Sydney McLaughlin-Lev & Athing Mu: Real reason they're skipping Worlds

For all you experts lemmme ax you this....when was the last time you were in
Budapest?

I agree 100%, but we know the announcers are going to mention them multiple times which will be really annoying.

You should contact someone from Budapest if you want an expert regarding the city. Why would you come to a thread about two suspicious quitters?

Budapest is nasty as is the whole country that's why they prefer to pass.(because they CAN)

They get tested whether they race or not.

It's how testing works

People with real physical labor jobs will roll over laughing at this nonsense. These athletes train 3-4 hours a day and race 6-10 a year and they need a rest to rest, ridiculous and pathetic, these athletes are not worth thinking about if they do not care for the sport.

A homeless man's underwear is cleaner than ingebrigtsen.

I can't think of anything more boring than being an athlete of this caliber and training for an entire year to do nothing.

Giving up your spot ahead of the WC is better that holding on to the end and then not being able to race.

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I agree if so many posters are so suspicious of Athing and Sydney then they should also be suspecting Warholm, Bol, and Ingrigtsen. It too many racists remarks being thrown around and yet numerous posters still claim themselves fans if the sport.

If you are suspect of them using than just about everyone is suspect.

I believe Sydney would have been there other than the knee injury. Makes sense if there is a minor problem that could become major.

That said, I believe above is right. Neither is loving it at this point. When you are expected to win, all another victory brings is relief, not joy. It's not surprising that the pressure starts to tell.

I've been running and racing for 50+ years, and although nowhere near their level (although have run in several National Championships), and although enjoying the satisfaction of competing, generally my feeling before a race is that of wishing I hadn't come. It's pretty much always been so, and I think I'd probably be happy just training, doing time trials, and knowing pretty well where I would finish in the target race.

It wouldn't take much imagination to see why both Sydney and Athing would have reached that point.

Not if you enjoy the process of training, but dislike the stress of racing.

I’m afraid that Kersee’s group has been a complete bust this year.

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You hit a topic not nearly discussed enough in athletics. There are numerous athletes like that but don't have a platform to speak out. It something some of our top athletes go thru and need psychological therapy to overcome.

I ABSOLUTELY loved going on a 10 mile at 5:30 pace w/ distance group, 8 x 200m in sub 25 secs w/ sprint group and whatever else. But I despised and loathed competing, I ran because I simply enjoyed running. I joined a track team because I got good enough to join a top team to train and run with but unfortunately competing was something I was expected to do.

I'm not saying for CERTAIN that is the case with either Sydney or Athing but you can bet you life, there a several other ELITE athletes knocking it out the park in training and workouts but don't perform nearly as well in competition. They enjoy training but not competing but won't say so for fear they will be completely MISUNDERSTOOD.

I don't think that applies to Athing because she seems burnt out on running in general. But it seems like Sydney is OK with training, but not racing.

Most people like racing more than training, but not everyone is like that. I know a top college runner who recently graduated who liked training and hated racing. Not everyone is wired the same way.

Sounds about right to me.

Arrant poppycock. They have no “obligation” to the sport or to the fans. If they don’t want to run, they don’t have to run.

Or they failed drug tests and are in the appeals process.

Or they got tired of being treated like commodities, doing silly little races for your entertainment and corporate profits.