Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone pulls out of LA Grand Prix

And there you have it.

An ounce of independence, 4ml of agency, and two milligrams of critical thinking, stat!

I'm over the BS. Kersee has absolutely no respect for the fans or the sport. All he cares about is his legacy and his athletes winning gold medals.

I've always been miffed at how he survived relatively unscathed from all the accusations in the 1980's, where he was dubbed 'the drug coach' and he was accused by a former athlete of doping during the Dubin Inquiry. How the fcuk he got away with it, and is heralded as one of the best coaces ever, gets me.

That aside, I cannot see McLaughlin & Mu putting up with his shenanigans forever. LA2028 will be their goal, but can they put up with this nonsense for another 5 years? I won't be surprised if they part ways with him before then.

maybe it is time for the fans and sites like Letsrun to stand up to these athletes. Unfollow the social media accounts of these athletes. why should we the fans support them? Letsrun should excuse to do any coverage of these type athletes who hide and never race don’t give them any coverage regardless of what they do

Right, and this is because the ATP protects its circuit by ensuring it is competitive even at the lowest end. All players in the top-30 of the rankings have to play a minimum of four ATP 500 tournaments and two ATP 250 tournaments. Most of the top guys do this by showing up for home events - Federer never missed Basel and Murray always plays Queens. The ATP recognised that a healthy sport needs a competitive circuit, not just people turning up for Wimbledon. Until World Athletics and NGBs figure this out, track will always struggle. The sport is slowly killing itself

How about USATF mandating that athletes must have a minimum of three races run before the trial and having to have a qualifying time in the same year as the trials.

I wonder how much, as fans, we inadvertently contribute to coaches and athletes thinking that the world championships and Olympics are the only events that matter. Much of our discourse for evaluating an athlete’s success centers on their medal count.

Look at Grant Fisher. He had a fantastic season last year, yet many people view it as a disappointment and/or dismiss him as a time trial guy because he didn’t win a medal. We put a lot of pressure on our best athletes to win medals, so we can’t be too surprised that coaches and athletes prioritize that over everything else.

Yeah this is totally disgusting when this happens. Tell me examples of it so know to never look for it or accidentally come across it

That will happen the day that the powers that be are willing to let a McLaughlin or Bolt not compete at their championships.

I like this idea, and I think there’s something to this (tho I think it would be tricky for smaller nations/from countries with fewer resources to send their athletes around to compete.)

It really bothers me how we as fans are supposed to love the sport when it doesn’t seem like the athletes even enjoy it… If SML loved track shouldn’t it drive her crazy to not compete at all.

Makes me appreciate the young athletes like Anna Hall and Abby Steiner who aren’t afraid to race, possibly lose, and seem to genuinely love competing. Wish every athlete had that mindset.

Our 200m squad overall is just absolutely awesome, by far the strongest quartet we have ever had in Lyles, Fred, Kenny, and Knighton.

As for Sydney, I will just say I do not see Britton Wilson scaling her schedule back like this as a pro. And she is very much about to be a runner with a 48 second FAT 400 PR. Sydney is extremely good, but at this point her proven speed advantage is looking very vulnerable and it is not like Femke Bol has just been sitting around this year.

Especially Anna Hall. She seems like she is willing to compete in just about anything.

This outdoor season she has already competed in just about every event that is in the pentathlon, as a single event. She ran a 2:03 800 at the beginning of April and then about a month later a 12.90 in the 100 hurdles. Oh, and in between she took 4th in the long jump at Tom Jones Invitational. She was overjoyed with the 100 hurdles race she ran in Atlanta. She's a joy to watch and has so much enthusiasm. She is the best woman athlete in the world, IMHO.

L.A. G.P. is on NBC live.

NBC/Universal Studios in Hollywood has revenues of $40 Billion.

EMED is the sponsor. EMED has revenues of $400 Million.

Yet the prize money is a joke. No appearance fees. No minimums. No travel.

in the heptathlon *

Oh, and she's running the 400h in the Florence DL meet on June 2.

Kersee may be a fine coach, but he is terrible for the sport of track and field. I'm glad I waited before buying mu tickets.

Britton is very good in the flat 400 but Sydney is waaay ahead of her in hurdling technique.

Plus Britton herself has said that she will probably never be able to run 14 steps between hurdles like Sydney can. Hurdles are about more than just speed.