Big Red wrote:
I am curious about the history of Rupp hating at Let's Run. It started long before the Salazar ban, it started long before the Olympic 10,000 silver, before Mo Farah joined the Oregon project.
Was it because of the he-man, regular Joe image of Chris Solinsky, and other runners that got the build-up at Let's Run? sort of "I'll take the blue collar guy anytime over Rupp?"
I'm a fan of distance running, and U.S. distance running in particular. I'm a Rupp fan since 2006.
I've been on Letsrun (and was on Dyestat) since 2001. I've never been a Rupp fanboi, but I have greatly respected his accomplishments and abilities - same for Centro (who shares equal disdain here).
The Rupp negativity started when he was getting professional coaching from Al Sal, went Pro out of US, then ended up un-Proing and going to Oregon. The approach and path to his success was disconnected and overthought when compared to the resurgence of distance running and mileage-based approaches in the early 2000s. You had runners like Ritz, Hall, Solinsky, Withrow, McDougal, Magness etc etc and books like OAR and RWTB providing examples of hard work, miles and dedication creating success.
Rupp's paid-for, Nike-backed, private-school-reality approach left a bad taste when he came out of HS. He didn't have massive success early on at Oregon and that seemed to satisfy the haters. But once his SR campaign happened and the beast was loose, people had to work hard to hate on him. Too much success, too good of range, too much consistency from 2008-on. Only Solinsky stealing his 10,000m thunder and the Al Sal fallout really provided ammo to discredit his character.