Around 5.29pm yesterday I, like we all were, witnessed the single most stunning moment of the trials as Donovan Brazier completely capitulated in the final 180 meters letting all but the leader pass him before clearly giving up in 800m final.
No upset will top this one - a young reigning world champ that has dominated the event since 2019 and was most certainly in the mix for the gold medal in Tokyo. A lot of speculation as to how this happened. Was it the heat (94) Was it the pace set by Jewett (50.6/1.15.8)? Well all of those are unlikely given the ability and experience of Brazier, but I heard last night after the race on good authority that Brazier has essentially a broken foot (stress fracture top of the foot near a metatarsal joint) which has compromised him all summer. It's the same foot that forced him to end his 2020 season early - the same foot that genius coach Pete Julian allowed him to race on with plantar fasciitis.
Before I get the LRC "source" "where's the proof" - you aren't going to get either. Of course I am not going to mention a source and the proof I guess will eventually come from group. But if you doubt this then just I'll point to my history of breaking stories on these boards (including DeGrasse pulling out of the world champs back in 2017 where I was sh$tcanned by a bunch of losers before the story was confirmed 48 hours later).
Of course Brazier is a champ and has not mentioned this directly but he did allude to in the Flotrack interview after the race. Jonathon Gault asks him if he was healthy and if anything else attributed to the result to which Brazier replies that he's "had some things bugging him but there's things that champions overcome". It's a stoic answer - but I don't think many champions can overcome something like this.
A think a lot of attention needs to be focused on boy wonder Pete Julian here. How did they not manage to figure out this issue in the most important year of his career (by far). As mentioned Julian has a history of letting Brazier "push through" or run on injuries (the p-f in 2020) - did this happen here? Many people could visibly see that Brazier wasn't himself this season - he did not look as convincing as a world champion in an Olympic year should look in races such as the Portland Track Festival where after Julian condescendingly pointed out that an athlete like Brazier isn't peaking for races like the PTF, and tried to feed us junk like Tonatiu Lopez is the hottest 800m runner in the world and Brazier still beat him. Well sure, but there is a difference between a guy a step behind because he is rounding into form and someone visibly under duress which is what Brazier has looked like all summer.
Anyway this is the situation. Feel very bad for Brazier and he handled it no excuses. Maybe the Brojos can swing their figurative dongs and try and get a response from Peter J to confirm this but there you have it - poor dude was running on a broken foot. Massive bummer