She was the 2018 NCAA outdoor 800m champ - pretty great college result.
Her freshman year Sammy Watson won the 2018 outdoor championships in 2:04.21, which isn't exactly a fast time. And she never was able to break 2:02 in college after running 2:00 in high school.
So her progression went like this:
2:00 - high school senior
2:02 - college freshman
2:06 - college sophomore
Her times were going in the wrong direction. Which is why everyone was shocked when she suddenly turned pro.
Sammy Watson is now running 2:02. There are 3 high school girls that are faster than that, not to mention a whole slew of college women and professional women.
Watson needs to either get quicker or get her degree and move on to another career.
Basically I don't disagree with you, but she's only 22, a lot of the new pros this year will be 24/25, so she has time still to give it a shot. We tend to crucify runners here, who don't improve in a straight line. If others had packed it in, we would not have had late success from Hasay, Seidel, Hall, DAmato etc.
Similarly, she has a nice contract that pays for college. Even if she combines her small nest egg with completion of a degree at 30 / maybe even a masters, with a resume of world youth champ, NCAA champ (time irrelevant ask Centro), pro runner, Sammy will still be able to make a good start in another career.
Stating opinion as fact is dangerous. You said she has better range than Mu. But Mu would beat her in 100-200-400-800. Just because Watson could beat her in a distance race where neither of them are competitive, is not better range. Watson is not world class like Mu. Watson is struggling in life because she is almost good enough but not quite and she didn't have a real college experience and she doesn't have a degree.
imagine if sifan hasan thought she was a 400m/800m specialist and only trained with those races in mind. to me, that is what sammy watson is doing.
she ran some excellent xc times in hs and was close to qualifying for NXN as an individual coming out of NY.
how many 400m/800m runners are nearly qualifying for NXN in high school?
how many 400m/800m runners throw down a 9:50 3000 or ~10:30 3200?
she is obviously a very talented 800m runner, but her results from hs (both her 400 and 800 lifetime prs were in hs) indicate she is in fact not a 400/800 specialist and is wasting her time training like one.
So you are saying Watson should stop training like a 400/800 runner and start training like a 800/1500 runner?
Her current coach, Jebreh Harris, specializes in training 400/800 runners so Watson would have to move to a different coach. Watson is sponsored by Adidas and there is an Adidas 800/1500 coach 100 miles south of where she is in Los Angeles (Terrance Mahon). Watson is obviously aware of him but maybe she doesn't like the idea of running more miles per week.
I'm curious as to what her training was like in high school, since her race times were better back then.
yeah, having looked into Sammy a bit more over the past 24 hours, i feel strongly that she should stop training like a 400/800 runner. her open 400 pr is about dead even with Mary Decker's best 4x4 split if i'm remembering correctly, which in itself is telling. not sure what Watson's best 4x4 split was in college (anybody know?).
the natural progression would be to start training as an 800/1500 runner if she moved up. i'm sure most would think it sounds crazy, but there's a real possibility the 8 isn't even her best event potentially. it could be the 15 or even 5000. until people put in real volume that sort of thing can't truly be known.
focusing on the 8/15 for this olympic cycle would be the logical thing if she decided to move up. then the next cycle if she was going to keep competing is where it would prob be determined if the 15/5000 makes more sense or stick with the 8/15 if it was working well.
man, i would LOVE to see her training with Mahon. is his group in carlsbad?
So you are saying Watson should stop training like a 400/800 runner and start training like a 800/1500 runner?
Her current coach, Jebreh Harris, specializes in training 400/800 runners so Watson would have to move to a different coach. Watson is sponsored by Adidas and there is an Adidas 800/1500 coach 100 miles south of where she is in Los Angeles (Terrance Mahon). Watson is obviously aware of him but maybe she doesn't like the idea of running more miles per week.
I'm curious as to what her training was like in high school, since her race times were better back then.
yeah, having looked into Sammy a bit more over the past 24 hours, i feel strongly that she should stop training like a 400/800 runner. her open 400 pr is about dead even with Mary Decker's best 4x4 split if i'm remembering correctly, which in itself is telling. not sure what Watson's best 4x4 split was in college (anybody know?).
the natural progression would be to start training as an 800/1500 runner if she moved up. i'm sure most would think it sounds crazy, but there's a real possibility the 8 isn't even her best event potentially. it could be the 15 or even 5000. until people put in real volume that sort of thing can't truly be known.
focusing on the 8/15 for this olympic cycle would be the logical thing if she decided to move up. then the next cycle if she was going to keep competing is where it would prob be determined if the 15/5000 makes more sense or stick with the 8/15 if it was working well.
man, i would LOVE to see her training with Mahon. is his group in carlsbad?
Mahon's group, called "Golden Coast Track Club" used to train in the middle of San Diego at a track that one of their members, Mac Fleet, had arranged for them to train at, since he is from San Diego and knows people. When Mac Fleet left the group they moved to a different track in the San Diego area, but I'm not sure which one exactly.
If Sammy Watson decides to go the 800/1500 route, they have plenty of 1500 runners for her to train with.
It is highly unusual to find a late blooming middle distance athlete.
It doesn't happen often, but last year when they were both 25 years old, Allie Wilson went from 2:02 in college down to 1:59, and Sadi Henderson went from 2:02 in college down to 1:58, so it can happen once in a while.
But in Sammy Watson's case, she wouldn't be a late bloomer, because she already bloomed. She needs to re-bloom.
2:00.65 in high school, plus 5 years of her body maturing, plus super spikes, she should be under 2 minutes already.