Addy Wiley 1:57.64!!!

It's the biggest one year drop a teenage girl has done in the 800 in US history.

The only other teenage girl that is close is Athing Mu. But even Mu didn't have a 7 second drop from high school to the year after high school.

But besides Mu, look at the other high school 800 phenoms like Mary Cain, Sammy Watson, Raevyn Rogers, Juliette Whittaker, Roisin Willis, Michaela Rose, etc. None of them were even in the ballpark of a 7 second drop in their 800 time the year after they graduated from high school. Some of them didn't even get 1 second faster the year after high school.

Wiley is either one of the greatest 800 talents in the history of the planet, DSD intersex, or doing things she shouldn't be doing. (I'm hoping for the first one, but I wouldn't bet money on it.)

The race set up perfectly for her because of Werro. I posted that in the other thread last night. You always know where Werro will be. She's a metronome front runner who runs evenly and can sustain for a long time, but lacks an explosive finish.

Wiley got shuffled to the back early but it worked out fine for her once she made her typical move about 50 meters before the final lap. That seems to be her preference at 800 and 1500. Once she found Werro it didn't make any sense to do anything other than track Werro before trying to circle her late. I don't think Goule was within Wiley's vision or thought process until the final 40 meters.

Wiley now has an interesting decision to make. It looks like she is comparatively better at 800 than 1500. She certainly has a more explosive finish than the other 20ish 800 specialists like Werro, Rose, Willis and Whitaker. But the American 800 team is more difficult to make than the 1500, due to the presence of Mu while at 1500 there is no standout.

This time puts Wiley within 1 or 1.5 seconds of serious medal contention at 800. At 1500 she already had the experience of getting outfinished by Ethiopians and Kenyans at world U20. To be a medal contender at 1500 you really need to be 3:55 or lower. The path at 800 has been cleared out via young stars like Welteji and Chepchirchir abandoning 800 to move up to 1500. Three stars at 800 but if something goes wrong with any of them the next flight are hardly world beaters. Wiley already experienced that today.

The references to her prior numbers aren't relevant because Wiley is just beginning to figure out she's stronger at this distance. Last year she raced more frequently at outdoor 3000 than 800.

It's almost funny, she's definitely girl-ish (not muscular), she looks slow even when going to arms in the kick, but she gets there. She also races with a lot of maturity. Didn't like 2 runners per lane, so she went straight to the back, then worked methodically thru the field, last to second, ho hum 1:57.

Because he said, “By all means point to such a radical and drastic progression in another athlete Lollll.”

I cited two cases.

Wow. Two male runners.

Will she run in the Pre Classic?

She doesn’t (yet?) have the rippling abs you see on most (if not all) of the typical female pros.

Her running style is interesting. She sweeps the full leg, big action through the hips.

I thought Wiley’s < 7 second drop was in over two years. Muir also had a nearly 7 second drop, but in a little over a year.

They were the first obvious ones that came to mind. Point being, big improvements in a young athlete are not unprecedented, which you just “lolll” off.

But there is no way that regular Letsrun posters are doing that. They would rather argue about someone's post than try to get it deleted.

So who are these people that keep getting all of Wiley's posts deleted if they are even slightly negative?

Choppy race and ran in lane 2 for most of the race. She can easily run 156 right now.

All the more reason why she NEEDS TO BE IN OREGON FOR THE PRE CLASSIC.

Do we have enough time to gather signatures? Since she hasn't signed (yet), this would also serve as a great meet and greet for Nike execs. Let's make it happen people!