Lukas speaks

After thinking it through, maybe LV's leaving wasn't as selfish as we think it was. Maybe he felt like a douche because he was taking up a spot from someone who actually wanted to run.

Dull and Bored wrote:

You're a shitheaded idiot if you think that this has anything to do with dignity.

In fact, what's REALLY undignified is people like you trying to bash a kid for going with the sport that he had been most dedicated to ALL ALONG.

Running was a sideshow for him.

He was a 9-time National Running Champion

He was the WORLD Triathlon Champion

All that shit about deserting his team? Nobody cares. He had no obligation to his team whatsoever, nor does anyone else on ANY team.

He's not a kid anymore, he's a grown man now at 18 and post high school. Was a huge fan of his accomplishments, but he just pissed it all away. Couldn't run two more races in matter of weeks, what a d-bag.

I never thought I would say this, but I think letsrun has finally found a former Oregon runner that we hate more than Rupp!!

WS YO wrote:

I never thought I would say this, but I think letsrun has finally found a former Oregon runner that we hate more than Rupp!!

I think calling him a former Oregon runner is an insult. Two races and an incomplete season an team member hardly makes.

he is NOT the World Triathlon Champion!

He is the World JUNIOR champion. BIG BIG difference.

He is talking like an ego fuelled prick, and he left his team i the lurch. He should have waited a few weeks and finished the season like a real sportsman.

Lukas chose the low hanging fruit. He can be the best in a less competitive sport or he can strive to be the best in a sport where people other than rich white kids can compete.

He also clearly has no sense of team or commitment, sticking with Oregon for a few more weeks and then "following his dreams" wouldn't have affected his career at all. Honestly it sounds like he just didn't want to lose an more races.

According to Oregons website November 13th is the last day to drop classes.

Interesting timing?

Heres the link

http://registrar.uoregon.edu/calendars/academic

...this might be my turning point... When we can’t even keep one of our historic young runners in our ranks, what’s left?

If US distance running ever wants to compete on the world stage, these young runners like Lukas and German need to sack up and learn that they are the future.

Seriously though, who cares about triathalons anyways? At least German can just fake being injured and take time off like a real prima donna. Lukas is just taking the easy way out instead of doing the work and trying to compete with Africans.

Many feel that Lukas is a sell out after Oregon did a lot to accommodate him. The thing is Oregon didn't do Lukas any favors, Oregon went out of their way to accommodate Lukas because he deserved such attention. If Oregon didn't then a rivaling college could have done so.

Oregon knew too well the dilemma Lukas was in, but they took the risk. Lukas on the other hand wasn't really sure what he wanted, but if you remember, Lukas accepted Oregon's offer before winning the junior triathlon gold. I think Lukas, made the toughest decision at his young age and no one should take that away from him.

Team might come first at times, but not always.

Oregon has resources to get another athlete. There are many athletes who can replace Lukas if they are called upon. Or Oregon should go recruit a Kenyan kid ASAP.

No whining!

Let Lukas go for his dream!

Kenyano wrote:

No whining!

Let Lukas go for his dream!

No whining now that LV will be hated and underpaid for the rest of his career, even if successful (doubt it). LV = the guy who lost his own marathon, created a new division just for himself, and declared himself the winner and gave himself the prize money.

Learning about his weight gain is very concerning. I had heard about it before this article. Diet is pretty important and can be difficult to maintain in college, especially freshman year. Does UO have some student/athlete cafeteria? Sounds like he's looking forward to the five star diets taken care of by the training center. I understand where he's coming from - probably another reason the collegiate system breaks more than it makes

Pretty disappointed he won't be running for the ducks, but respect what he said about being here and now. Gotta go for it while you can

As far as classes go, what would be the point of dropping out/transferring before a bad grade...you think he's planning for grad school?

wi|fredo wrote:

wouldn't you have to be half retarded to become academically ineligible at Oregon?

BINGO! University of Nike at Eugene is a short bus school.

wi|fredo wrote:

wouldn't you have to be half retarded to become academically ineligible at Oregon?

BINGO! University of Nike at Eugene is a short bus school. We send all the dummies from our local HS there for four more years of HS.

"All that shit about deserting his team? Nobody cares. He had no obligation to his team whatsoever, nor does anyone else on ANY team."

Spoken like a true product of the "ME generation." Nobody cares, huh? Ask his (former) teammates, the running community, and anyone with half a brain the validity of that statement. No obligation to his team? Are you aware that - at the heart of cross-country - it is by and large a TEAM sport? (hence the negative reaction to LV's decision). That's like saying a soldier has no obligation to his brothers in battle. Dude, all I'm saying is think outside the "it's all about me" perspective and get in line with the vision and family-like dynamic of the sport of cross-country and you might understand why folks are pissed off. And I don't really have to think too hard to understand where you're coming from, I'm human and an American, selfishness and entitlement come far too naturally.

A real coach wrote:

I don't think that anybody would have a problem with him doing triathlons if he never went to Oregon. The problem is that he made a commitment to go to the school. He took a scholarship for a year in a sport that only allows men's CC/T&F 12.6. Therefore, Oregon is short a scholarship athlete for the year. Deciding part of the way through the season left them even more shorthanded because the rosters for the NCAA Regionals / Nationals had to be submitted before he quit. It was a very selfish move.

+1

I am not as good as Lukas, but I raced the Triathlon Junior World Championships a few years ago too.I decided to run on a scholarship because I worship the team aspect of XC. I would never quit on my team. I feel sorry for Lukas for missing on the team experience I had...

WS YO wrote:

I never thought I would say this, but I think letsrun has finally found a former Oregon runner that we hate more than Rupp!!

:)

Harrier41 wrote:

he is NOT the World Triathlon Champion!

He is the World JUNIOR champion. BIG BIG difference.

He is talking like an ego fuelled prick, and he left his team i the lurch. He should have waited a few weeks and finished the season like a real sportsman.

One thing I had a hard time finding was this...

For some reason I was not coming up with a URL for the results until today and had not seen this until right now. Go ahead and look at the results. If you click on "Swim", etc. it will sort the athletes based on their splits in each event in the Tri.

This tells A LOT OF THE STORY. First, for those not familiar, the WC was at a baby distance of HALF the Oly distance (OD is 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10 km run). A top-flight time is about 1:50 for OD and the race distances are not very rigorously measured, even at big events.

There were 63 finishers and 5 DQ/DNF, so 68 at the starting line. I should note that I don't know how they qualify for this, but I am sure you have to as the whole field was pretty tight for a 1:00:00 event.

LV had the 11th best swim split, but was only :11 out of first, so he is right up there in the swim. You can't tell much in the bike, because they are allowed to draft. He was also 11th in the bike (30:16), and only 11th off the best bike split (30:05).

Now you may think, so he is about 10th place right now and :20 seconds back and will use his superior running to nail everyone to win. After all, he should be about a 14:00 5ker and be head and shoulders above everyone there in terms of running, right? Not so fast ...

First of all, it is kind of interesting that ALL TEN of the guys with faster bike splits had slower swim splits than LV (significantly slower -- like :38 to :50 slower in a 9:24 swim). I guess that means that they came in towards the back of the swim leg and tried to make up ground in the bike leg, and through pack riding they WERE able to.

So , due to the very short bike leg distance and the fact that the CAN DREFT, LV was near the lead at the end of the bike leg, about :04 behind the leader, and there were about 10 other athletes within 4 seconds AHEAD or BEHIND as he finished the bike leg.

This is where it gets interesting. If I had never seen the results, I would have assumed that this 3:59 miler and 8:29 2-miler would have put 1-minute on EVERYONE here and won the whole thing.

Triathletes know this, but the swimming is technically the hardest to master, but if you are poor at swimming it is the best one to be poor at (check the results before you disagree), because it is the shortest discipline. In this case 9:20 vs. 30:20 vs. 15:40.

Cycling is the easiest, made even easier by the drafting. In other words the REAL differences that might be revealed in say, an IronMan, are not revealed as much due to the short distance and the drafting. A strong rider CANNOT ride away from the field like a runner might be able to.

Anyway, you look at the run split and he wasn't even the fastest one. He ran 15:33 which we cannot judge absolutely because we have no idea what the length or difficulty of this course was. You CAN judge it relatively though. The fastest run split was ... wait for it ...

TA-DA!

Another American who placed THIRD overall named ... Tony Smoragiewicz!!! Possibly a LESS marketable name than Lukas Verbicas???

I wonder if this much attention has been heaped on Tony Smoragiewicz so far?

My whole long-winded point is that ...

1) This was HALF of Oly Dist, which is the shortest of the major tri specialties (OD, HalfIM, Ironman).

2) When he has to compete at ODist, since he does not seem to be the best swimmer (nor can you gain many seconds there), and you cannot gain time cycling (everyone follows you), he would need to distinguish himself in running.

3) He was winning (did win) by 30+ seconds, draped in a flag, so maybe he soft-pedaled it in the last mile, and he does have what it takes? He certainly has to be the best runner ever to triathlon seriously. At least he has the best middle distance times ever seen.

4) He seems to be determined to be at the very top ... and obviously he knows more about this than I do, but I am not so sure he has the tools.

If you look at the U23 results, they step up to ODist and the winner was faster than him for TWICE THE DISTANCE. Everybody's swim splits were faster, everybody's transition times were faster, everybody's bike speeds were about the same or a little slower, and the run speeds were about the same ... but this was for twice the distance!!

Also, the competition is keener. 20th place in U23 was 2:41 behind the winner, whereas 20th place in Juniors was 1:37 behind first ... for HALF the distance.

5) How can he represent the US in a World Championship if he is not a citizen? I don't care that he did, I am not being a jingoist, I am just wondering? Is this a triathlon thing? All he has that anyone from any other nation does not is a green card and residency status? If someone else moves to Boulder to train and tells the powers-that-be that they intend to become a citizen,(thus increasing their marketability once they do) can they just run in any nation's uniform?

This is strange.

He chose tri because he is a coward. This chump was "discouraged" because he realized that there are other talented people out there who he would need to actually work to beat. Guess what? When he starts competing against real tri-athletes he is going to get beat down. What then? Will he quit being 19 and go back to being 18 so he can dominate juniors?