If they didn’t like the attention in high school they could have said no to workout Wednesday videos and all post race videos. They wanted the attention and now one comment going to send them Into a frenzy. NC State is officially the woke team.
This is literally the oldest story in cross-country. A team is strong 1-4, but needs their #5 runner to come through to win. That runner had a bad race their last time out and is undstandably feeling the pressure.
Honestly this is part of the beauty of cross-country, that the "non superstar runners" can have a greater impact on a team championship than a national champion.
IMHO the NC State girls are actually putting more pressure on their #5 runner by freaking out over what everyone deep down knows is an honest piece of analysis. It's like when a football game comes down to the kicker who missed his last field goal and everyone goes over and tells him "no worries, shake it off you got the next one" at a certain point it doesn't help.
For those taking offense to Brooke Rauber's "obsessing over high school girls" comment, have you considered that she (and many on the NC State team) WERE ONCE the high school girls that were being obsessed over? Have you considered how years of this made THEM feel?
No way they didn't walk away from that with some level of resentment given the fact that they were just kids doing a sport they loved and their performances were poured over, overanalyzed, and criticized by everyone from letsrun trolls, to letsrun media, to Flotrack to runners pace. That their talent was used and profited off of by those platforms while those very platforms provided horrible commentary on their races, and hid them behind paywalls. Did those kids even have a say when their races were uploaded to YouTube for strangers to drop creepy comments on? Youtube some of the high school races from now NC-State women, you'll see what I mean.
I'm not offended Rauber reacted this way. I'm not in any way protective of a man like Gordon Mack.
Does anyone accuse ESPN of this when they cover college sports? How about when they cover high school football commitments?
The guy's job is analysing running both at college and up and coming high schoolers heading to college.
For those taking offense to Brooke Rauber's "obsessing over high school girls" comment, have you considered that she (and many on the NC State team) WERE ONCE the high school girls that were being obsessed over? Have you considered how years of this made THEM feel?
No way they didn't walk away from that with some level of resentment given the fact that they were just kids doing a sport they loved and their performances were poured over, overanalyzed, and criticized by everyone from letsrun trolls, to letsrun media, to Flotrack to runners pace. That their talent was used and profited off of by those platforms while those very platforms provided horrible commentary on their races, and hid them behind paywalls. Did those kids even have a say when their races were uploaded to YouTube for strangers to drop creepy comments on? Youtube some of the high school races from now NC-State women, you'll see what I mean.
I'm not offended Rauber reacted this way. I'm not in any way protective of a man like Gordon Mack.
Does anyone accuse ESPN of this when they cover college sports? How about when they cover high school football commitments?
The guy's job is analysing running both at college and up and coming high schoolers heading to college.
Or the live coverage of those high school basketball tournaments (I think McDonald's sponsored them?) I'm not a big bball fan but I know they have high school tournaments with a live coverage during the summer.
Are all of the people commentating and covering those tournaments obsessing over Young boys?
If they didn’t like the attention in high school they could have said no to workout Wednesday videos and all post race videos. They wanted the attention and now one comment going to send them Into a frenzy. NC State is officially the woke team.
Flotrack makes money by monetizing that content on YouTube, they get a bigger benefit.
Nc state hardly in a frenzy.
All Sydney said was "@ me next time"
You are making a bigger deal out of this than she is....
Rauber's comment about him 'obsessing over high school girls' was not great. But, she is the only nc state runner who said that. No one else did.
There is a -1000% chance that Mack, Flosports, etc even attempt "legal recourse" against a solo red-shirt freshman for lashing out online. They wouldn't even have a case. He is a public figure and influencer, no chance. Look at all the crazy stuff that gets posted on social. I listen to the pod regularly and he has said he doesn't even read the comments because they can be crazy.
This is the kind of analysis that comes with college sports that get attention, like for March Madness. But cross-country's not used to it. People think of runners as kids, especially the girls/women. Partly cause it's so amateur, partly cause everyone, male and female, looks 15, partly cause it's kind of a "white" sport compared to big-league sports like football and basketball and white people are coddled as "kids" well into their late 20s.
If running wants the hype of other sports, the athletes are going to bear the brunt of this kind of PRESSURE. It raises the stakes, so is good for the sport. But for individuals, anyone under the age of 25 should just stay away from social media and not even look at this stuff.
For those taking offense to Brooke Rauber's "obsessing over high school girls" comment, have you considered that she (and many on the NC State team) WERE ONCE the high school girls that were being obsessed over? Have you considered how years of this made THEM feel?
No way they didn't walk away from that with some level of resentment given the fact that they were just kids doing a sport they loved and their performances were poured over, overanalyzed, and criticized by everyone from letsrun trolls, to letsrun media, to Flotrack to runners pace. That their talent was used and profited off of by those platforms while those very platforms provided horrible commentary on their races, and hid them behind paywalls. Did those kids even have a say when their races were uploaded to YouTube for strangers to drop creepy comments on? Youtube some of the high school races from now NC-State women, you'll see what I mean.
I'm not offended Rauber reacted this way. I'm not in any way protective of a man like Gordon Mack.
Does anyone accuse ESPN of this when they cover college sports? How about when they cover high school football commitments?
The guy's job is analysing running both at college and up and coming high schoolers heading to college.
Exactly what I was thinking. Any other team sport could get similar analysis and no one would care.
I see we have a situation where multiple things are true at once.
3. Gordon Mack's analysis is objectively wrong. If a top NC State runner has a terrible day, they are in trouble. It takes 5 to score, and it's silly to say a team title comes down to just one person.
4. Gordon Mack's analysis was not offensive. He didn't criticize her body or appearance. He didn't call Sydney names. He was analyzing what the race came down to based on how he saw it. Wrong yes, offensive no.
Agree with you 100%
Flotrack was maybe a little ‘offensive’ because it was so wrong. XC is very much still a team sport and 1 person in a field of 255 isn’t going to be the sole determining factor.
To place the spotlight one 1 athlete is perhaps a bit much on the best of scenarios; in this one it’s just incorrect.
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