That Webb article is a breach of professional decorum.

There's nothing wrong with sharing some self-doubt in an interview, but Webb was just going on and on and on about it. He crossed the line from frustrated to wallowing in his own mess.

The Emory Mort piece was worse though. While it did provide some interesting context for the interview (workouts etc), most of it was pure gossip. Simply put, they are sharing negative information about someone else in order to gain personal attention. Webb blew up, had a meltdown, tantrum, whatever. It was not his finest moment. Why do the Brojos think it's their place to shame him for it? Webb's agent was right there. Let him and AlSal handle it.

TMZ !!! TMZ !!! It sells !!!

Thanks for the article. In the context of everything else we know about Alan it gave us some good insight into who he is and the challenges he faces in putting it all together in a championship setting. I say this as a former "Pro" (though never anywhere near as good as Webb), and I probably have a better idea of what it take to preform consistently at a high level and the pressure involved, than most of the contributors to this thread.

Having said that, the article probably could have been improved by being more sympathetic. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The Webb article is petty, immature, and unprofessional. I don't get it.

I agree with your second paragraph. The whole episode--including the initial freakout, the interval and tempo workouts that followed, and the interview--have given me even more respect for Webb than I had previously. He's a high strung thoroughbred. So what? He lost his cool and showed his passion. Great! He didn't beat up anybody. He didn't mutilate himself, or pull a Charlie Sheen. He took all that frustration, all that passion, and ran a long, hard workout, rather than crawling off and whining "I quit!" GOOD FOR HIM.

He's a good man and a great runner and he'll figure it all out.

I agree with what WeJo said earlier. It's important that we don't only ever read sanitized, corporatized, anodyne and ultimately worthless literature about track and in this respect LR performs a very useful function.

This intense focus on Webb and his actions exists for one reason. He is - still - the greatest US track talent at any distance over 400m. Almost everyone reading this thread and WeJo's coverage agrees with this, and they demonstrate so by their actions including participating here.

Webb may not have covered himself in glory but he did nothing egregious. People - athletes - are not automatons. Even Valeri Borzov stated so.

Webb has a chance, however small, to win an Olympic mid-D gold medal. Most likely at 5k if he realizes this or not. Anyway, everyone else in that Boston race, or in these conversations, does not. That may be unfair, perhaps, but the comparative volume of coverage of Webb vs the rest tells us this.

I'm not saying his response was an impressive demonstration of self-control. But really, who are we to judge him? He knows the weight of expectations. He's very dissatisfied with that run and that's good, he's fired up to do better.

It's certainly possible he might do better in the long run if he could channel and direct his emotions, mastering his own responses to these situations and analyze carefully what went wrong, and probably into mediating his training program with his coach if he has that much doubt in it. But none of this can be done trackside after a disappointing performance like this.

I think he would do better to be advised by someone like Sebastian Coe, a proven multiple Olympic champion with a set of PRs at shorter distances very similar to Webb, or Said Aouita, the same but with a focus on the longer distances. Salazar ran some good marathon and 10k races. BUT. What does Salazar know of a 3:46 mile, or especially a 1:43 800? What does Salazar know about Olympic and World Championship success?

Let's give Webb a break. Webb's talent deserves to be maximized. None of us - importantly, including Webb himself - think he's accomplished that yet. Some of us still think his 3:53 HS mile is his current career moment. But we hope that won't be how he ends his career. He hopes so too.

Just saw the video of Webb and Flynn talking. I like how the people of letsrun are pretending to scope the area around but really have the intent of filming him. I mean...filming him while he is running or as he is consenting to an interview...but THIS??? Sad. Gossip at its finest. Just about as bad as the paparazzi.

I haven't read through the thread but just thought I'd share my opinion. I actually laughed at first because I thought the article was satire. After clicking on it and seeing it was actually intended to be a legitimate editorial, I felt embarrassed for the authors and for the brojos. As someone who's been a frequent visitor of this site for about 5 years, I've seen the brojos do and say a lot of stupid things and put a lot of stupid stuff on their site, but this is utterly ridiculous. You guys (the brojos) need to pull your heads out of your asses for once and try to be professional, try to run a quality site. Good f***ing god. I've known 12 year-olds with more integrity.

I'd like to read about Russell Brown

The Answer My Friend wrote:

I'd like to read about Russell Brown

QFE his interview on Flotrack was one of the best I've seen in a long time. Loved it.

This thread is starting to remind me of the Jimmy Wyner Heps thread. Where was #'s outrage at that display?

To those defending WEJO:

Yes, I agree that they are ALLOWED to write this stuff. Webb is a professional athlete and a very public figure. Still, a big part of journalism is the ethical question of when someone is on or off record... and whether you are the type of news organization that wants to have relationships with informants/public figures or just want to snoop around giving paparazzi type updates on their every movement. No other respectable news organization would give a play by play of everything a person said while they were having a personal moment after a race. its fine to say he had an outburst, but somehow directly quoting things he said under his breath even starts to misrepresent him. Even if he said those things, because letsrun framed it in a mocking way, it didn't capture the real moment. it took it out of context and made it seem childish.

With that point, I know i just said most journalists wouldnt report this but if someone were taking a risk, with a little more respect and senstivity maybe another journalist might have actually been able to capture the essence of webb after the race.

I have felt like webb after that race, and i could totally relate to him. i'm not a writer but i think someone putting himself more in webb's shoes, could have even used the exact same Webb quotes as wejo and created an "eye of the tiger" moving article. chris lear has done respectful work with athletes in rough times for instance.

The article was one of the best things written on the site. It gives us details and insights into athletes from beyond the track, and I appreciate that.

I don't think the article kicks him while he's down, rather it just reports the facts of what he did.

Bravo, Wejo for posting such an article. I'd love to hear more stories from people who have good days and bad days.

... Personally I think articles like this humanize athletes more. I think everyone who has ever raced competitively has felt like what Alan has before. Don't tell me that nobody else in this thread has thrown a "tantrum" after a poor race. We all know and hope that Alan would be a bit too mature for such a thing, but it's what gives him his character for sure.

I kep asking myself, a breach of professional decorum with whom? Was their a formal complaint filed by the other athletes? Do they care he was angry?

wejo wrote:

A hard part of the article was choosing what words to use. "Meltdown" and "tantrum" were discussed along with others. I felt "meltdown" was more judgmental but you could argue their is judgment in both. Perhaps we could do a better job in putting in words what actually happened. In talking to Emory, he was so stunned by what he saw, that it was his #1 story from the meet. That may not come across in the article but I think we did a good job with a very difficult subject matter that we spent a lot of time trying to get right.

It's pretty clear from the overwhelming response in this thread that the focus on Webb's disappointment and the actual phrasing in the article make it unpleasant to read and in poor taste.

The stuff you wrote in your post that I've omitted, defending the article, make it sound like the article itself contained more depth than just "My god! Webb is angry! Acting like a teenager! Holy crap! Look at him! What a spectacle!"

If Emory had included what you wrote above, then the article would make a little more sense. Right now, it doesn't, and doesn't include the context that you hoped it would, and isn't a respectful tone, and isn't worth reading or having on your website.

Read through this actual thread and you'll only find a few people saying that they think it should remain as-is...it's pretty rare you find that level of consensus here. Please take a moment to understand what that means - and acknowledge that regardless of whether you and Emory think the article works, a very large number of people disagree with you. They happen to constitute the community that makes Letsrun what it is.

Good art wrote:

Weldon,

Would you agree that the headline stating that Web had a "tantrum", influences, or biases your audience before each person in this group gets the chance to arrive at that judgment independently, based on the details in the report or from the interview itself.

After reading the headline, I was expecting something more provocative than Alan's behavior actually revealed. I just saw a guy who was really down on the race and down on himself and nothing more.

It may have been difficult putting into words the essence you were trying to communicate in the headline and in the report, but I and I sense many others read it with a pejorative overtone even if this was not your intent.

Mike

As for the headline we thought of that quite a bit.

Webster's defines tantrum as, "a fit of bad temper".

This definitely fell into that category. I just communicated with Tom Davis and Emory Mort who both witnessed the entire thing and they both stood behind the word tantrum and the need to report what they saw. We did not do this on a whim.

I just emailed Emory about it and he wrote back, "He did throw a tantrum, it happened, we were there and witnessed it, we spent a lot of time trying to report accurately what happened." and feels no need to change the headline.

As for your comment, "I just saw a guy who was really down on the race and down on himself and nothing more. " If that's all you take from the article we did not do a good job of conveying what happened.

The interview was an hour after Webb's "tantrum". Webb is just upset in the interview.

I just called Tom Davis who witnessed the entire thing.

Tom said, Webb was "incredibly over the top, immature". "Embarrassing", "Unacceptable". He had stronger language at times but we'll have Tom on the show this week so you can hear from him.

Tom said 3 reasonable adults saw Webb's entire behavior after the race and felt it was so above the norm it should be reported.

Tom said, "(webb) can't act like this."

He added "we're not out to embarrass Alan Webb. He embarrassed himself".

Tom noted Alan Webb is one of his favorite athletes as a fan.

Yes it would have been much, mmuch easier not to report any of this. But we felt Webb's behavior rose to such a standard it had to be reported. His competitiveness is legendary but this crossed a line. Doesn't mean Alan Webb is a bad person. We all make mistakes. Hopefully, Ray or Alberto talks to him about it and he emerges a better athlete.

I agree, it must be very frustrating to have put in so much work over the fall and take a couple big steps back. However, when I watch the interview and read the quotes it appears to me as though Webb is simply immature. As a mature runner at the age of 28 it seems shocking he has learned to be more patient?? Just seems childish to me. Impulsive, arrogant, and impatient. Some may call this being a "competitor" but I think the best athletes of all-time in any sport are wise and patient and don't throw temper tantrums

"Flynn even joked around a bit, saying during Webb's post-race workout, "You guys should get his splits, he's running faster than he did in the race."

If this site is supposedly about educating young runners, why wouldn't you get his splits and report them instead of just focusing on what you thought would make a more sensationalised article? Shouldn't we be interested in how some of our finest athletes are training (even post race?)

"Webb mentioned in our interview later that he did "4:32 x 2" and we have not yet confirmed if that was a planned or unplanned workout."

I would love to hear the phone conversation of you guys asking AlSal about this( If he'd even speak to you after the embarassing Edinburgh interview). -that could be a classic unreturned voicemail that I hope everyone at OTC listens to over speakerphone and has a good laugh at.

Alan, there's nothing you can read about yourself on letsun that you didn't already know

wejo wrote:

Tom noted Alan Webb is one of his favorite athletes as a fan.

And let me guess, Tom's best friend is black.