So Nico just magically starts losing to Nike teammates right when Mike Smith is paid by Nike? Not suspicious at all…

You’re the one who needs to calm down. No one is denying Nico’s talent or that Parker is legit. The issue everyone keeps pointing out is structural, not emotional. If this turns into a pattern where Nico is consistently getting beat by his Nike training partners, then yes, it absolutely becomes a problem that a Nike paid coach is dictating the training. That’s not conspiracy, that’s common sense. And honestly, it’s exactly odd to set up an Adidas athlete to be the star test dummy inside a Nike group, that makes zero sense from a business or competitive standpoint. A coach’s job and incentives are to maximize the performance of the athletes who sign his paycheck. If Nico starts being used as a high level rabbit and benchmark for Nike athletes, that’s helping Nike more than it helps him. Training together can lift both guys in theory, but when conflicts of interest show up in race results over time, it’s no longer fun watching it unfold. Then it’s just bad business for Nico.

Why wouldn’t the goal be “just to qualify” if it’s generally just a qualifying race, similar to the Olympic Trials?

I was actually at the Portland race, and anyone saying Nico was just “just to qualify” wasn’t watching closely. That took everything he had. You don’t let a guy like Parker Wolfe just roll you like that if you’ve got another gear and the race truly doesn’t matter. Nico is one of the fiercest competitors in the sport, there’s zero chance he consciously decided to concede that kind of gap just for fun. If he had more, he would’ve gone with it.

One thing is absolutely clear, whoever green-lit Mike Smith coaching an Adidas athlete while being a paid Nike coach is thrilled with how this is playing out. From Nike’s perspective, this is the dream setup. Nico is training inside a Nike ecosystem, pushing Nike athletes, elevating Nike workouts, and taking risks that directly benefit the swoosh, while wearing three stripes. That’s not a neutral arrangement. That’s strategic leverage. And right now, Nico is sitting exactly where Nike would want a rival brand’s top guy to be.

Why do you keep changing usernames and posting the same thing?

So we’re just gonna pretend he didn’t have a long year and probably isn’t hitting it hard rn? Him and Graham both. What is wrong with you guys?

Absolutely insane that people can’t think like this.

Nike will be Nike

It’s crazy to me that this arrangement even exists. No matter how you slice it, this setup helps Nike more than anyone else. If he and Adidas are cool with it, that’s their call, I just don’t see how this is some neutral situation.

For some posters, it's part of their aesthetic.

Yea, and it’s not like Nico finished a long season capped by a WC appearance a few months ago. Even if that were the case he surely would not take a break knowing he had this important race coming up. He would have powered through and not let a mere college athlete (still in peak form) dictate the pace. He has message board fans, after all, to please. Clearly there is a conspiracy going on, or Nico has just lost it. He’s past his prime and done. There is no other logical explanation.

I think you’re a Nico fan as are many. But you’re missing the point of the thread. It’s a Pro Nico thread and 99% know he’s better than Saturday.

At the end of the day, who really cares.

Coach is getting paid, his Nike and Adidas athletes are making teams.

If Nico had a problem with this Nike 'setup', don't you think he'd go elsewhere to be trained and coached?

There is literally a Letsrun interview video of Blanks saying exactly this - he'd only been back running for less than two months with some early cycle hiccups, and that it would be unreasonable and unrealistic to think other talented folks who were winding up to this race wouldn't have his number in this situation. Nico is surely in the same boat, and likely has a similar perspective.

Do y'all not understand how training cycles work? Or how collaborative training groups operate?

Maybe there's a conversation to be had about how the non-Nike-athlete grandfather clause with Smith will ultimately impact Nico's (and Grijalva's) contract situation, but the rest of this conversation, especially the idea that Smith would be shafting and de-prioritizing Nico and Nico would just stay in that coaching situation, is just knee-jerk, idiotic nonsense.