Breaking: Josh Hoey has parted with Justin Rinaldi, the man who took him from 1:47 also-ran to 1:42 World Champ!!

Anyone have a link to the WC sprinted down the backstretch with 700m to go…

it is easy to say the splits were stupid. But we are talking like .5s from going 24.5/25.25 and being exactly what is wanted. It can be hard to get things exactly right when balancing fatigue and andreline.

This is just more of the same from this family. Story time….

In high school, Fran wanted to coach his own kid. But he also wanted that kid to race under the program of his school. The coach, like any reasonable high school coach, said that to be on the team he must actually be on the team and not train separately and just show up on race day. Fran didn’t like that. Not only did he move the kid to a private school that would allow this ridiculous request, he sued the school that stood up to him! I’m a little light on the details, but I think after a giant headache for everyone involved the legal issues were dropped.

Fran is a clown. His kid is a clown for letting his daddy run the show when he’s a fully grown man.

Will there be a more fascinating athlete to follow in 2026 than Josh Hoey?

Memo to all parents out there. If you want your child to grow up to be a well-adjusted adult and have a reasonable shot at a meaningful, satisfying life, don't micro-manage them. It doesn't work. Ever.

It might look like it's working because they have some success in whatever sport, artistic endeavor, etc. you have pushed them into. But it doesn't work in the long run. Ever. You will be raising a helpless person who is not acquiring necessary life skills such as handling adversity, learning to stand on their own and developing genuine self-esteem.

Josh Hoey obviously has great natural talent for running. Would he have discovered the sport, won world indoors, won a Diamond League race, etc. without his father's involvement? Probably not. If the goal was to satisfy the father's ego, then I suppose the whole endeavor might have been somewhat of a success thus far.

But the dude has to live the next 60, 70, whatever years of his life, and he is going to be at a distinct disadvantage in terms of finding meaning and contentment. What good will his fleeting fame in an obscure sport do him when he is 40 or 50 and feels like a failure because the only achievements in his life have seemingly come as a result of his father's money and oversight. It would take a lot of therapy for him to begin to work through that sort of mess. And don't tell me he'll be OK because he'll have a big trust fund from Daddy. There are a million examples of how that can lead to nothing but misery.

You can see the signs of all this, when Rinaldi talks about Josh's inability to trust his talent, his obsession with pushing himself too hard all the time in training, his overreaction to the temporary disappointment of not making Worlds. He probably doesn't trust his talent because he suspects deep down that he's a fraud who is only in the position that he's in because of his father. I don't mean to psychoanalyze the kid from afar, but man this is not an original story.

This is just really sad. I hope Josh finds some more success on the track, but more than that, I hope he ultimately realizes that he needs to get some distance from his father, go out into the world and find something that is meaningful to him and will sustain him in the long haul.

Papa Hoey might remind himself that's it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle that it is for a rich man to enter heaven.

Several of Hoey's seven coaches would have done just fine, but who tf are we kidding? This is a customer service transaction at the end of the day.

This is our culture now.

Gault and Rojo playing “good cop bad cop” with their articles?

This column is the reason why I appreciate letsrun. You won't find a similarly strongly-worded article about this anywhere else in the running world. And it's true - every single word.

When I opened letsrun to find out Hoey had left Rinaldi, I just closed the website. Even when Ruth got caught for doping I went through the threads on the board for a little bit. Just an unbelievably disheartening decision. As a big-time nerd of the sport, i've always known the name "josh hoey" after his high school achievements, and was aware of his post HS-stagnation. There is nothing I believe more in than the idea that talent never goes away, which is why I was incredibly excited to see 2024 season progression and 4th place at Olympic trials, which I made a thread on shortly after it happened. I continued to be one of his loudest supporters this year (check any thread about him!), which is why I am so sad to see such a successful partnership evaporate.

Also, theres just something appealing about the story. Hoey, a man at his lowest mentally after years of failure despite all the resources in the world, turns it around in what would have been his final year. Its what this sport is about man.

I always thought the dad was doing most of the coaching and was the one calling the shots; that it was convenient to have a 'coach' the other side of the world. it was convenient to everyone to give Rinaldi the coaching credit. from what I hear in Australia Hoey was doing radically different things to what Rinaldi had every given Bol and others. I'm told people in Australia don't rate Rinaldi as high as he rates himself

You don't know what you are talking about do you?

It may be almost the complete opposite actually. He seems to train too hard and doesn’t trust in his talent, while she seems unmotivated to train hard and wants to just get by on talent.

If it was all drugs then I doubt 3 x 400 with 10 mind rest cooks him as much as it did and he would have continued rolling all summer with his hard training

Hoey needs to lean into being the heel. We need more bad guys in track and field.

Ah yes, the 26 year old bad boy whose father makes all his decisions. Tuff

I think this is especially difficult when training for the 800. Wejo says it in "Why I sucked in college." The best mid-d runners run relaxed workouts. It took me years to figure it out and even when I was conscious of it, the "killer instinct" would come out at times and really f things up. Mentally, it's a lot easier to go into a big race after you just ran the best workout of your life. "If I can run x in practice, I can definitely PR in the meet." That doesn't seem to happen all that often because you probably just left that PR in practice. On the other hand, if you're restraining yourself in practice, you need real confidence to go out and trust your fitness in an 800 where you're always pretty much redlining with 200 to go.

Josh 100% has the talent and clearly has the killer instinct to go run through a wall but I really hope he can find a way to rein it in.

I raced some of the Hoey boys at one point or another. They ran for "Hoey Investments" which was possibly the lamest team/club name they could have used. Says a lot about their family.

I’m from the area, and can confirm everything I’ve read here. Particularly the post from the running store worker. Man I miss the CCRS days….

I think that stint under “Hoey Investments” was between schools / while suing D-West / before Shanahan let them do as they pleased.

Yeah you obviously made that up.