Fair enough, but I was responding to the poster who said he is "training through it". That's always seemed like a loser's excuse to me. Literally everyone in the race is in a heavy training block, so that can't be used as an excuse for Cole losing every race so far this season.
I don't necessarily buy the idea that Cole is not or cannot be one of the greats I mentioned. You would agree that El G hated losing so much that you could see it immediately after the race was over? He'd be in tears or look devastated. He was so freakishly competitive that you could make the case that he was the Michael Jordan of mid distance racing. He HATED losing.
The same with Jakob and the same with someone like Paula Ratcliffe. If Edwin Moses had to race a bunch of nobodies in an open race at a small town track meet, you bet your behind he would run to win even if there was nothing to gain. It was who he was. These guys and gals needed to win like a tree needs CO2 or a fish needs water. They would never even consider for one second that a race was not important enough to win. Winning is what they did.
I feel like Cole needs to take a look at the past and adopt the heros of the sport no losing attitude if he wants to be one of the greats. And I get the feeling he does. He has plenty of upside. If he's serious about contending in longer distances, Bekele couldn't run 3:27 or even 7:23, so he's already got a huge speed endurance advantage. He can be Ingebrigtsen if he lights that fire under his belly and absolutely refuses to lose. He has all the tools, he just needs to become an obsessed warrior like Michael Jordan.