Do you consider Fiona O'Keeffe an Olympian?

I'm with the Brits and others who don't bother with the label 'Olympian' and instead just say, "I'm going to the Olympics". Inane and pointless debates like this are what result from the former.

People are low level pathetic on here. This is why this thread should be taken down. We want her to be in a depression or what is the goal here? She hasn't gone through enough lets really put the boots to her! The moderators just took a full break and do nothing about this thread and they are probably contributing it to them because they are small people too.

Maybe her sponsors do. I consider her a quitter and a usurper.

I consider her to be a turnip. Therefore she must be a turnip.

Seriously, she went to the Olympics and started a race. Unless you are going to make up some definition with subparagraphs and footnotes, she's an "Olympian" in any normal sense of the word.

You sound like a desperate agent trying damage control.

Okeeffe made a horrific mistake in letting the deadline pass & not being able to run one mile. Had she gone 4 or 5 miles with the competition all would be forgiven. This reflects very poorly on her character and that is a critical component of marketability. Ask Puma!

Before this incident I had no idea how the olympic marathon worked. I did not know that an injured athlete could insist on starting just to get a title. The whole concept of having an alternate left me assuming that someone that was injured to that degree would for sure step back and let the alternate run. Being an olympic marathon team alternate seems like a raw deal. They have to train and be ready to run that marathon, but also understand that if one of the original 3 qualifiers wants to just start the race and pi$$ away the opportunity because they feel entitled to it the alternate has to just accept that. That seems like a terrible deal.

Learning how this really works has left be a lot less excited about the olympic marathon. I don't even care who qualifies in the future knowing that so many of the athletes feel no obligation to fulfill the commitment to ensure that the US has a viable competitor in that spot. Qualifying in the trials I guess just mean these are the people who will at least start the race and be called olympians. What does that even mean?

Is there no past tense in England?

HahHah!

What's laughable is that YOU"RE NOT AN OLYMPIAN!!!

Can you write a more confusing post? Once becoming an Olympian, you in fact DO have more status, a super power? No, of course, not. Does it change you as a person? Absolutely it does. You've achieved something that many people in the world have not and will not. Can't help but to think this type of achievement would boost one's confidence and self-esteem thus leading to achieving more of the same.

This can't be an athlete's decision. Athletes are incapable of objective decisions about whether they are good to go. I can't make an objective decision about whether I am healthy enough to start a local half marathon vs lose the entry fee. How many team sport players would just take themselves out of a game if they felt about 80percent ready to go? Luckily they have a coach to make that call.

We should shame the sponsors and USATF. Remember when everyone shamed Nike for reducing Allyson Felix after she got pregnant? We should shame Puma for forcing a woman to risk her health to collect a bonus. We should ask USATF to set clear standards for when an alternate takes over and make them enforce those standards.

She’s an Olympian with an asterisk

she’s an Olympian who will forever be embarrassed when she calls herself that

she’s An Olympian who lied to fans and the American public

so yeah, I guess she’s an Olympian…

Reminds me of a now-deleted post from Micah Williams, alternate at the 2021 Tokyo 4x1 who didn't end up running, in which he wrote that he is an Olympian despite not running in the Olympics. Sure, buddy.

Fiona for sure is.

She made the U.S. Olympic team. So of course she's an Olympian (and so was Nuguse in 2021).

Yes.

& I think this is a huge part of the problem. The US has had a pattern of marathoners doing this so that they can call themselves Olympians. I consider anybody top-3 at the Trials as having earned their spot on Team USA. If sponsors & individual athletes didn't think like this someone else could have had their Olympic dream realized. She could drop out & still be a part of the marathon team. Go to Paris. Share your course insights with the other athletes. Cheer them on. Take some photos for social media.

How many Olympians did we have in the women's 5k? Five women made the team.

Would you be considered a marathoner if you stepped off the course after a mile?

There's your answer

Second question: "Oh how did you do?"

"Well I made it about 3% of the way through the race before I dropped out"

How hurt do you have to be to not even make it to the first chip timing mat even if you are jogging an 8min mile pace? I seriously hope this impacts all of her future potential appearance fees for any majors she does. Realistically anything she got for starting this race she may have lost just in appearance fees going forward. What a stupid decision.

Being an Olympian and being a disgrace are not mutually exclusive.

She is both.

The funniest troll move ever would be if she got an Olympic Rings tattoo.

Yes there is the mob in action and most of the mob secretly wish they could unleash their primitive urges without consequences so here many of them do so and they receive corroboration from other essentially unthinking sheep and this is rewarding for them. They do not care about who they lynch as long as there is a lynching.

No, no, no. They are not the same.