This thread has taken a bit of a turn.
Why are more people talking about Cquigs contract issues than Ryan Hill's? Let's first clear up some disrespect to Hill going on here - the guy is a three time national champion and world indoor silver medalist. His best Olympic/World result is 7th. If he were to retire tomorrow, he would be able to look back on a stellar career that almost any aspiring pro athlete would be stoked to have. He's been able to get more on paper accolades than Quigley (so far) despite the 5000m globally being a deeper event than the Steeple. So people aren't talking about Quigley because she's just the better athlete. They're talking chiefly for two (connected) reasons:
1. When Hill left BTC, he announced his departure and new sponsor in under a week. There was zero negativity about his old sponsor or team - only positive things to say about how all the successes he had with Jerry and BTC. The zero negativity also impressive given the chat that he was effectively dropped by Nike/not offered much money if at all. That's it, story over. Hill left BTC, said it was a great time, and the same week said he's stoked to sign with Hoka. What is there for people to write seven pages of comments about? It was an open and shut case.
This contrasts with Quigley who went to Flagstaff with BTC before shortly announcing her departure, and then for over two months not announcing any new news. In the interim, she has fired numerous shots at Nike and written an open letter ostensible to BTC, in which she basically says that her teammates prior to 2018 were lacking in professionalism and camaraderie. She does a Womens Day post where she lists 30+ different women who she thinks are inspiring yet mentions only two of the 12 women she trained with at BTC for years. Again contrasting with Ryan, the general scoop is she was offered well into the six figures for a contract, but in her words it did not meet her worth. How Hill and Quigley handled their former team, sponsor, and new contracts could not be more different. The breakdown of the Quigley-Nike/BTC relationship and lack of any replacement is way more juicy gossip than Ryan's situation.
2. The second reason *is* about social media following. Ryan Hill has 5,500 instagram followers and posted just 13 times in 2020. Colleen has 236,000 and has posted 20 times in March 2021 alone (and way more stories). She shares tons of little details with her very committed fanbase. What she eats, where she is, her side hussles, her stretches, Pilates, her bae, her dog, beauty tips, bike workouts. To say she is popular just because of her looks is massively reductionist. There are a ton of attractive women in track and field who don't have half the following she does. She has the looks *and* she works very hard to bring fans into her life. Now you might not like that, it might rub you the wrong way, that's fine. But a lot of people do like that. I've been at track meets where Colleen has done meet n' greets with fans and hair braiding and such, and the lines of high school girls who clearly idolize the woman are impressive in length.
This high profile has two relative consequences for this conversation. First - so many people knowing so many details of her life gives her fans so many more reasons to like her, while her detractors so much more fodder to attack. The different battlegrounds people can engage over pro and con Colleen are going to be so much more numerous. Many athletes we simply don't know enough about their lives to have a thread this long. In this particular instance though, the fact that Quigley shares *so much* about her day to day life, but yet it's the last week of March and she's still without a major sponsor is a massive question mark to both her fans and haters. She shares everything yet we have zero hint as to who she might work with. Going to NB Indoors then last minute cancelling hints that maybe NB were in the picture. Photos of her running in Saucony shoes leave you guessing. Past couple of posts she's rocking Lululemon. Maybe something there? We don't know, she isn't saying, and she usually loves to have her say (even when she probably shouldn't e.g. dumping on Nike). When someone who shares everything is radio silent on a topic, people are going to talk.
So yeah - folks who say "people only care about her cause of her looks/she is only successful cause of her looks" are dumb and don't understand social media nor athletics. But conversely "you all are only chatting about this because of the patriarchy" is also missing the picture. Folks are talking because one of the most high profile athletes on social media is acting erratically, firing shots at her old team and sponsor, and has got through Q1 of the year (usually first payments made by sponsors end of March) without a sponsor - forfeiting 25% of a year's earnings in the process. This is like one of the most high profile (and also most divisive - love them or hate them) NBA/NHL/NFL players going months into free agency without signing while dunking on their old team on social media.
It's juicy. It's baffling. It's popcorn drama.