Wait! Did athing mu just give up on her season?

Mu - under her coaches instruction - not running 400s is a TRAVESTY for the sport.

She has not run a 400m in OVER THREE YEARS. The National U20 record holder from 2021, whose time of 49.57 was then the 9th fastest AT on the US lists, has only run that event twice since, in early 2022, under her old coach. She has not run a single 400m under Kersee. Instead, she has been *made* to run 1500s and friggin 3000m of a 5000m.

Let that sink in.

I totally get why some are saying she's an adult etc. but bear in mind she is still only 23, and moved under Kersee when she was just 20. She would have been advised, by many, to stick it out, he's such a great coach etc. etc....so she has. Well, I think - and hope - this season is a turning point for her and the right time to make some significant changes before LA28. Otherwise we are going to lose this great talent forever.

To add: can you imagine Kratochvilova, or Quirot, or Mutola, or Wodars/Grau or Moraa or any other 400/800 types being made to enter a 5000m track race by their coach & being instructed to drop out after 3000m? They would never. That's what a Melinte would do, a 800/1500 type. Mu is not that and never will be.

Now, this is funny!!!

Agreed. Another noteworthy observation from her interview at the U.S. championships is she gave Kersee a vote of confidence. When asked about him, she talked about the challenges of starting fresh in a new system, the need for her and Kersee to get to know each other, and adapting to a different environment. That's concerning because she's now been with him for three years. They should be well beyond the initial adjustment phase!

If the Mu-Kersee pairing was going to work, they would have figured it out by now. All those same adjustment factors she mentioned were applicable to her first year with Milton Mallard at Texas A&M, and she thrived in that year. It shouldn't take three years with a coach to figure out what works, especially for someone who was already the best in the world. In the interview, she talked about how much she loves the 400m and how much it helps her in the 800m, so I don't understand why Kersee didn't put her in any 400m races this year.

She should look at her ex, Brandon Miller, as a case study. He didn't progress under Kersee. Since leaving Kersee, Miller has run a PB in each of the last two years and made the Paris Olympic team. She could have done the same and much more!

The other concerning part of her interview from the perspective of someone who wants to see her maximize her potential is she used the word "content" at least three or four times. She's content with where she's at right now. In the big picture, maybe that's ok. She already has gold medals and the U.S. record. We know she's capable of more, but maybe that's enough for her.

Her contentment, along with giving Kersee a vote of confidence, tells me she's probably not going to make a change. I think the only way she might make a change would be if her husband and/or family do an intervention to help her realize she'd be better off with another coach. That, or (less likely) Kersee having enough honesty and humility to approach her and say, "Look, we've tried this for three years, and it's clear it's not working. I only want what's best for you, and I think what's best for you would be to find a coach who specializes in the 800m and form a 800m training group like you had at Texas A&M. Let me help you make this transition."

Without her switching to a new coach, it's hard to be optimistic about her future on the track. Rather than continue getting down about it, I think my new approach for thinking about Mu will be to just appreciate the memories from 2021 and 2022.

Mu is looking for a reason to quit the sport in a way that it appears to not be her fault/decision. Tanking with Keersee = blame the coach then leave sport as the victim.

and exactly how do you know that?

White guys are the experts on the motives of black people.

Eh. She looks happy lately. Good for her. Hopefully, she'll be back in form down the road.

Keely being mean to her would do it and rekindle the burning fire. Only Keely she doesn't care about Moraa, Duguna et al.

However Keely isn't that type of person so it won't happen.

When your passion - and ability - is with the 400/800, but your coach makes you drop one of those and run the 1500m, it's not surprising you would lose some motivation & sparkle.

Can you imagine if Kersee made Sydney drop the 400mh after Tokyo 20 and switched her to 100/200 flat, never to run a 400mh again? Or if he made Felix drop the 200m after Beijing 08 and moved her to the 400/800m?

He was gifted this great 400/800 talent, but decided to move her to 800/1500 for no other reason than to avoid clashing with his other big star. Either that, or he has/had this wild ambition for Sydney to win the 400/400mh double in LA28, and for Mu to win the 800/1500 double.

I feel that after the fall at the trials, she took a long break from the sport, so long in fact that she started to not feel like getting back into training.

she put her focus on “modeling” (Nike ads) and her personal life, all of which is good stuff. but again, I don’t think she got back into training at the time she would have normally began her fall base training. I believe it went on longer and longer and kersee just let her be.

she eventually started back training but was so behind that she wasn’t at the fitness she should have been by the time outdoors started, also she didn’t run any indoors.

so to help shield her due to the lack of fitness, she was put in low level 1500 and a 3k of a 5k to minic some sort of a base line fitness rust buster but again she’s not an 800/1500 runner she can run the 1500 decently well when she is in prime PB 800m shape.

she did what she had to do to fulfill her Nike obligations under her contract but ultimately knew she didn’t have the time to get to the fitness needed to he competitive thus lacked confidence which you could see in her races.

she should have raced 400s for a few meets then open with an 800 like a month or so later. My take ultimately is her hearts not in it it’s not entirely kersees fault but he’s not the right coach for her.

She could be a cautionary note for young Cooper. I sure hope his support system will be better than hers is.

Season?

her support system is fine. she just doesn’t have the drive to be a pro athlete right now and that’s ok. there are plenty of other things in life.

Hilarious that Tuohy's name still comes up. She never made it to national class while Mu amd Cain were world class. Now Andrews is world class while Tuohy has fallen to the ranks of sub elite.

World class?? lol. Hardly 😂

At this point I Kersee must be doing this to protect Sydney. Let Syd have the 400/400h while Mu stays 600 and up that way there are no clashes.