This thread was initially titled, "Sydney McLaughlin Brussels 400/200". Update on 9/4. The Diamond League will NOT let Sydney run as explained here: https://www.letsrun.com/news/2...
The individual sports that make their people filthy rich - which is basically Tennis and gold -have between 1 and five disciplines, within which there are about 140 serious pro players- not 30-40 odd events with potential casts of thousands. Boxing has more, but very few boxers, relatively, are rich. And even then, every tennis and gold event lasts days - 4 for golf, minimum 7 for tennis.
The other thing - the filthy rich golfers and tennis pros turn up most every week on the circuit, maybe every second week if they can afford it - they certainly get to hide for months at a time.
Outside her simp base n the US, Sydney isn't a star, she's a niche curiosity. mondo's a star despite his niche event- because he turns up. Jakub is a star - because he turns up. The only 'pros' who resolutely don't turn up are Syd and Mu.
Kersee's crew.
Wonder why.
I'd go as far as to say SML is pretty widely despised among at least a large section of European fans. I'm sure part of that is jealousy but there are also her shady connections and her Virenesque ways of showing up at the minimum number of meets and claiming all the laurels. She is widely viewed as an "obvious doper" over there.
I expect nothing less from euro thrash, probably initiated by flopper Bol.
Lord Coe is the best. Finding a way to keep the sport's biggest star from making history on your biggest stage is just absurd. Imagine if Taylor Swift wanted to do the Super Bowl Halftime Show, but they were like "Sorry, but you forgot to put the cover sheet on your TPS report. Not happening." Morans.
Letsrun posters: “I hate Sydney because she never runs the Diamond League. And she’s ducking the better competition in the flat sprint events!”
Letsrun posters when Sydney tries to run the 200 and 400 at the Diamond League final: “Boo! Sydney should not be allowed to run!”
There are rules. All she has to do was run one other meet. She didn't but then decided to try and break the rules. No one should have an exception, the same rules must apply to everyone.
Had she not ducked the competition all year she could race.
I think what happened is pretty simple: other athletes' agents threatened to get lawyers involved.
Last year, the DL covered its bases by changing its rules for Jakob, but this year they didn't even bother to do so before granting Syd an even larger exception that threatened to take prize money from athletes in two different events. If I'm Brittany Brown or Heniette Jager, and I've been running DL events all season, I'd be pissed-- that's my prize money on the line.
Honestly, the requirements to meet the wild card are so minimal I can't get too upset about this. All she had to do was make a single appearance; if the DL gives athletes spots in the final without running at all then what's the point of the circuit?
I really love watching Sydney race, but I did not think letting her just go right to the final was fair. I know these are two very different issues, but it reminds me of Parker Wolfe not qualifying for the Olympics. The overwhelming opinion on this site then was that there are rules that everyone knew well in advance. I think that standard should apply to everyone regardless of talent or prestige. With the auto qualifier for Tokyo and prize money at stake, I don't blame other athletes for fighting what is blatant disregard of the rules to give special treatment.
I actually think less of Sydney for considering this. Kind of a diva move. Leave the circuit to the mere mortals. She could have run one flimsy race and this would be a non issue.
Letsrun posters: “I hate Sydney because she never runs the Diamond League. And she’s ducking the better competition in the flat sprint events!”
Letsrun posters when Sydney tries to run the 200 and 400 at the Diamond League final: “Boo! Sydney should not be allowed to run!”
There are rules. All she has to do was run one other meet. She didn't but then decided to try and break the rules. No one should have an exception, the same rules must apply to everyone.
Had she not ducked the competition all year she could race.
Sorry, you can't want the DL to be meaningful and then just let someone into the final who hasn't competed in it all year. Any other meet I'd be fine with it, but the DL final is currently the closest thing we have to a regular season championship. They've already pushed the eligibility rules to the edge of what is acceptable with this global wild card thing, and it's a bare minimum requirement - compete in a single meet during the year. And tbh, SML simply isn't worth tearing up the rule book for. She's a big name but she's still only a hurdler, it's not like she's the top dog in the 100m or has the force of personality of someone like Bolt. It would be good to see her compete, but she isn't going to carry this sport, at least not outside of the US.
No one is going to carry the sport alone unless you're Bolt
Sydney is the closest thing to box office we have in the sport
The fact she's been able to turn the 400h into a must see/marquee event is proof of this
Any time she competes you expect to see something special
I'd say Mondo is the "closest thing to box office." He. competes. often.
She's a star, no doubt. I've witnessed two of her world records and she's a show stopper, but I think she could do far more for our sport than she does. Her presence would certainly add to the Diamond League final, but she could have easily competed in one DL meet.
I actually think less of Sydney for considering this. Kind of a diva move. Leave the circuit to the mere mortals. She could have run one flimsy race and this would be a non issue.
Same. She finds ways for me to think less of her all the time, which is remarkable given where I already had her.
There are rules. All she has to do was run one other meet. She didn't but then decided to try and break the rules. No one should have an exception, the same rules must apply to everyone.
Had she not ducked the competition all year she could race.
Awesome. And who wins with her not running?
Certainly not the fans.
If Sydney cared about the fans she could show up and run once in a while in regular meets.
So this all ended up being fascinating. It started out as somewhat clownish yet understandable, with Brussels letting someone run who technically hadn't earned it, based solely on her potential drawing and/or US TV ratings power.
Then it got magnified into full-on gigaclowning, with the DL overruling the hapless officials of their own championship meet. One hand not knowing what the other hand is doing.
Personally, I wish they could have found a compromise where Sydney could run in the championship 200/400 while not being eligible for any of the perks for the actual qualified people (being the official DL champion, prize money, qualification for future events, etc.). Would Sydney have gone for that? I don't know, but if she and Kersee rejected it, there would be far less controversy and eye rolling, since she couldn't be bothered to qualify the normal way.
As it is, she technically could still run in a non-championship race at Brussels, but why bother? People would want to see her run against the world's best, not the 2nd slate.
This post was edited 41 seconds after it was posted.
There are rules. All she has to do was run one other meet. She didn't but then decided to try and break the rules. No one should have an exception, the same rules must apply to everyone.
Had she not ducked the competition all year she could race.
Awesome. And who wins with her not running?
Certainly not the fans.
No one wins because she doesn't run however everyone wins because the rules were applied evenly.
I actually think less of Sydney for considering this. Kind of a diva move. Leave the circuit to the mere mortals. She could have run one flimsy race and this would be a non issue.
Same. She finds ways for me to think less of her all the time, which is remarkable given where I already had her.
What has she done to make you constantly think less of her?
So this all ended up being fascinating. It started out as somewhat clownish yet understandable, with Brussels letting someone run who technically hadn't earned it, based solely on her potential drawing and/or US TV ratings power.
Then it got magnified into full-on gigaclowning, with the DL overruling the hapless officials of their own championship meet. One hand not knowing what the other hand is doing.
Personally, I wish they could have found a compromise where Sydney could run in the championship 200/400 while not being eligible for any of the perks for the actual qualified people (being the official DL champion, prize money, qualification for future events, etc.). Would Sydney have gone for that? I don't know, but if she and Kersee rejected it, there would be far less controversy and eye rolling, since she couldn't be bothered to qualify the normal way.
As it is, she technically could still run in a non-championship race at Brussels, but why bother? People would want to see her run against the world's best, not the 2nd slate.
It makes me wonder if Sydney was ever planning on running. And Maybe Kersee knew the DL would deny her entry into the final. I feel like this has just been a PR game and the fans have been played.
I'm really fed up with Kersee's games. Between Mu and Sydney we are watching some of the greatest talent in the history of women's track being squandered with athletes in their prime years.
This is something the world of Track and Field has never understood going back at least to the days of Carl Lewis: No athlete is bigger than the sport. And the rules need to apply to everyone.
I don't understand why SML doesn't run the DL; as the most dominant athlete in the sport (along with Mondo) surely she would command hefty appearance fees, probably several times the prize money. Maybe she's earning so much from shoe and other endorsements that it doesn't matter. I appreciate that she wants to peak at the major championships, but if you want to promote the sport, you can't do that if you don't race. I don't think she's ducking anyone - great as Femke Bol is, I think SML would beat her every time - but it would still be good for the sport to its most dominant athlete out there more often.
Maybe the DL putting the kibosh on her Brussels appearance will give her enough incentive to deign to race a few times next year.
So this all ended up being fascinating. It started out as somewhat clownish yet understandable, with Brussels letting someone run who technically hadn't earned it, based solely on her potential drawing and/or US TV ratings power.
Then it got magnified into full-on gigaclowning, with the DL overruling the hapless officials of their own championship meet. One hand not knowing what the other hand is doing.
Personally, I wish they could have found a compromise where Sydney could run in the championship 200/400 while not being eligible for any of the perks for the actual qualified people (being the official DL champion, prize money, qualification for future events, etc.). Would Sydney have gone for that? I don't know, but if she and Kersee rejected it, there would be far less controversy and eye rolling, since she couldn't be bothered to qualify the normal way.
As it is, she technically could still run in a non-championship race at Brussels, but why bother? People would want to see her run against the world's best, not the 2nd slate.
The problem with this is that unlike the 800m and distances above it, inserting someone into a sprint event isn't quite as straight forwards because it means that someone who qualified the right way (showing up, earning a spot through competing) simply has to make way for them.
This is how you know the entire wildcard/national athlete rule they made up literally a week before Pre last year was just a poorly thought out stop-gap that they threw together to make it legit in the moment. Because adding Athing and Jakob to those fields was relatively simple - adding Mu to the 800m took it to 10 athletes (one double up in a lane), adding Jakob to the 3000m took it to 13 athletes - clearly also no issue. But they clearly never wondered or bothered to contemplate what would happen if this situation arose in the sprints. Imagine thinking you made it into the 200m in the final spot after grinding out points in 6-7 meets and then you get told - no we are giving your lane to Sydney McLaughlin because she's a bigger star than you and wants to see what she can do over 200m - especially if he had only run the 400mH one time in a DL meet this season? It doesn't make sense.
They just need to scrap this entire system which is stupid anyway - you can't have a "qualification dependant" meeting in a series where ultimately the meeting fields prior to this "final" are decided on at the sole discretion of the individual meeting director (think about that for a second).
I actually think less of Sydney for considering this. Kind of a diva move. Leave the circuit to the mere mortals. She could have run one flimsy race and this would be a non issue.
Same. She finds ways for me to think less of her all the time, which is remarkable given where I already had her.
Awwww, that's precious. You must have lost some money because of her at some point.