Because Shelby's ban was so public we followed her actions more closely. Here's a brief time capsule of her ban
1. The Press Conference: weepy, defiant, angry. Shelby, Shalane, Jerry but now in a different light. The press conference was hook line and all the journalists in there believed she was wrongfully charged. Followed by all the posts from her teammates. Led to ridiculous uncritical musings like this:
https://x.com/laurenfleshman/status/1404613163992059904
https://x.com/laurenfleshman/status/1404613165401264131
Her posts of course reek of bias. "I know Jerry sooo can't have cheated." "I'm devastated for Shelby" why? And why not for anyone else?
2. Shelby tried to bizarrely enter in the Olympic trials and run anyways. Everyone who was silent finally had to poke their heads out and acknowledge how ridiculous this was, especially those who made a career speaking up for clean sport. That's when the tide really started changing.
https://x.com/karagoucher/status/1405567103516643331
3. There was a lot of anger when the full report came out. Firstly, the report took months to be available to the public and when it was it fully revealed how stupid and flimsy her burrito excuse was. And what made everyone even more angry was that the whole of running media seemed to accept it as legitimate at first and wasn't really doing a lot to walk it back. Here's Erin Strout, a staunch supporter of Shelby's piece on the 40 page report. In it she'll lean heavy on Shelby's "character" not on how clearly bogus the excuse was, which was, well frankly, the story.
4. The GoFundMe. The media must have kept Shelby in the dark as to just how much she lost the community because starting a gofundme for 300K to pay her lawyer fees when it was becoming more and more clear she was guilty af was a bold choice. By now Twoggle had made an appearance, an anonymous source that really only seemed to make her story less plausible+ rumors she was continuing to hang around BTC. At this point, people had pulled up her suspicious progression, and it felt verryyyy audacious for her to be asking for money around the holidays.
5. The GDS debacle. I'll admit I wasn't crazy about Gabriela Debues Stafford before, but after she became the only BTC runner to leave the group and speak out about Shelby, she gained my respect. Gabriela revealed just how much time Shelby was spending with the group, which seemed like all the time, and also seemed like a violation of her ban. GDS, a runner still competing chose to leave the group which seemed crazy unfair. And also further stoked the flames. Again, the audacity.
6. The Publicity Tour: it seemed like Shelby was publishing another article, another podcast about her plight every month and often during championship races. Her first podcast with that kid was a debacle. Using a naive kid's uncritical platform to lament about her ban and the injustice of it all, once again seemed beneath most people to do. But what was worse was that she kept claiming injustice and claiming anti doping was unfair but could never articulate how. It just seemed like someone who had never experienced being in trouble and understanding that's how consequences work.