This is a lot less surprising (and suspicious) than Mu/SML withdrawing, tbh. Norman's only run a few mediocre 100/200s and switched coaches in the middle of the season.
He's nowhere close to world championship 400 shape, I believe him that he needs a mental reset and a long training block to get ready for next year.
To have world (outdoor) champs every two years already is terrible for the sport. Because of corona, to have a global outddor championships five years in a row, is starting to kill athletics. But for sure money dictates everything.
It already started in 1983, when the 1st edition of the world champs (in a four year rhythm) where held in the year before the Olympics. What an unbelieveble nonsense. - - WC OG - - WC OG - -
It went worse, when from 93 on the world champs startet to happen every two years.
They should be in a four year rhythm in the even years between the Olympics. The odd years should be for PBs, records, revenge, duels, trying new events and so on.
Yet, European world or Olympic champions have European Championships every second year as well. Some also have Commonwealth Games they contest. And European Team Championships. Yet they find a way and the will to contest all or most of those, Diamond League meets, European and World Indoors, and stay alive and relevant in the sport for more than one or two Olympic cycles.
I don't think it's the frequency of the WC that's starting to kill athletes as you've put it. Athletes this side of the Pond have been shouldering the burden of competing in multiple championships a number of years now (Bol, Hodgkinson, Ingebrigtsen, Moraa, et al).
Something else must be influencing the recent spate of American withdrawals.
I'm sure there are some dopers in every race, but I think a lot of this has to do with the US Team selection for the Olympics. Sure the Olympics are almost a year away but the Trials for the Marathon are six months from now and the trials for Track will probably be about 9 months from now. Race in Hungary and worsen an injury, it may cut into your training and make it so you can't peak when you want to. I think there should be Worlds every year, but I think they should be ~14 months before the Olympic to prevent stuff like this.
You put the World Champinship at the top of your things to do list, He should have done the things he needed to do to be ready for this HUGE meet. You are representing your country it's not all about you,
The guy is letting me down, this......the hell with everything but me me amd me, sucks!
You put the World Champinship at the top of your things to do list, He should have done the things he needed to do to be ready for this HUGE meet. You are representing your country it's not all about you,
The guy is letting me down, this......the hell with everything but me me amd me, sucks!
You just said “the hell with everything but me me and me,” AND you said “the guy is letting me down.” Well…
We are in a period of correction and maybe a little bit of over correction. Most of us old timers grew up in the era of the Vince Lombardi mentality. Compete at all costs, sacrifice body and mind for the next game, certainly the next championship. Our sporting heroes were people like Willis Reed (see game 7 of the 1970 NBA finals) or Kirk Gibson with his World Series home run against the As when he couldn’t walk, or the Jordan flu game, or the Curt Shilling bloody sock game, etc. The more battered the athlete who triumphed or at least tried, the better. Let’s face it, this mentality was a bit over done. Some athletes never really recovered from their heroic moment. People went out and played football after multiple concussions and ended up with CTE. So now we’ve had an athlete backlash. Athletes (some) are going to protect themselves and do what’s best as they see it even if it means disappointing the fans or appearing to “wimp out.” Syd has a minor knee issue and no $ incentive to race worlds, well, she’s out. It’s a correction of sorts, probably and understandable one, and in time things will likely drift back to the mean a bit. However, many of the best athletes are no longer going to put it all on the line because fans and the media think it is the tough or courageous thing to do. Those days are over.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
What I truly believe is at the heart of this can be linked back to Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles et al and this opting out due to "mental health" movement that has become fashionable in pro sports.
Seriously though - they normalized it and due to a number of social factors super prevalent at the time (race and gender) and everybody bent over backwards to play the violins for these poor athletes who make a ton of money relative to the average citizen for playing sports that they freely choose to (which herein lies the big difference for me between actual mental health issues and sports psychology issues).
So now when things get tough - raised expectations, pressure to perform etc - there is no incentive anymore to tackle it head on and overcome it through strength of conviction. Why? Because with guaranteed $ it's easy to (in the case of Sydney McG 100% because NB do not have reductions clauses in their deals primarily because they "don't want to be like Nike"). And even with Nike, notorious for their hardline contracts with respect to "pay for performance" this also eased off considerably in recent years with the furore around the reductions in contracts for pregnancies (Felix, Montano, Goucher) and that spilled over into deals in general.
Like is it coincidence that we see this more and more since those "pioneers" of this movement got the ball rolling? Even a decade ago the thought of "skipping a worlds" to train for the next season or take a "well earned vacay after a stressful season of 2 races" was simply unthinkable. Mostly because your livelihood was at stake. Not anymore. And don't even start with "that's crazy these guys don't earn that much money" - well really they do if you compare it with the average American household and not the morally disgusting money that NBA players make to bounce a ball and throw it through a steel ring.
Training for next season? Minor knee injury? Don't insult our intelligence - these athletes don't want to run because guess what, track is hard and it's even harder mentally than it is physically. Why do you think all these guys need "higher powers" they convince themselves are out there with individual plans for them, that dictate their performances good or bad?
This is nothing more than running and hiding and taking full advantage of the current system to do so.
I agree. we tore Neguse apart 2 years ago when he didn’t run the 1500 at the Olympics, even though he showed up and was actually injured. This year we are giving all of these athletes a pass without a clear cut excuse even given
Didn't he have to make our USA team to run at the Worlds? This is all about athletes representing their country it;s not about will he be ready for the next Olympics. So no more running until the Olympic trials?
Didn't he have to make our USA team to run at the Worlds? This is all about athletes representing their country it;s not about will he be ready for the next Olympics. So no more running until the Olympic trials?
This sucks and Norman needs to be ashamed,
No he didn’t have to make the USA team because he is the defending World Champion. Pay some respect.
The U.S. is not the only country where we see athletes pulling out of Worlds right now, many European countries have similar things. What has not been mentioned before is that the international schedule got compressed with the Pandemic. Normally, 2022 would have been a sort of "off" year without a major championship, where you have less pressure and try to work on improving fitness and plan more individually. With the Pandemic, we had no off-year in the Olympic cycle, and I suspect athletes are finding now that this took a toll - both mentally and physically, although I suspect both are intertwinded when you compete at the elite level. Yes, sure, you can say 2020 was an off year, but by the time the Olympics were cancelled, the bulk of the preparation and the the mental effort to gear up for the Olympic year were already in the bag. Add the fact that you lose income and there was a general psychological burden during the Pandemic, I think it's fair to assume that 2020-2021 felt like one big Olympic year mentally to many of these athletes. Then you keep pushing and now you get to 2023, are struggling with mental fatigue and nagging injuries and then I don't think it's a weak excuse anymore, it's a symptom of the "show-must-go-on" cycle that has been running on since 2020.
it was a surprise when he entered. he tried doing the 100 this year, and was clearly injured. didn't qualify in the 1 or 2, but had the 4 in his pocket. unfortunately, with the injury problems he just doesn't have the fitness to defend. nothing sketchy on this one.
He canceled the remainder of his season and stopped training after the US trials and he made this known. No clue why his name was put forward.
What I truly believe is at the heart of this can be linked back to Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles et al and this opting out due to "mental health" movement that has become fashionable in pro sports.
Seriously though - they normalized it and due to a number of social factors super prevalent at the time (race and gender) and everybody bent over backwards to play the violins for these poor athletes who make a ton of money relative to the average citizen for playing sports that they freely choose to (which herein lies the big difference for me between actual mental health issues and sports psychology issues).
So now when things get tough - raised expectations, pressure to perform etc - there is no incentive anymore to tackle it head on and overcome it through strength of conviction. Why? Because with guaranteed $ it's easy to (in the case of Sydney McG 100% because NB do not have reductions clauses in their deals primarily because they "don't want to be like Nike"). And even with Nike, notorious for their hardline contracts with respect to "pay for performance" this also eased off considerably in recent years with the furore around the reductions in contracts for pregnancies (Felix, Montano, Goucher) and that spilled over into deals in general.
Like is it coincidence that we see this more and more since those "pioneers" of this movement got the ball rolling? Even a decade ago the thought of "skipping a worlds" to train for the next season or take a "well earned vacay after a stressful season of 2 races" was simply unthinkable. Mostly because your livelihood was at stake. Not anymore. And don't even start with "that's crazy these guys don't earn that much money" - well really they do if you compare it with the average American household and not the morally disgusting money that NBA players make to bounce a ball and throw it through a steel ring.
Training for next season? Minor knee injury? Don't insult our intelligence - these athletes don't want to run because guess what, track is hard and it's even harder mentally than it is physically. Why do you think all these guys need "higher powers" they convince themselves are out there with individual plans for them, that dictate their performances good or bad?
This is nothing more than running and hiding and taking full advantage of the current system to do so.
Isn't it a good thing that people are focusing on mental health? This just seems like an old man yells at clouds rant, because you grew up in a different era when hiding your struggles was thought to be "tough" for some reason.
Think how many athletes over the years had alcohol or other drug problems or beat their life partners. So many former greats died young because they felt they had to outwardly appear "manly" yet would drink themselves to death to hide their pain.
KUDOS to Ms. Biles and Ms. Osaka for not being ashamed of their struggles and doing what is best for THEM! They are inspirations for people everywhere - showing that just because you're the best in the world, that doesn't mean life is easy.
it was a surprise when he entered. he tried doing the 100 this year, and was clearly injured. didn't qualify in the 1 or 2, but had the 4 in his pocket. unfortunately, with the injury problems he just doesn't have the fitness to defend. nothing sketchy on this one.
He canceled the remainder of his season and stopped training after the US trials and he made this known. No clue why his name was put forward.
We are in a period of correction and maybe a little bit of over correction. Most of us old timers grew up in the era of the Vince Lombardi mentality. Compete at all costs, sacrifice body and mind for the next game, certainly the next championship. Our sporting heroes were people like Willis Reed (see game 7 of the 1970 NBA finals) or Kirk Gibson with his World Series home run against the As when he couldn’t walk, or the Jordan flu game, or the Curt Shilling bloody sock game, etc. The more battered the athlete who triumphed or at least tried, the better. Let’s face it, this mentality was a bit over done. Some athletes never really recovered from their heroic moment. People went out and played football after multiple concussions and ended up with CTE. So now we’ve had an athlete backlash. Athletes (some) are going to protect themselves and do what’s best as they see it even if it means disappointing the fans or appearing to “wimp out.” Syd has a minor knee issue and no $ incentive to race worlds, well, she’s out. It’s a correction of sorts, probably and understandable one, and in time things will likely drift back to the mean a bit. However, many of the best athletes are no longer going to put it all on the line because fans and the media think it is the tough or courageous thing to do. Those days are over.
So true. I am that age. I had that mentality for most of my life. Thankfully, I have changed. Thank you for posting this, Wise Old Man.
WTF?! What is it with this excuse, "I'm going to focus on the 2024 Olympics?" THEY ARE OVER A YEAR AWAY!
Could you imagine Tiger Woods in his prime saying in April on the eve of The Masters, "I've decided to step away from the golf course for The Masters, the British Open, and the US Open so I can focus on the PGA Championship in August."
In terms of timeline it's like Tiger Woods saying on Monday he's not playing in Thursday's opening round of the 2023 Masters so he can step away from golf and prepare for the 2024 Masters.
Hungary is a great country with a great history (Budapest especially is amazing) but the current authoritarian dipshnizzle V.Orban is a horrible person and is ruining their society. I'm more than happy to see this WC be a bust. I'd love to go back there later when that country gets their Shnickerdoodle together and oust that piece of Schistosomiasis.