Maybe she got sick of being part of a team that is routinely touted as "eating burritos." If you were a clean runner, would you want to be constantly called a drug cheat online and have all of your accomplishments questioned just because another team member was busted?
Nobody cares what a bunch of 40 year old ex-D3 runners say about them on the internet. Get over yourself.
Btw get over it. BTC was dirty. Hardly unique in this sport. You could start with Houlihan going from a lifetime 5000 PR of 15:49 through her entire college career to 15:06 a year later after joining BTC. Clean living? Hard work? One of the usual bs excuses? It was PEDs. Duh. The entire team has gains like that. You think Houlihan and Schweizer for example could run 14:25 in the 5000 clean? We were not born yesterday.
That’s an unfair example. Houlihan didn’t focus on the 5000 in college. Her focus was on the 800 and 1500 (her Twitter handle is still shelbo800). If you want to use her improvement as the basis of your suspicion, the only fair event to analyze is her times in the 1500.
Btw get over it. BTC was dirty. Hardly unique in this sport. You could start with Houlihan going from a lifetime 5000 PR of 15:49 through her entire college career to 15:06 a year later after joining BTC. Clean living? Hard work? One of the usual bs excuses? It was PEDs. Duh. The entire team has gains like that. You think Houlihan and Schweizer for example could run 14:25 in the 5000 clean? We were not born yesterday.
That’s an unfair example. Houlihan didn’t focus on the 5000 in college. Her focus was on the 800 and 1500 (her Twitter handle is still shelbo800). If you want to use her improvement as the basis of your suspicion, the only fair event to analyze is her times in the 1500.
Ok. We will. She went from 4:09 to 3:54 in like 3 years. Also, the stupid 800 thing is so overblown. She ran 8 years of xc and did a fair amount of 5ks and mileage. She clings to being an 800 runner because it was good cover but she was a distance runner in hs and college make no mistake.
I could be wrong, but didn’t GDS make a pro-Shelby post or story on Instagram last June?
Perhaps it disappeared after being a story or was later removed if it was a post?
Like I said, I could be wrong, but if this did happen (together with the fact that her sister is still involved with BTC) it would illustrate that this is more emotional (fatigue) than it is actually related to a belief that Shelby broke rules.
There were a lot of people, myself included, who believed Shelby innocent at first. The press conference was super convincing spin before we had all the facts. Being her friend might cause you to favor her more. It’s ok that she changed her mind and deleted the post.
That’s an unfair example. Houlihan didn’t focus on the 5000 in college. Her focus was on the 800 and 1500 (her Twitter handle is still shelbo800). If you want to use her improvement as the basis of your suspicion, the only fair event to analyze is her times in the 1500.
15 seconds (!) over 1500 after age 22, breakthrough in her 3rd year with BTC:
Houlihan, born February 1993, 1500 and 5000 m progression 2013 4:13.64 16:15.85 age 20 2014 4:10.89 16:11.63 age 21 2015 4:09.62 15:49.72 age 22, moved to BTC 2016 4:03.39 15:06.14 age 23 2017 4:06.22 15:00.37 age 24 2018 3:57.34 14:34.45 age 25 5000 m American Record 2019 3:54.99 15:15.50 age 26 1500 m American Record 2020 4:02.37 14:23.92 age 27 5000 m American Record, popped for roids (and banned from January 2021 - 2025)
Ok. We will. She went from 4:09 to 3:54 in like 3 years. Also, the stupid 800 thing is so overblown. She ran 8 years of xc and did a fair amount of 5ks and mileage. She clings to being an 800 runner because it was good cover but she was a distance runner in hs and college make no mistake.
Dumb comparison. Pulisic helps Chelsea win games as a team. Chelsea can compete for team championships with Pulisic’s help. BTC doesn’t compete in any duel meets as a team, and there are no team championships for them to win. There is no comparable track team league to the Premier League.
International competition medals matter most in our sport. They are what every top tier athlete trains for. How would USA track fans feel if a Schumacher-coached GDS had beaten out Elle Purrier St. Pierre for the bronze medal in the women’s 1500 at last summer’s Olympics?
How will USA track fans feel if Ollie Hoare finishes just ahead of Cole Hocker for the bronze medal in the men’s 1500 at this year’s world championships? I know how I’ll feel: angry that Ritz betrayed his country!
These clubs are privately run and funded. They don't belong to the American public.
Understood and obvious. That doesn’t change the fact that American coaches are helping runners from other countries to beat Americans. They are prioritizing affiliation with a private running company over allegiance to their country. They are choosing dollars over patriotism. Sad.
I disagree with Rojo, something big went down--we're not "making too big of a deal out of it". No one from BTC is liking her post, no one is commenting, BTC isn't even acknowledging she left on their own instagram. She left because she doesn't believe Shelby.
The chemistry on BTC has really eroded in recent years. It went from a team of young, fun fresh faced runners that genuinely liked each other to a collection of marrieds, singles, low key personalities, and a group that doesn't seem to have any real team spirit. A bunch of hired guns that train with each other and that's about it.
What changed?
Pressure - with the demise of NOP, all eyes looked to BTC as the saviors of American distance fortunes. Big turnover in recent years has made the athletes who are not medalists, NR holders, and Olympians increasingly nervous. Nike demanding more and more social media engagement.
Corporate Culture - Nike is increasingly becoming just another soulless corporate entity. The old guard track nuts are mostly retired or marginalized by the tech industry guys running the place. No one inside really cares and I wouldn't be surprised if Schumacher and the sports marketing people are under the constant scrutiny of. "How does this this make us money, again?" from the new leadership.
BurritoGate - the sheen is off of the program because of how this was handled.
Loyalty to Shelby - this is the really weird thing. They haven't cut her off, they still seem to be coaching her and allowing access to resources, they let her store her VW van on a WHQ parking lot, etc.
Coach Shalane - when she became a coach, something changed in the team dynamic. Rumors are that many younger women didn't appreciate being "mothered" by Flanagan.
Inside/Outside Circles - the team has become very cliquey. Old vs. New, Stanford Alum circle, Marrieds vs. Singles, the whole Shelby vs. Squigs rivalry.
Personalities - There are just a lot of boring athletes on the team now. Work hard and go home for the evening just like an office job. It is not the happy and fun loving collegiate team atmosphere that it once enjoyed.
Too Many Experiments/Favors - Centro, Gwen, Keiran, Radcliffe. Did/Do these athletes enhance the team experience or take away from it?
Strange times in Beaverton, indeed. I am not surprised that GDS walked away. With Houlihan out plus Quigley and Johnson gone, all the attention has shifted away from the middle distances. It's a mostly 5/10 focused club now. I suspect that Lucia will depart for Victoria soon as well.
Understood and obvious. That doesn’t change the fact that American coaches are helping runners from other countries to beat Americans. They are prioritizing affiliation with a private running company over allegiance to their country. They are choosing dollars over patriotism. Sad.
Who the f cares? Why should anyone care about a country when it comes to bettering their career? That’s insane. I hope you work for an American owned company. If you don’t, you better quit asap even if it means taking a pay cut
she mentioned the situation itself affected her, no surprise. it affected everyone. that said, she did NOT say anything to her personal feelings/believes towards Shelby's guilt or innocence, so lets not turn this into another soap opera.
The chemistry on BTC has really eroded in recent years. It went from a team of young, fun fresh faced runners that genuinely liked each other to a collection of marrieds, singles, low key personalities, and a group that doesn't seem to have any real team spirit. A bunch of hired guns that train with each other and that's about it.
What changed?
Pressure - with the demise of NOP, all eyes looked to BTC as the saviors of American distance fortunes. Big turnover in recent years has made the athletes who are not medalists, NR holders, and Olympians increasingly nervous. Nike demanding more and more social media engagement.
Corporate Culture - Nike is increasingly becoming just another soulless corporate entity. The old guard track nuts are mostly retired or marginalized by the tech industry guys running the place. No one inside really cares and I wouldn't be surprised if Schumacher and the sports marketing people are under the constant scrutiny of. "How does this this make us money, again?" from the new leadership.
BurritoGate - the sheen is off of the program because of how this was handled.
Loyalty to Shelby - this is the really weird thing. They haven't cut her off, they still seem to be coaching her and allowing access to resources, they let her store her VW van on a WHQ parking lot, etc.
Coach Shalane - when she became a coach, something changed in the team dynamic. Rumors are that many younger women didn't appreciate being "mothered" by Flanagan.
Inside/Outside Circles - the team has become very cliquey. Old vs. New, Stanford Alum circle, Marrieds vs. Singles, the whole Shelby vs. Squigs rivalry.
Personalities - There are just a lot of boring athletes on the team now. Work hard and go home for the evening just like an office job. It is not the happy and fun loving collegiate team atmosphere that it once enjoyed.
Too Many Experiments/Favors - Centro, Gwen, Keiran, Radcliffe. Did/Do these athletes enhance the team experience or take away from it?
Strange times in Beaverton, indeed. I am not surprised that GDS walked away. With Houlihan out plus Quigley and Johnson gone, all the attention has shifted away from the middle distances. It's a mostly 5/10 focused club now. I suspect that Lucia will depart for Victoria soon as well.
The loyalty to me seems indicative of Shelby's innocence. And you can't say they're all just covering for her because they all get tested constantly too. Grant Fisher even talked about clean athletes on the podcast. I think GDS just got sick of other people questioning her and the team because of Shelby, and she never had a connection to Shelby or the rest of the team so it wasn't worth it. Plus she doesn't have much in common with the rest of the team it seems.