Kevin Beck can go off the rails, but he nails this one. Smart people do dumb things all the time. They lie, cheat, steal. How do you think we end up with businesses going bust, banks collapsing, scientists falsifying data, etc, etc. Athletes aren't uniquely immune to being stupid - many of them are palpably stupid, which is why Christian Coleman wasn't winning a gold medal this summer.
https://kevinbeck.substack.com/p/no-one-would-do-something-that-dumb
The article also contains two other highlights:
1. The perfect summary of Gladwell: "has made a career he never planned on from being intellectually dishonest in a thoughtful way"
2. The question that no journalist wants to answer: how does a 25 year-old athlete from being a 4:03/15:00 runner to being a 3:57/14:34 runner in a single year?