I HIGHY HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt that Mu isn't lazy. This is a woman who won Olympic gold at 19. Obviously, we don't know the innerworkings of her and Kersee, but I put the blame on Kersee. He's not an 800 coach. He's one of the most famous sprint coaches in history.
What does that have to do with the 800? And what's crazy is he doesn't let her run the 400.
It's time for her to find a new coach.
I talked about it on the podcast last night. We give runners mental attributes like "tough, weak, etc" that they so often don't deserve. When people are in shape, they are normally ferocious competitors naturally.
Mu seems to be in a good head space mentally right now. She's just running horribly. I blame that on coaching, not motivation.
Of course, she's not the only 800 star struggling right now. Moraa is racing all the time but can'tconsistently break 2:00 (2 out of 7 800s in 2025) and Keelyy is hurt.
But I break down the leading candidates to replace Kersee here:
Mu is EXTREMELY lazy. She doesn't like running anymore. That's why Kersee doesn't let Mu train with Syd - because he doesn't want Mu's cr*ppy attitude to affect Syd.
All of those coaches would REJECT Mu. Her attitude is toxic for a team.
Mu jogged the last 100m of her race yesterday. She doesn't have the fire anymore.
Respectfully, who are you to say she is lazy and making judgements about her attitude? Making a lot of assumptions it seems. Do you train with her? Watch practice everyday? You give the impression of being very bitter and jealous of her for whatever reason.
That said, she does need a coaching change. I think she misses having teammates to train with and not being “allowed” to run the 400 anymore. That’s just ridiculous and also takes away opportunities to compete in the 4x4 in championships.
Everybody is acting like the 1:54 was a positive development. That is ridiculous, if you remember how it played out, the situational influence. I warned about it on numerous sites and especially on the now-defunct Track and Field News forum.
Mu was subpar at world championships that year. She wasn't in shape to run from the front, per norm. That stylistic change caused her to nearly get tripped out of the race in the semifinal, forcing a huge rally to advance.
Then she was beaten by both Moraa and Keely in the final.
That was her the first significant defeat of her career. Mu was shocked and she continued to race only because the Diamond League finals were in Eugene. Mid September. The four weeks between events gave her enough time to motivate and train.
That's where she ran the 1:54. Immediately I recognized the danger. Mu would rationalize she could do the same thing in the future. Just show up at trials in half ass shape, squeeze onto the team, then cram like hell for a month.
Just like a lazy college student pulling an all nighter before finals. Mu attempted that last year. She was in perhaps 1:57 shape in Eugene. We know what happened. This time in a non-Olympic year she planned to cram again toward Tokyo but even without getting tripped she was more lazy and not close to 1:57 shape at trials.
i have never seen any coach in any sport remain with a number one athlete or team for more than a season with that horrendous track record.
just repeat the training from the prior coach where she became olympic champion.
It's not that simple. What happens when the athlete doesn't go to practice?
Unlike team sports where the coach is the boss of the athletes, in track the athlete is the boss of the coach.
In team sports if an athlete doesn't go to practice, the team can dock their pay. Kersee doesn't pay Mu anything so he can't dock her pay.
The only thing Kersee has the power to do is quit, which he doesn't want to do because he's only coaching 2 athletes so his pay would get cut in half.
You guys keep claiming that Kersee is an incompetent coach when the real problem, as Athing herself has admitted, is that her heart is not into being a pro athlete.
Do we actually know that she is skipping training?
Without actually knowing what she's doing, it's all a guessing game.
This is what I would like to know. What proof does anyone have of any of this? Just sounds like people trolling or have some kind of agenda or jealousy toward her.
"Not sure yet. I mean, there's still European races, of course, so if we want, we'll go out to Europe and race a bit more just to kind of finish off the season however we want,” Athing Mu-Nikolayev said as per Citius Mag.
First of all, there are not that many European races left. The season is over by the end of August. In the month of August in Europe, there are:
Diamond League - 3 (DL will not waste a spot on a 2:00 runner) Gold - 1 Silver - 4 Bronze - 7 Challenger - 11
In September, there is only one Challenger meet.
Many of these meets will not even have an 800m. She doesn't have the luxury of going home and taking her time to decide what to do; so she needs to go NOW.
Secondly, will Kersee even let her run in Europe? Other than World Champs or Olympics, she has run two races outside the US since 2019 - one in Puerto Rico and one in Rome.
Whatever she said in an interview, the bottom line is her 2025 season is done. We can expect to see her next jogging a 5K in a community college meet in LA next May, "practicing how to run in a pack."
Everybody is acting like the 1:54 was a positive development. That is ridiculous, if you remember how it played out, the situational influence. I warned about it on numerous sites and especially on the now-defunct Track and Field News forum.
Mu was subpar at world championships that year. She wasn't in shape to run from the front, per norm. That stylistic change caused her to nearly get tripped out of the race in the semifinal, forcing a huge rally to advance.
Then she was beaten by both Moraa and Keely in the final.
That was her the first significant defeat of her career. Mu was shocked and she continued to race only because the Diamond League finals were in Eugene. Mid September. The four weeks between events gave her enough time to motivate and train.
That's where she ran the 1:54. Immediately I recognized the danger. Mu would rationalize she could do the same thing in the future. Just show up at trials in half ass shape, squeeze onto the team, then cram like hell for a month.
Just like a lazy college student pulling an all nighter before finals. Mu attempted that last year. She was in perhaps 1:57 shape in Eugene. We know what happened. This time in a non-Olympic year she planned to cram again toward Tokyo but even without getting tripped she was more lazy and not close to 1:57 shape at trials.
Not sure all the details of 2023, though it should be noted that she had a bye in the 800 for the WC and actually made the team in the 1500 with a 4:03 barely losing to Hiltz at USA’s. That’s a pretty good result for someone who is more of a 400/800 runner. Doesn’t seem lazy. That’s a coaching issue as she should have been running 400’s to prepare for the 800 like she did in college.
As for 2024, it has been widely discussed that she had a significant hamstring injury that affected her training and just couldn’t get fit in time. Injured, not fit, bad race tactics, all true, but lazy? Really??
Can I say it? She looks completely checked out. Like she’s going through the motions. I don’t see any frustration at all. Which of if I was her and had won everything I might fulfill my contract with minimum effort. Based on body language I would say it’s more her and less Bobby.
I tend to agree. I think with her it's more mental. She's married as well, which may mean she doesn't care that much.
In the article @rojo includes Trevor Painter but not his wife Jenny Meadows who also coaches M11 track club. Was Trevor Jenny's coach too and why she isn't considered on the same level for potentially coaching Mu?
Secondly, will Kersee even let her run in Europe? Other than World Champs or Olympics, she has run two races outside the US since 2019 - one in Puerto Rico and one in Rome.
Worse is she's really only run one race outside the US since 2019 - Puerto Rico is considered INSIDE the US.
Past precedent would indicate she's highly unlikely to head to Europe to finish off the season.
"Not sure yet. I mean, there's still European races, of course, so if we want, we'll go out to Europe and race a bit more just to kind of finish off the season however we want,” Athing Mu-Nikolayev said as per Citius Mag.
"If we want we'll go out to Europe"? That's a bunch of BS. She doesn't want to go to Europe and Kersee doesn't want her to go to Europe either.
All Kersee cares about right now is trying to coach Sydney to gold in the World Championship 400. Flying around Europe to try to get Athing's SB down to 1:58 is the last thing he wants to do.
I don't think coaches like Kersee look forward to the prospect of European travel - personally or for their athletes. Passing through customs is a risk when you may be carrying pharmaceutical products that could at the very least trigger a hassle. In some countries, all it takes is a tip from an anonymous source to give law enforcement a reason to search your hotel or lodging.
Maybe becoming a huge star so early combined with an insane amount of pressure messed with her head. Maybe getting an injury on top of that compounded things. Maybe falling in the trials was freaking traumatic. Maybe Bobby didn’t even have her run those easy goofy races; maybe it was a psychologist who came up with the plan because her head was so jacked and she needed even the most basic exposure therapy at that point. It’s like hierarchy of needs stuff. I’m not convinced the coach is terrible but the way both she and Sidney talk about him all the time in interviews always struck me as weird.