a journalist posted that a BCS National Football Championship was on a quarterback’s shoulders no one would bat an eye. Is the outrage because it’s a different sport or because he’s talking about women?

Gordon Mack is no Journalist.