Breaking: Raevyn Rogers has left Derek Thompson and joined Pete Julian's group

Maybe she just wanted to get back to Oregon. The west coast is the best coast.

I wonder if Nike was pressuring her to join a group that is affiliated with Nike. Training under Thompson clearly worked for her. Having the best 800m runner in the world in Ajee Wildon as a training partner seems like a better set-up than having no other 800m runners in the oregon group.

Maybe Rogers, Wilson and Brown together in one group was a bit too much, although one would expect that all could profit from having other top runners as training partners.

fjdjdoeojffjd wrote:

I wonder if Nike was pressuring her to join a group that is affiliated with Nike. Training under Thompson clearly worked for her. Having the best 800m runner in the world in Ajee Wildon as a training partner seems like a better set-up than having no other 800m runners in the oregon group.

I thought exactly this but I supposed Rogers was an adidas athlete and is switching to nike after her contract ended. But as she is already with nike, the change is more logica. How many worldclass nike athletes are in non-affiliated groups/coaches: not a lot.

LetsRun.com wrote:

We gotta admit we didn't see this coming. Thompson guided the 23-year old to WC silver and lowered her pb from 1:59.10 to 1:57.67. Seven different times, Rogers ran faster than 1:59.10 for Thompson.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/06/raevyn-rogers-leaves-derek-thompsons-group-will-now-be-coached-by-pete-julian/

I don't know why she left the program, clearly, but I remember reading an article once where the athlete was talking about how in order to be the best in the world, they don't believe they should be in a training group with their #1 rival. Maybe Raevyn subscribes to that school of thought. Does anybody remember who said that? It may have been someone who joined the NOP group and ended up leaving.

who hurt you? wrote:

I still don’t understand why you would write an article based on the fact that you don’t understand the move without getting all the facts first. Just looking for hits when you don’t have the actual story yet. Why use the language “dumped” without speaking to her first? So yes, it does come off very unprofessional.

Rogers leaving is the actual story. If the Supreme Court comes out with a major ruling, all the news outlets cover the ruling without reading the opinion. Then they update the story as the reasoning behind the opinions becomes clear. If a big acquisition is announced, all the news outlets will report that news. Then, after press conference and talking to investors and analysts, they will update the article (or do a second one) with additional insight into what rationale, etc.

The rationale behind the Rogers switch can come later. Maybe it is a simple reason, or maybe it is more complex where different people say different things. A running news site does not wait until all this is sorted out to write an article about it.

who hurt you? wrote:

I still don’t understand why you would write an article based on the fact that you don’t understand the move without getting all the facts first. Just looking for hits when you don’t have the actual story yet. Why use the language “dumped” without speaking to her first? So yes, it does come off very unprofessional.

I mean, this is pretty common journalistic practice for articles of all types. Write a brief confirming the news and then follow up with details as they become available. Of course if you get all that info on the first contact you include it, but why would you wait around for days/weeks/eternity to publish the story in hope that you can include ALL the facts?

You think reporters/editors wait around to get first-hand info about the personal motivations behind every piece of news? Not every article is some big investigative piece.

I think there are plenty of things to criticize Letsrun about, but this particular thing seems like a big stretch.

"Dumped" is too click-baity though (although I don't see where they used that). That has a strong connotation, and I do think you would want to confirm the reasons behind the switch before you used that sort of language.

I'd love to see Rogers and Roesler team up and train together

inthepdx wrote:

I'd love to see Rogers and Roesler team up and train together

I'd love to see Rogers running her own race and not pushing her opponents.

It’s pretty obvious she wants to return to Oregon where she went to University. Was recruited to join the Nike sponsored team Julian coaches (she’s a Nike sponsored athlete). Wants to possibly secure employment with Nike once she retires. Doesn’t want to train with her main rivals for Olympic gold. Julian’s group will eventually become an official, named group with continued Nike sponsorship. Wants access to Nike’s world class facility and support staff. Was offered a financially lucrative offer by Nike to join Julian’s group. Wants to train with a coach who coached the current men’s world 800m champion. Wants to reconnect with the Oregon crowd before Worlds there. She’s well known in Oregon for her superb performances at NCAA’s, especially the 4 x 400m championship winning anchor leg she ran in front of the Oregon home crowd.

Plenty of good reasons to make the switch!

Completely agree, and Pete is a Very good 800m coach.

Also Koko with 1:59 and Hull with 2:03 and 4:01 are not totally bad in the 800m and while not in the Rogers/Wilson class and with a focus on longer distance, there could be worse women to train with.

I hope she enjoys training by herself. She’ll be doing quite a lot of it.

Emma Coburne left Mark Wetmore (the coach rather than the agent) in 2016, after winning an Olympic Bronze, and then won WC Gold and Silver.

We have no idea what the specifics of Raevyn's situation are.

Your coverage, and your forum post, strongly convey that you are skeptical of the wisdom of her decision.

Time will tell. There's no need to convey those doubts at this point. You can leave analysis as an exercise for the reader.

Bet she was sick of the Philly summers, mad humid

WinnytheBish wrote:

LetsRun.com wrote:

We gotta admit we didn't see this coming. Thompson guided the 23-year old to WC silver and lowered her pb from 1:59.10 to 1:57.67. Seven different times, Rogers ran faster than 1:59.10 for Thompson.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/06/raevyn-rogers-leaves-derek-thompsons-group-will-now-be-coached-by-pete-julian/

I don't know why she left the program, clearly, but I remember reading an article once where the athlete was talking about how in order to be the best in the world, they don't believe they should be in a training group with their #1 rival. Maybe Raevyn subscribes to that school of thought. Does anybody remember who said that? It may have been someone who joined the NOP group and ended up leaving.

I remember when Bekele was having problems and inquired about joining NOP. Salazar asked Rupp what he thought. Rupp said (paraphrasing) "Aren't we trying to beat them?" Bekele wasn't invited to join. I imagine the Nike facilities are an attraction for Rogers. She probably also has aspirations to be #1. Very hard to accomplish when you're training with your rival. She might also feel that Thompson favors Wilson as his prize pupil. I think a lot changed after she beat Wilson at the World Championships.

OR vs. PA to train ... no brainer.

What ever happened to Lipsey?

I've seen pictures of Rupp and Engels, Kijelcha, and even Murphy doing workouts together, recently Engels and Suguru. Pete posted a vid of the whole team doing the same fartlek a few months ago. I don't think she'll be doing a ton alone.

SoCan1 wrote:

vigilante wrote:

I hope she enjoys training by herself. She’ll be doing quite a lot of it.

I've seen pictures of Rupp and Engels, Kijelcha, and even Murphy doing workouts together, recently Engels and Suguru. Pete posted a vid of the whole team doing the same fartlek a few months ago. I don't think she'll be doing a ton alone.

She’s a pure speed 800/(400) athlete...similar to Brazier. Don does 70% (at least) of his sessions on the campus track solo. Were she an 800/1500 athlete, it would be a different story.