Tell me how I'm wrong: Keira D'Amato's record is the coolest story in the sport this century

ga ga gai pan wrote:

Meb, Molly Seidel, Athing Mu have stories every bit if not more compelling. Why do brojos hype stuff the way they do? Can anyone explain?

That said, kudos to Keira! Outstanding run today.

Look. It takes massive talent to set an American record but the point of Weldon's post is simply to say this is the most unlikely AR in a long damn time. When Kentucky wins the NCAA title in basketball, it's not a shock. When Butler does, it is (Yes I know they didn't do it).

Meb and Seidel and Mu were literally teenage and NCAA SUPERSTARS. Some of the best ever seen. They all got pro contracts out of college. D'Amato - while 5th at NCAA xc - was 9th in the NCAA 5k her senior year- the only year i think she made it.

Meb - national runnerup in HS, collegiate superstar, signs with nike out o f college, breaks AR in 10k and then has great succaess.

Molly Seidel - HS national champ, NCAA national champ,

MU - won USA indoors in HS.

Keira D'Amato - doesn't break 4:20 of 16:00 in college. Quits sport for 7 years. Has two kids. Has a full-time job, no shoe contract. Comes back anyways. Ends up being way better than she ever was. Breaks AR.

Plus she's coached by Scott Raczko - a guy who was shat upon non-stop for 'ruining' Webb even though Alan Webb ran HS and US mile records for him.

-Rojo

PS. And of course it doesn't happen without the shoes.

Leicester City winning the EPL in 2015-2016 season was 1000x a better rags to riches story than this.

Sorry Gault and Wejo...it's not even close.

wejo wrote:

I just called Jon Gault with the statement above and he said maybe this decade.To prove me wrong, you must post a better rags to riches story.Dreams do become reality.Meb winning Boston was pretty cool but he was already was an Olympic silver medalist.

Ok, two things going on here:

1) Title says "coolest" which is very subjective. Her AR is cool, but I'd argue there are other athletes who have done things as cool or cooler. Athing Mu would be in that group. Jake Riley making the Olympic team is pretty damn cool. Brian Sell, same deal. I'd say Ryan Hall's Half Marathon AR was pretty damn cool.

2) Your post mentioned rags to riches. Understanding that this means rags to riches as far as running goes (not monetary wealth), it is difficult to think of another runner this century who has a story that fits this bill better than her.

rojo wrote:

ga ga gai pan wrote:

Meb, Molly Seidel, Athing Mu have stories every bit if not more compelling. Why do brojos hype stuff the way they do? Can anyone explain?

That said, kudos to Keira! Outstanding run today.

God people are stupid.

Yeah, YOU

Jesus Christ

Stupid MF

Time and time again I ask myself, wtf is wrong with a Rojo? The world may never know

(1) Peope are stupid (with a plea to God) if they don’t think she’s the coolest or best rags to riches (which one is it?) story of the century. (Oh now it’s just cool AR accords to your post and all who say she ISNT the best rags to riches story of this century is suddenly disagreeing with this premise)

(2) oh cool she took time off and is a mom. You’re basically rewarding her bc she’s the same age as your wife

(3) who is “everyone” sh*ttong on Raczko? You mean random anonymous posters on your website? Wow

(4) no one said it didn’t take massive talent to break an AR. Good job setting up a straw man just to knock it down

(5) Athing Mu came from nothing and she won TWO Olympic Golds by the time she’s 19. Oh but she’s not a white mom

(6) God people are stupid (talking about you)

Okay, she has the coolest story this century of women this century who struggled to break 16 in college but went on to get a prestigious national record.

any good african distance runner is a better rags to riches story. first it fits monetarily. if you are born american you are already rich. secondly it fits better timewise because many new african runners run faster than this american record when they first come onto the scene. of course the only reason it will not fit is that americans care only about americans.

Going from nowhere to world beater in record time:

Donald Thomas: a random amateur basketball player at an NAIA school to high jump world champion in one year

Dennis Kimetto: farmer turned world class runner, winning races within a couple of years. Best marathoner in the world 5 years later.

Jenn Suhr, a star basketball player at an NAIA school catches the eye of a pole vault coach. 10 months later she wins a USATF title. Later wind Olympic silver and then gold in 2012.

Maybe we need more non-D1 basketball players to try track and field events (I assume that if basketball was important in Kenya, Kimetto would have been an above average talent…)

Brooks go home devastated

So, the greatest story here, and on other threads you encourage people to say it's all because of doping. Makes sense.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Rags to riches, Wejo??

She grew up in Fairfax County, VA. Went to Oakton High School.

This is hardly "rags".

Fairfax County is the 2nd highest per capita and family income in Virginia. Their school system is one of the nation's best and Oakton high school is at top of the high schools in Fairfax County.

What the hell is wrong with these boards (boreds?). Wejo was not using the term "rags to riches" in a literal sense: his reference has nothing to do with Keira's economic upbringing. Wejo was clearly using the phrase in a figurative and athletic sense, referring to an athlete who was OUT OF THE SPORT 8 years ago, whose prior running accomplishments were relatively "poor" compared to the "riches" of her contemporaries (accomplished NCAA and pro athletes), and who has shot to stardom with incredible and nearly incomprehensible recent PRs (figurative "riches") . Compared to other examples being bandied about here like Meb (who was very decorated as a hs, NCAA, and pro runner) or even Seidel (complete stud of a hs and NCAA runner), Keira's prior running accomplishments were marginal at best (although NCAA 6th is obviously very solid). Having said that, Seidel's comeback story is up there as well.

The overall IQ of these message boards, with particular emphasis on reading and context comprehension, and is astonishingly low. Not that this is news, but gatdam!

Congrats on the stellar run, Keira- a true inspiration.

Makes Paper wrote:

So, the greatest story here, and on other threads you encourage people to say it's all because of doping. Makes sense.

Do you have even one scintilla of evidence to back up your doping accusation? Of course not.

2:19:12 is very fast, but let's remember the super shoe effect. If the shoes do indeed boost at about 4%, that converts Keira's run to about 2:24:46, which is not so unbelievable as to warrant a "she's clearly doping!" accusation. Let's recall Joan Benoit ran 2:21: 21 in 1985 clean. There is nothing automatically suspicious about what equates to a 2:23 or 2:24 marathon in this day and age.

On top of all that her father in law ran for the University of Houston in the 70's. He from New York. He ran the half and mile.

How is any AR the story of even the decade in track? Unless it's a major flat sprint WR, which American sprinters have lost most of and have little hope of retrieving any time soon. Flo Jo is the last. Americans are slow.

The cool thing about this story is it happened in free lone star state of Texas. No jabs, no face diapers, just straight up sports.

The shoes shouldn't be a "ps." they should be in the opening paragraph of any article about the race results.

If a "world best" was set on a downhill course or a race day with a strong tailwind it would be in that opening paragraph.

2:3x women are now 2:2x in Alphaflys

2:2x women are now 2:1x in Alphaflys

Remember Sarah Vaughn at CIM 2021 and how excited everyone got at her 2:26 debut?

Go look again at what shoes she was wearing. Pre-2016 she would have maybe been 2:32-2:36

Look I get it, the shoes are here to stay and IAAF has rolled out the red carpet for Nike to make newer and newer shoes that use as many mechanical tricks as possible so it's only going to get worse.

At some point Nike is going to replace pebax with something 10% or even 50% better and there will be another leap in WR/AR/CR/PRs

We all need to stop comparing pre-2016 results to post-2016 results.

It's easy to predict after 2024 it will take a sub2:20 performance for an American woman to be on top 10 national list.

NO ONE SAID she didn’t run a great time, she deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that.

What’s weird, and actually irresponsible, is LetsRun’s insistence that, not only is she the best running story IN THE WORLD this century, but that if you don’t think that, then you are stupid and unappreciative of her and her performance.

This is a false choice that Weldon and Robert created. This is not actually representative of the facts at all.

just asking questions like a porn star wrote:

NO ONE SAID she didn’t run a great time, she deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that.

What’s weird, and actually irresponsible, is LetsRun’s insistence that, not only is she the best running story IN THE WORLD this century, but that if you don’t think that, then you are stupid and unappreciative of her and her performance.

This is a false choice that Weldon and Robert created. This is not actually representative of the facts at all.

Classic Brojos!

Stating the obvious 2022 wrote:

just asking questions like a porn star wrote:

NO ONE SAID she didn’t run a great time, she deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that.

What’s weird, and actually irresponsible, is LetsRun’s insistence that, not only is she the best running story IN THE WORLD this century, but that if you don’t think that, then you are stupid and unappreciative of her and her performance.

This is a false choice that Weldon and Robert created. This is not actually representative of the facts at all.

Classic Brojos!

Right? What is wrong with them?

They’re actually undermining her performance by creating this false choice.

They could have said congratulations or could have done the WORK to prove their opinion why her performance ia the best running performance of the century.

Instead, they just say “beat performance of the century” and DEMAND people them wrong

THEN, when people prove them wrong, they respond “god you’re stupid” and claim that by not agreeing with them that this is criticism of Keira.

What?

Master Of Lolly wrote:

ATHING MU - double olympic champion.

One of 7 children of South Sudanese immigrant family with very limited income.

That's pretty much the coolest thing that has ever happen in USAs Track & Field.

ding ding ding

winner, but w(hit)ejo won't acknowledge for obvious reasons.