***OFFICIAL LUKAS IS LEAVING***

Do you notice, you never hear triathlete's criticizing runner's. I guess they feel they are punished enough.

lv turned pro. he's on to the big show. congrats to lv. he's done only what allyson felix and kobe bryant has done.

True, Kobe went to UCLA and then quit the team days before the final four. And Allyson quit USC minutes before the NCAA 4x1 finals to get a little extra training in for the Olympic Trials.

Pretty sure Galen Rupp tried to go straight to the PROs after graduating high school.

sarcasm.. wrote:

lv turned pro. he's on to the big show. congrats to lv. he's done only what allyson felix and kobe bryant has done.

True, Kobe went to UCLA and then quit the team days before the final four. And Allyson quit USC minutes before the NCAA 4x1 finals to get a little extra training in for the Olympic Trials.

Tried to? He was pro and somehow ran for a college after. This is nice to see, as shady as Oregon is they deserve it.

jet3m wrote:

I don't think Ritz's high school training was normal either. He was running 100 mile weeks, which isn't typical for a high school runner.

Oh really ok, I did read an interview with him before where he said when he started running at about 13 he would run 4 miles every day and his first coach was at 15. I know German played soccer and basketball and didn't start take running seriously until about sophomore year of HS. Another interview with LV I read where he gave an example of the day in a life of himself and it was like, Wake at 5:30 am - swim, run, class, bike, class, run, class, swim, bike, bed... and that's not an exageration (sp?), certainly with that sort of training and even just a little talent it would be hard not to be a national calibre HS runner. Of course LV's parents were his coaches so you can imagine how much he was in control unlike other HS kids, well personally if I was back in HS and my coach made me do all that training, I wouldn't have the self-disciline to do that and so would most others and could just report back to my coach and say 'yeah, I did an hour on the bike this morning' when really I was too lazy to get my ass out of bed and aswell my parents would have been like WTF?!?! why does my son train like 7 times a day!

Kobe went to UCLA and then quit the team days before the final four.

I know you are being facetious but as I recall from the 70's, Marques Johnson (Mil Bucks) was accepted to the US Naval Academy and several Ivy League schools but chose to play b-ball at UCLA.

OMG! you have got to be kidding!

As a student, Allyson never ran for USC T&F. She turned pro at 18 and enrolled at USC which is only a few miles down the street from where where she grew up.

first Gedyon; now Verzbicas (and Marques Atkison) aren't rostered. So muck for the unbelievable 14 member frosh class. What's going on? Is Oregon not the place for fast running rocket scientists?

Kids grow up and do what they want. Didn't you ? Some kids can fit into a puny shit wet rag college town sit there for 4 and waste their life away. Others know from Joe Frazier, Quaddafi, Steve Jobs, Andy Rooney, Osama Bin Ladin, that you ony live once and you should live every day like it's your last day on earth. Lukas wants to explore the world and went for it. He made the choice to put himself in the spotlight and he is the talk of Hollywood sports media. Dude is living according to his ways. You wish you had the balls Lukas has.

Maybe he thought he wouldn't do that well in the next two races of XC and that it would hurt his sponsorship opportunities?

He better have a good excuse (the one above isn't a good one) to leave his team and the university hanging like that since he was a scoring runner and the university gave up scholarship money for him (and someone else didn't get that money also).

Catchdatd-piece wrote:

LUKAS WILL BE IN LONDON 2012 REPRESENTING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA where will you be ****ing trolls ?:)

Chill bro. He won't even be a US citizen in 2012. He can't possibly represent the US at the Olympics (in ANY event, running, tri, ping-pong, etc.).

It is refreshing that he's taking his running results relative to the big picture and not try to blow sunshine up his and everyone else's. He must also full well know that he would be heavily petted as the top in this country even though he's not an american to be yet, and still walks away. He's anything but typical that's for sure.

info wrote:

Tried to? He was pro and somehow ran for a college after. This is nice to see, as shady as Oregon is they deserve it.

Graduating college and spending some extra months training with your college coach doesn't make you a pro.

oijslkjskljs wrote:

info wrote:

Tried to? He was pro and somehow ran for a college after. This is nice to see, as shady as Oregon is they deserve it.

Graduating college and spending some extra months training with your college coach doesn't make you a pro.

Err, highschool.

So his plan is that he now lives/trains in Colo Springs. He gets to use the US Olympic Training center facilities? Does he pay for this or how does that work? He has to get sponsorship money? Or is it another free opportunity for him?

Finish out the season you spoiled little brat!

Even though everyone is saying LV should have stayed to finish out the season, maybe it's for the best. Last season our team had a guy who we all knew was leaving the program, but we kept him on the varsity squad just hoping he would find the will to help us finish the season strong. He ended up just f'ing us over and our whole team just fell apart knowing one of our best guys just wasn't even trying out there, and didn't care whether or not we finished well. If LV heart isn't in it, he just has to go, I don't want the guy I know doesn't really care about the outcome toeing the line next to me. Give another Oregon guy who loves the team a shot at running in the regional and just look ahead to finishing the season strong and improving for next year.

10+

You've picked up more than a few random facts in college - I'd say you've acquired some wisdom. Well said.