sometimes wrote:
Young Nico wrote:
Going pro out of high school makes you slower than not going pro but your expectation is that he should be faster because he went pro? Okay. He should be faster and slower. He is happy with his performance. His coach is happy. His sponsor is happy with the contract. His girlfriend is happy. His parents are happy. But you watch him from your basement for 13 minutes and you think he made a mistake by taking $1M because he would be faster by going to college but be should be faster because he did not go to college. Thank you for all of the logical and considerate feedback. His sponsor will probably terminate his contract for exceeding their expectations but not yours.
Dude. It’s not that complicated. If you have two 22 year olds, one who runs pro, and one who just finished his ncaa career, you would expect that the pro, who doesn’t have to deal with classes and has 24/7 to run and recover, would be faster than the collegiate athlete.
However, over the long term, it’s reasonable to expect that the college runner closes the time gap, or maybe even passes the runner that turned pro out of high school because they’ve had easier training in college and less commitment to the sport than a pro athlete does.
What about when you take into consideration that the pro athlete has been injured for an extended period of time last year and has not had ideal training coming into this season? And that Oregon and NAU runners likely don’t have the heaviest class load? And have better facilities than the pro? And the fact that the college runners are on scholarship so they too are basically payed to run? And how about the fact that for many pro runners there is an adjustment period to pro training and living at altitude that collegiate runners might still have to go through? Progression is not linear through an entire career. Hunter would have beat both of these guys last summer. Right now the collegiate runners are better. Should Drew be beating them? probably. BUT you have to consider these other factors which show that he was beating their times and might soon be beating them again. AND realize that these college kids are training at a very high level as well also under the top coaches in the world and will not magically improve the second they turn pro.