007run wrote:
In his interview with Letsrun after winning the 600 at Millrose, Johnathan Gault asks him if he thinks his times should be counted as national high school records. Cooper states that he thinks his times should be counted as national high school records because in his opinion other high school kids are getting NIL money, and he doesn't see the difference between him and them. I think he has a great point because a lot of top tier high school stars are getting paid through NIL deals these days. They're basically pros on some level too. Interview is here:
Agree with his point, but even more credibly, he’s a HS junior who just turned 17 like a month ago. He was 16.5 when he smashed the HS 800m record multiple times. The fact that he’s setting these records while being so fa under the HS age cutoff intrinsically makes me less inclined to care that he’s getting paid, and that’s without factoring in that the other top athletes are too (albeit to a lesser degree).