What if Nick Symmonds came out of retirement

He struggles to run 2:10 now. His PR is 2016 was 1:47. His PR in 2017 was 1:49. I expect had he continued he would have run something like this:

2018 1:50

2019 1:51

2020 1:52

2021 1:53

As others have said, I don't think he would make the team in his prime. He wouldn't score in most D1 conference meets now.

I've seen him get beat by tons of regular beachgoers on YouTube. He ain't nothing special anymore.

Kingen Rino wrote:

It´s true he only ran 1:49 in his last year (2017), but he ran 1:44 only two year prior to that. And he said that he basically retired after he got injuried in 2016. Which means he ran 1:49 after a off year; not much training and overweight.

I think he can run 1:49 this summer if he loses couple of pounds, are able to stay injury free and get in a good amount of quality work.

The differences between a 32 year old and a 37 year old are pretty big. Now make the 37 year old to be fat and. out of shape and they are even bigger. Odds are to stay injury free he would be doing a fraction of the training he used to. I think sometimes people forget how fast 1:50 is even for olympians.

Like a few have said, nick ran 1:49 a few years ago. His current PR is 1:42.9.

I see brazier running 1:41 mid, hoppel running low 1:42 and Murphy running 1:42 high or 1:43 low.

I think nick could crack 1:50 again and that would really impress me, but I think his world class days are done.

But as a old runner you don’t need to train too much. Look at Willis who got a medal in Rio as an 34y old. Symmonds has a lot of training in his legs. The most important for him is recovery. Of course with a ok amount of training. I’d Give him 1:45 in 2022

Who?

Nick ran 51s for 400m with standing start in January this year. He still got it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPDd6a9gWis

More than 1000 high school boys ran faster last year and 3 high school girls did. So what does he still have when high school girls can beat him?

better 800 field wrote:

Kingen Rino wrote:

Hypothetical, how well would Nick Symmonds do if he came out of retirement? Lets say he started serious training this week. Would he

1) qualify for 2021 Olympic Trials?

2) qualify for 2022 WC in his hometown, Eugene?

What do you guys think?

Nick would have trouble making the team in 2021 or 2022 in his prime.

Brazier is a lot better then he ever was.

Murphy could beat him on any day.

Hoppel can kick the same as him.

Maybe if he had better national competition in his prime, he would have been that bit better in his prime. That's normally how it works.

And did he have RunGum in his prime?

What are you basing that on? There is no way to prove your theory. I can just as easily say that he would have given up at a much younger age if the competition had been stiffer because he wouldn't have had a contract.

Sim Unds wrote:

What are you basing that on? There is no way to prove your theory. I can just as easily say that he would have given up at a much younger age if the competition had been stiffer because he wouldn't have had a contract.

You could just as easily say it, but it wouldn't make as much sense. I'm basing it on 40 years of being an athletics fan. It happened in Britain 40 years ago, and it's happening in Britain again today. Obviously other factors such as coaching set ups play a huge role, but local and national rivalry and the setting of higher standards does too.

The competition would have to have been significantly better to have prevented him getting a contract. I'm talking about having 2 or 3 guys as good or running a little bit faster than he was when competing to get into the US team. Brazier and Hoppel are running these times in the new shoes, and they are benefitting from a healthy rivalry.

Anyway, two can play at that game. Symmonds had Rudisha and a stack of doped up rivals to compete against (internationally). Brazier and Hoppel are both benefiting from the sport finally being cleaned up and Kenyans getting busted (and the likes of Amos going into hiding). How motivated would they have been 10 or 15 years ago losing to guys again and again that they knew were juiced?

six degrees wrote:

Nick has nothing left to prove in the 800.

He is 36 now? I'd love to follow his journey on youtube to run sub-4 mile at age 40.

Age 37: run 4:40

Age 38: run 4:20

Age 39: run 4:10

Age 40: sub 4:00

That's meaningless now after Lagat's post-40 exploits, so of course Symmonds would do it.

Soon Lagat will be 46. The plandemic blocked him from running the old man 45 year old sub 4, but now he can just run the old man 46 year old sub 4. Anyone who thinks he can't is nuts, if he takes a few months to train for it.

I don't think he would make teams which would lead to frustration and slower times and earlier retirement.