Rupp Interview after 10k - LetsRun asked him about Verne Gambetta and 'innovation vs. cheating'

Can that question have been asked of Rupp? Yes, but at a better time. Rojo showed a clear lack of class and a large amount of arrogance by asking it right after the AR was set.

Second point: Did Rupp read the article? I believe he did and they must have discussed it with AlSal and others, or why else would his agent have told him to say that he HADN'T read it?

well davew...your response did not move me. Bottom line is that pro track and field is falling in popularity, there are no USA superstars and there haven't been for a long time. Tyson Gay is the closest, and then guess what - he tests positive and says a USATF official aided and abetted the doping.

For pro track to make a comeback, USATF or (let's hope) a successor organization has to clean house, get better at marketing and stop with the coddling and praising of cheaters. If they don't do that, pro t/f will suffer as it is suffering now - not enough fans, not enough money, not enough glory, not enough fair play.

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

Second point: Did Rupp read the article? I believe he did and they must have discussed it with AlSal and others, or why else would his agent have told him to say that he HADN'T read it?

Al Sal may well have read it, or glanced at it, at the least, was more than likely aware of it. Ricky Sims, or Nike officials, etc, may well have discussed it too. They may have even told athletes ahead of time "you haven't read it". That's a very different thing from Galen Rupp actually reading it. The guy has been preparing for a race, and for the season, and has been dealing with his wife getting ready to have twins. I doubt he reads much stuff like this in his downtime, and he's a fool if he does.

Get off your freaking High Horse Robert. You aren't a journalist…you are website operator. You violate every journalistic tenant out there on daily basis with this site (The worse disguising advertising content as editorial work) Asking a stupid question doesn't' realy absolve you of that.

heck you delete any thread that even hints and criticism of Letsrun. or questions Letsrun in the matter you question Rupp. if Rupp had refused to answer the question, you'd throw a hissy fit. Yet that's exactly what you guys do with certain posts. You delete them before they see a wide audience because you don't like the content.

You want to stick your nose up and try to pretend you are big boy. you aren't Grow up. asking one question is a joke.

Maxazillion wrote:

You aren't a journalist…you are website operator.

Rojo is a journalist. Most newspapers and most magazines make most of their money off of their website operations.

If Robert is a journalist, I'd like to know what clown college gave him a journalism degree.

Gambetta worked with the NOP for less than 6 months beginning in January 2005. Rupp graduated high school in June 2004. I know he was working with Alberto in January 2005, but fresh out of high school Rupp is a long ways from 2014 Rupp. I'm not saying Gambetta is irrelevant, but people should also remember this is a guy that worked with them for less than 6 months 9 years ago when Rupp was fresh out of high school. His opinions are clearly worth something, but I think the relevance to Rupp and 2014 is maybe being overstated.

You can't really have been proud of that, Rojo. You lobbed it up there so softly for him to bat away by adding the air purifier and face mask bit into it. I highly doubt Verne Gambetta would consider that cheating or innovative.

If you're going to ask a hard hitting question you can't pull punches and you can't allow Rupp to say he hasn't seen it. (You CAN hear Simms saying "you didn't see it, you didn't see it" when listening on headphones, BTW, which is his job to do so when sleazy questions are asked.)

You should have simply asked something like, "Former NOP staff, Verne Gambetta, states he left NOP because the techniques being used are so close to being illegal that he could not be a part of that. Specifically, he says on a scale where "50" is cheating, the NOP stays at 49.999. Why are you OK skating on that line that borders cheating? You must realize how easily you could lose your reputation and career by accidentally stepping over. Why don't you think this will taint your new American Record?" Something more like that.

I mean, if you want to be that guy. Me? I wouldn't be asking that. I've learned to not shake the boat.

I think it was awesome that the question was asked. Kudos to Rojo. But I think mentioning the mask was a cop out and not what Rojo really wanted to ask. The use of thyroid medication is much more a source of controversy.

HOLY SHITBALLS, I just skimmed over this topic...

DaveW, I used to just assume you were a Nike employee, now I realized you're just a really obsessed twit. You just posted like 30 times on this topic that doesn't concern you at all. Why don't you just email rojo and post his response here? Doesn't your head hurt from banging it against the wall so many times? (I"m guessing not.)

No, I bet rojo does not believe one way or the other whether Galen is cheating. This was a perfectly legitimate question for any person with a shred of skepticism to ask and Galen gave a good straightforward answer. The whole thing took 30 seconds. It does not deserve a 6-page topic.

That goes for you too, wtfunny and others. Look at how much of your life you're wasting here. I hope rojo posts here again just so you guys will stop it already, except you'll probably find something else to over-scrutinize to death.

The reason ROJO asked Rupp was because Rupp is a easy target. There are obviously a large number of "people" on Letsrun who hate Rupp so ROJO comes off as the cool guy when he attacks Rupp. I would be shocked to hear him ask those questions of Ritz or Solinsky or even Hassay. If Rojo is so concerned about the drug issue ask Hassay about it in the next interview. Of course you won't because bullies only attack those who they can get away with attacking.

Do you have the guts to leave this post up?

It was fair game to ask the question. However, Galen didn't really answer it straight up. The controversy is NOT about the superficial stuff (pollen mask and air filters) but the deeper stuff--but Galen tried to dismiss the controversy by pleading ignorance and the focused distraction of the mask and air filters. Of course, how could one not agree? The pollen is really bad in the midwest this year, too, at exactly this time. Today, I've actually been inside all day, cause for the first time in my life, I've come down with pollen allergies--throat irritated, eyes irritated, malaise and tired. But it's a meaningless agreement, since that's not where the controversy lies, imo

@wtfunny wrote:

You should start your own anti-LRC website. Will allow all comments to stand, especially those that criticize you and your opinions? Unlikely...

That was the least awkward/best interview Rupp has ever given.

The Brojo's are journalists in the same aspects Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher are journalists, in that they aren't. They provide commentary and opinions on a variety of track and field news that relies on extracting a view point from other people's work and then spinning it as having "scoops".

I can't really figure out what their business plan is with the website, which is probably why it remains a juvenile website that remains poorly coded, terribly organized, and technologically spotty (i.e. you don't have a pop up tell users your media player doesn't work with the most popular browser and how they they can get around it, you fix it or get a new one).

Regardless, the question asked of Rupp wasn't the worse question, but the timing and goal of the question were kind of in bad taste. If you've ever read any of the Brojo's other "pieces", if you can get through them, are half geared towards uncovering some "scoop" or creating a "story" that isn't really there, and then half giving themselves credit for uncovering it (i.e. Ryan Hall really won Boston For Meb), and also while they're at it, mentioning they have a million unique visitors.

The question was valid, but asking it following an American record, in the after race tent is akin to the celebrity scooping of shoving a microphone in someone's face as they leave their house in the morning trying to be the first person to get a reaction. That's not journalism, that's headline hunting.

What would be nice, is for the brojo's to actually attempt research or investigative journalism instead of using other people's work to form an opinion and then print the opinion as original work. It's silly. It's talk radio geared to keep controversy going and create news, and more importantly, keep people visiting the site (I suppose that's working, albeit, I think the message board is the sole reason people visit, not the site's content).

But my guess is, they can't get people to sit down with them to get any real meat about the controversies they cover, because they're not a news outlet that can be trusted, they're a spin shop akin to the "People Magazine" of track of track and field.

So, while the question wasn't really that big of a deal, it should just go to show you why LRC can't be taken seriously as a running news outlet. It's goal isn't to provide you with objective research or investigative journalism that rely's on integrity and ethics, it's to get a headline and then inflate their importance for getting the headline, and mentioning they have millions of unique users, so you should be interested in purchasing one of the ad slots that randomly appear in odd places that make reading the content difficult. Did they mention they got thousands of likes on the Ryan Hall story!

Why didn't you ask Kiprop about his connections with Rosa?

I'll agree with this for the most part, but I would add one very important note -

While there are many, many political pundits who have shows and give strong opinions...there is really just one meaningful website that tries to be controversial/honest/tough: LRC.

If Rush or Chris Matthews disappeared...that really wouldn't matter - another guy would take his place. If LRC disappeared...there would be no one independent and brave enough to take strong stands against the major players in the sport.

So until there are multiple sources doing in depth investigative research on the problems with pro t/f...LRC is indispensable journalism.

I'll agree with this for the most part, but I would add one very important note -

While there are many, many political pundits who have shows and give strong opinions...there is really just one meaningful website that tries to be controversial/honest/tough: LRC.

If Rush or Chris Matthews disappeared...that really wouldn't matter - another guy would take his place. If LRC disappeared...there would be no one independent and brave enough to take strong stands against the major players in the sport.

So until there are multiple sources doing in depth investigative research on the problems with pro t/f...LRC is indispensable journalism.

+1 to this. I'm a professional journalist, and agree completely with Rojo that he asked the question very professionally, and Rupp responded very professionally. It was by no means any sort of gotcha question.. it was a completely valid question. We need a lot more questions like this being asked of athletes like Rupp.. that question was a start.

We finally have an American who can really give us a shot versus the rest of the world.

Too bad the detractors, including ROJO and many of the lame-brained nitwits that frequent this site, want to cast aspersion under the guise of responsible "journalism".

It is no wonder we can't motivate post collegians to make the necessary sacrifices to progress in our sport.