Athing Mu OUT of Millrose

Racing is interfering with all her red carpet, glam events

The top pros certainly do not need to run indoors at all, but they should run the biggest indoor meets (Millrose, USAs, and World's) to help grow the sport and their own name recognition. I suspect motivation, injury, and shape are all off and they don't want her to lose confidence by a loss, or get injured from a minor injury that needs some rest. Last year, Mu was touchable, because she had the covid and other health issues, and barely winning (because she is a winner--not because she was the best physically last year) may have shaken her confidence. I really hope she gets it all back because she is already the best we've ever had at 800 and could be so at 400 as well, I think.

I agree with most of this.

Hodgkinson has nothing to lose by racing Moraa. It does seem like Mu has something to lose, mentally, if she gets beat, even while not at 100 percent. She's young. It's a pretty normal feeling for someone who is top dog and has a target on their back. She has handled it well so far, and rose to tough challenges at both USAs and Worlds last year. But that doesn't mean she always will.

maybe she is dodging...but i am not familiar with people who are unbeatable and undefeated having the dodging complex? That doesnt play. If Ajee heard Mu was coming and opted out that might be more sus.

Runners being burned out from 3 minutes of racing a month is right up there with baseball players being "exhausted" from a double header. Doesnt make sense.

Amen in the highest.

Agreed. I would be willing to bet she has run more than one hard 600 in practice this winter... probably this month. Obsession with perfect seasons, performances, and times is awful for the sport. It's not her fault entirely that the sport seems to enable athletes who never race (or maybe Nike does) but it makes the sport worse. If you're at 80% and open about it, I don't think anyone will give you a hard time for not winning a race in February.

She's injured and just doesn't want to say so, because like many athletes, she doesn't want to be perceived as showing vulnerability to her competitors. The conspiracy theories in this thread are entertaining though.

Supremely talented, but still a bit immature.

Hopefully that will change. It usually does.

We don't know why Athing pulled out. Perhaps she IS injured. But in most sports, if a top athlete pulled out of a major competition because of injury, they'd be expected to say so, or provide some real explanation.

The other major sport I follow is downhill skiing. It's like most sports - football, basketball, soccer. There is a competition season, and most athletes participate in most of the competitions. (A slalom racer might not do a downhill race and vice versa, but a downhill racer will do ALL the downhill races.) Because of this format, you get to know not only the stars but the next tier of athletes also. I have been a running fan for a couple of decades, but I have a hard time keeping up with who the athletes are. Without Letsrun, it'd be hopeless. They compete infrequently, and when they do complete, it's often hard to watch. In other sports, you might need to get one or two subscriptions to watch ALL the competitions. In running, every time there's a meet, I need to figure out anew how to watch that particular meet, and usually the coverage is poor.

I digress. But basically, our sport is lame. Athing Mu isn't doing anything other athletes in track and field don't do. But it wouldn't fly in other popular sports, and it makes it hard to be a fan.

She doesn’t need to. Point is there are only so many times in a year you can peak. With worlds so late makes no sense to put any emphasis on indoors

There is a wide gap between 'racing frequently' and racing only at worlds. I agree with others that the top pros should race more, or at least a little...

But should you only race when you're at your absolute peak?

You have to give Sydney McLaughlin credit. She's willing to get out there and run "off" events to improve her main event. Maybe she doesn't race enough, but she's willing to run a 60m and come in dead last.

Athing probably is injured or ducking competition. Might be good to do the 400m for a while. But Bobby knows best!

Agree with this, it's crazy that T&F athletes just get a total pass when they pull out of events. I can't think of any individual or team sport where an athlete doesn't have to offer even a boilerplate explanation for withdrawing from a commitment. I'm not expecting photos like Wightman gave us, but a statement about illness or injury would be better than just "sorry, can't make it"

You realize that one of LetsRun posters' most popular past times is to talk about how BTC not racing much is bad for the sport (Grant Fisher included)? So much so that even in years where their athletes compete a normal amount there are still threads going on about it. Did you miss how much everyone was dunking on Hocker and Teare last year for only doing Hayward Field time trials, and skipping world indoors even after winning USA indoors? And when both got injured people revelled in it saying how stupid they were to skip a healthy indoors only to injure themselves and miss outdoors anyway.

Fans hate when stars don't race. Mu is undisputed the best middle or long distance star in US track. Fans are going to want her to race. Fans are going to be upset when she's slated to race the only American who had come close to beating her and backs out right before not even cause of injury, but to focus on a championship that is more than six months after Millrose.

I am 100% certain that there are people out there who prefer Keely to Athing because of their prejudices, but I'd bet my life savings that if Grant Fisher was announced in December to be racing say Kincaid, Hocker, and Hoare at a Millrose 3000m and pulled out 5 days before saying "I need to focus on worlds" that there would be a multi page thread of people complaining about it" (and I'd be one of those people).

(FYI Fisher is racing Lievin this month which is usually the most competitive 3k in the world during indoors, and where Hogkinson v Moraa is going down).

As a long-time fan of T&F, these things bother me. Since WA is taking pages from tennis's book (e.g., with the ranking system), let's compare. Imagine if Djokovic or Nadal did not want to compete against each other. Well, it does not really happen. Avoiding top tournaments means you get 0 points in the highest ranked tournaments and that drops you in the rankings. Going down in the rankings means you may need to play qualifiers. When a tennis player misses a tournament they committed to, it's 0 points (even if they are injured, I think). They always report injuries. And I never heard a tennis coach say they owe nothing to tennis fans. Tennis coaches would not have a job without tennis fans.

You cannot ask the top athletes to be competing week in and week out. But running barely 3 or 4 times per year is crazy and disrespectful for the fans. Imagine if Lebron decided he did not want to play more than just 5 or 6 games per season, while in his prime. Or that he opted not to play against teams that may beat his team. For some reason, athletes in other sports are not as afraid of losing, or may take that as a motivation; but this seems to be different with many T&F athletes.

Mu may have her acceptable reasons to do this (I don't think saying I want to be in great shape for outdoor is not one of those). But I say be open about it or be penalized for doing that. It is unprofessional.

Maybe she got spooked by Bol getting busted?