It's Mu's life, she has zero obligation to keep racing because people demand it of her. Sure, there's a lot of potential being flushed down the toilet, but the sport will move on, with or without her.
It’s not so much ‘demand’ as it is transparency. All she needs to do is post a sentence or two saying that she needs a break or something. It’s not too personal but still keeps us sorta in-the-loop. Compare this to other sports where coaches and athletes are interviewed several times a week, this is the least a paid athlete can do.
It’s not so much ‘demand’ as it is transparency. All she needs to do is post a sentence or two saying that she needs a break or something. It’s not too personal but still keeps us sorta in-the-loop. Compare this to other sports where coaches and athletes are interviewed several times a week, this is the least a paid athlete can do.
This gives a feeling that she blames her fans for something and therefore knowingly ignores them. And I can very well understand her, as people can be incredibly insensitive and brash. Especially online.
I feel as though once an athlete sets records, wins gold, and has that undefeatable season you’re only doing it for the love of the game afterwards with nothing less to prove. It sounds like Mu doesn’t have that love of the game anymore.
I would hate to do pro level 800m training every day if I didn’t have a passion for it. That stuff is physically and mentally exhausting, and then you add the intense scrutiny over everything including weight, diet, activity outside of running, etc. constantly having to do press interviews /gear hauls/ gear modeling shoots. That’s a lot if you aren’t passionate about it.
Pamela Jelimo (3rd fastest female ever) did the EXACT same thing winning Olympic GOLD, lost interest, came back won a couple silvers at Worlds. The 800m is gruelling when you're running it properly at you max and a lot of the speed/endurance is merciless.
........
5 x 400m in sub 56 with 90 second jog no walking...any repetition over 55.9 you repeat until you have 5 sub 56
TWO sets of 5 x 200m in sub 24...200 job/walk recovery 800m jog no walk in between sets.
10 mile runs under 6 minute pace
........
I myself loved the training but I absolutely hated competing in the 800m, if I was on a weaker track team I could have run the 400m instead and kept interest. I got a serious injury after two & half years and basically quit.
I think that was and still is part of Athing's problem.
Nah. As others have pointed out recently, her arrogance toppled her. She saw and referred to herself as The Queen, and felt that she ahould be able to remain at the top without much effort, believing that her talent and Kersee’s eh, “methods” would let her coast. Which they didn’t. Her habit of cutring off and knocking other runners all over the place on the break caught up with her as well, “I’m The Queen, you should just get outta my way,” didn’t work out in the end. We’ll see if her ego ever recovers. Right now, I’d bet it doesn’t.
I get what you’re saying but being a pro mid-d athlete is an exceptionally hard thing to do if you aren’t in love with the sport. Constant interviews, 2-3 hard workout sessions a day, strict diet, criticism from the masses, constant anxiety of loss of contract over bad races… Us on these forms are all pretty passionate so we don’t quite get it, but most people would choose a desk job (that often pays as much as a pro runner makes) over it any day of the week.
No. There's a reason people are willing to struggle making $30k a year to live the dream of being a professional runner. Everything you mentioned sounds amazing.
Hell I tried to live that dream for free in my spare time in my 20's, running and running-related stuff was the primary thing I did outside of work, and I shaped my life around it.
In Mu's situation once you include the contract (Runner's World estimated $500-$750k per year plus bonuses) there's no comparison to a desk job, come on.
It makes sense if she's already financial independent so she doesn't have to work, plus she's lost the fire. Then I understand not wanting to spend your life running. But if she could use the money, she could get far more of it and be doing something awesome by continuing to run.
I remember her saying in an interview once that "being tall makes me feel superior", and although we all said stupid things when we were young, I just thought that sounded like she had an awful attitude towards her competitors and life in general.
Looks are subjective and you're a d*ck for including that adjective in your comment. There's plenty to criticize about her current running trajectory, but getting personal like that just shows what a lousy person YOU are.
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" - Pre
She was born to break the WR in the 800 but chose not to go for it.
Most of us were pulling for her to achieve it, to etch her name in history, but she walked away from it. For those of us without "the gift" that seems like a great loss, but to her I guess it doesn't.
She burned out from 15 years of track. It was the early start that led to the early end of her career. If she's unfulfilled, she could always return to College Station and go after that world record but that takes desire.
She burned out from 15 years of track. It was the early start that led to the early end of her career. If she's unfulfilled, she could always return to College Station and go after that world record but that takes desire.
College Station (Texas A&M) wasn't happy about having to train a pro. That's why she left. She's not going back. Even if she tried, they probably won't let her back. They train COLLEGE runners not PRO runners.