Does it matter? Gault and his employer are on Teare’s sh** list and he will not talk to them or give them a quote. When Teare wins a US championship, makes an Olympic team, or sets an American record, he is now going straight to Citius or Runners World to chat. Hours later, Gault and a sleep deprived Rojo will be having to fill time speculating about Cooper’s training and mindset from message board posts. Was the scoop worth it?
Citius is a fanmag. They don't do real journalism; they kiss up to athletes for access and present them in the best possible light. Real journalists aren't friends with their subjects:
So is LRC. The only difference is LRC only fangirls over certain athletes, and feels like it has a separate journalism division where they go after the rest. At least Citius admits it's athlete-first.
I consider myself a big fan of Teare. I made a tshirt promoting his beef with Centro as I loved it. I went of my way to track him down after he crawled across the finish line at NCAAs (interview below). I emphatically stated on the podcast without hesitation he'd have a better career than Olli Hoare (the last few monhts have me a little nervous but he's faster at 800 and 5000 and hasn't trained at altitude). Yes, I wish he'd gone to World Indoors but he couldnt' have done that anyway as he got Covid. I don't have a real problem with Indoor time trials at all - he should be thanked for racing indoors to begin with considering so many US stars like Jenny SImpson just blow it off.
You may not watch his youtube stuff but young people do. I recently started coaching a very talented HSer whose coach got sick. I asked him, "Hey what training have you been doing all summer?" Answer: "I"ve been watching a lot of Leo and Lex youtube and just doing that."
This is probably the equivalent of something you'd say to your friends while getting ready to go out on a Friday night. The problem that young people face nowadays is every random thought they have seems to get recorded for posterity on a podcast, facebook post, instagram,etc.
I think Weldon is reaching out to Cooper to see if he'll come on the podcast. We'll even kick that Jonathan Gault guy off for a week if need be ;)
Now you're the one overreacting. No one is saying this is a big deal, the consensus seems to be that Teare is immature. Fine. Are you trying to change that narrative now? Sounds like you're trying to damage control to get back in his good graces.
Citius is a fanmag. They don't do real journalism; they kiss up to athletes for access and present them in the best possible light. Real journalists aren't friends with their subjects:
Newsflash - LRC doesn't do journalism either. It is the TMZ of running - hot takes, rumors, message board antics, aggregating the work of others and then using it as the basis of their own reporting, etc. Please name a major story in the sport that LRC has broken? Please cite a moment where LRC got an exclusive interview that had not already been done by another site or publication?
A lot of us come here to keep up on the sport but LRC is not some paragon of sports journalism nor are they the primary conduit of choice for anyone truly important in this sport. If they were, then the content during major championships would not be Gault and The Brojos doing a performative wrap-up show/Zoom meeting from their AirBnB.
A few points of order. People are making too big a deal of Teare's comments. And also wasn't the word "friend" used as well in close association of Jonathan Gault's name:) But I want to respond to your comments above.
I take offense you say we don't do running journalism. If we don't do running journalism then nobody does. One of the highlights of my year was seeing the NYTimes write "Letsrun.com, the influential website that serves as something of a superego for American running". Interpret it how you will.
I think you could be a journalist and never break news, but this whole thread is about a story we broke that an athlete wishes we didn't break.
If you think being the primary conduit of choice for anyone is journalism I think you're a bit misguided on what journalism is, but we talk to athletes all the time without other members of the media present if that's your definition of journalism. I loved talking to Frank Shorter for over 1.5 hours on the 50th anniversary of his 1972 gold two weeks ago. Last month we had the story of Chris Derrick's retirement. After Keira D'Amato broke the American record in the marathon we got her and Deena together for a joint podcast, that was one of my favorites this year. The pro coaching series we did as well was enjoyable this year.
Talking to athletes after the 5th Avenue Mile or before the London Marathon where other members of the media are present is still journalism.
Jonathan Gault does the best journalism on our site. Just look at some of his highlights here:
Where else are you going to read a story about the Olympic Marathon Trials host still not being selected?
But my biggest gripe is you think the major content we product at major championships is the "performative wrap-up show" we do. We added the recap shows primarily for our Supporters Club members and they have been received really well.
However, the major content we product at major championships is our articles - previews, recaps, and analysis of all the major action. This takes a lot of time and effort. It's one of reasons we're the last people to leave a Word Championship every night (we used to be the last but now we often go record the podcast and then write for hours after that). Listen to the TV broadcasts, talk to the TV broadcasters, you'll often here them citing our information. There are very few entities that cover distance running as a sport and we take doing that as almost as an obligation. Is Runners World previewing the Weltklasse final?
A lot of what journalists do is covering and analyzing events, putting things in perspective and holding people accountable. Those I think are our strengths.
I listen to the LRC podcast, which by the way is quite entertaining. In this week's segment Cooper Teare put Jon Gault (and LRC) on his banned list for breaking the news regarding his move to BTC. He said it was "lame" that J. Gault did not give him a chance to be the one to break the news.
I've disagreed with Gault vehemently on many occasions, but NOT IN THIS INSTANCE. He is absolutely well within his rights to report the news, especially when he gave Cooper a heads-up and a chance to respond. If anything, the athlete comes across as childish and immature who does not know how to deal with the press.
What say you?
I think this was well said. I disagree with Gault & LRC often but this is an instance of them doing their actual jobs. As long as Gault reached out for comment, I don't see the problem. There are plenty of valid reasons for putting this place on the banned list. This wouldn't even crack my top-100.
Newsflash - LRC doesn't do journalism either. It is the TMZ of running - hot takes, rumors, message board antics, aggregating the work of others and then using it as the basis of their own reporting, etc. Please name a major story in the sport that LRC has broken? Please cite a moment where LRC got an exclusive interview that had not already been done by another site or publication?
A lot of us come here to keep up on the sport but LRC is not some paragon of sports journalism nor are they the primary conduit of choice for anyone truly important in this sport. If they were, then the content during major championships would not be Gault and The Brojos doing a performative wrap-up show/Zoom meeting from their AirBnB.
A few points of order. People are making too big a deal of Teare's comments. And also wasn't the word "friend" used as well in close association of Jonathan Gault's name:) But I want to respond to your comments above.
I take offense you say we don't do running journalism. If we don't do running journalism then nobody does. One of the highlights of my year was seeing the NYTimes write "Letsrun.com, the influential website that serves as something of a superego for American running". Interpret it how you will.
I think you could be a journalist and never break news, but this whole thread is about a story we broke that an athlete wishes we didn't break.
If you think being the primary conduit of choice for anyone is journalism I think you're a bit misguided on what journalism is, but we talk to athletes all the time without other members of the media present if that's your definition of journalism. I loved talking to Frank Shorter for over 1.5 hours on the 50th anniversary of his 1972 gold two weeks ago. Last month we had the story of Chris Derrick's retirement. After Keira D'Amato broke the American record in the marathon we got her and Deena together for a joint podcast, that was one of my favorites this year. The pro coaching series we did as well was enjoyable this year.
Talking to athletes after the 5th Avenue Mile or before the London Marathon where other members of the media are present is still journalism.
Jonathan Gault does the best journalism on our site. Just look at some of his highlights here:
Where else are you going to read a story about the Olympic Marathon Trials host still not being selected?
But my biggest gripe is you think the major content we product at major championships is the "performative wrap-up show" we do. We added the recap shows primarily for our Supporters Club members and they have been received really well.
However, the major content we product at major championships is our articles - previews, recaps, and analysis of all the major action. This takes a lot of time and effort. It's one of reasons we're the last people to leave a Word Championship every night (we used to be the last but now we often go record the podcast and then write for hours after that). Listen to the TV broadcasts, talk to the TV broadcasters, you'll often here them citing our information. There are very few entities that cover distance running as a sport and we take doing that as almost as an obligation. Is Runners World previewing the Weltklasse final?
A lot of what journalists do is covering and analyzing events, putting things in perspective and holding people accountable. Those I think are our strengths.
Wejo's mini rant is over!
Hillarious how it us who make a "too big of a deal" out of Teares comments when we shake our heads of his immaturity, while you write an extremely lengthy defence speech as a reaction to an anonymous poster saying LRC sucks.
That’s not the first time he’s had a hissy fit like that. Remember when he got pissed at that Ben kid for posting his workout splits?
Why are some athletes so secretive about training? Are Jakob or Jake Wightman gonna change what they are doing because they saw what pace you were doing mile reps at?
I get not sharing the entire training log, but freaking out over a single workout getting "leaked" is strange to me.
I don’t like Lagat, but I remember him addressing this issue. He basically said, and I’m paraphrasing: “Here are my workouts. I don’t give a F. Go do them yourself, dawg. Beat me if you can.”
I listen to the LRC podcast, which by the way is quite entertaining. In this week's segment Cooper Teare put Jon Gault (and LRC) on his banned list for breaking the news regarding his move to BTC. He said it was "lame" that J. Gault did not give him a chance to be the one to break the news.
I've disagreed with Gault vehemently on many occasions, but NOT IN THIS INSTANCE. He is absolutely well within his rights to report the news, especially when he gave Cooper a heads-up and a chance to respond. If anything, the athlete comes across as childish and immature who does not know how to deal with the press.
What say you?
I think this was well said. I disagree with Gault & LRC often but this is an instance of them doing their actual jobs. As long as Gault reached out for comment, I don't see the problem. There are plenty of valid reasons for putting this place on the banned list. This wouldn't even crack my top-100.
WHAT? Cooper is a 3:34.81 13:06.73 runner at age 23. No I do not count indoor times. How the hell is he going to medal? His chances are really not very good.
I’m pretty sure “the truth” meant “Teare has no right to throw his weight around; run sub-3:30 or medal and then you can talk.” He’s not predicting a medal.
Yeah I knew what he meant BUT it is not realistic that Cooper will ever medal and so interjecting it into a conversation about whether he has the right to speak his mind seems absurd.
Teare's move to BTC was the worst kept secret of the summer. What is a reasonable amount of time that an outlet should grant an athlete to make such an announcement himself? Not THIS long.
Let's face it. If anyone is at fault here, it's Jerry/BTC/Nike for not having a vehicle to announce athletes joining the team. Nike never announces athletes signings, so it's either up to the athlete, or Jerry/BTC to do so, and Jerry obviously doesn't care about such things.
Contrast this with ON, which promptly put out releases/posts about all their top signings this year (yes, I realize it's a bit different, since Teare was already Nike, but still).
Why did Letsrun sit on the Chris Derrick retirement story for the better part of a year in order to allow him to break the news on his own terms, yet not allow Cooper to do the same here?
Why did Letsrun sit on the Chris Derrick retirement story for the better part of a year in order to allow him to break the news on his own terms, yet not allow Cooper to do the same here?
This is much ado about NOTHING. The bigger story here is why is Cooper joining a tainted organization? Why Cooper? Money? You don’t mind the taint? Your move Cooper.
Isn't Teare well within his right to not talk to Jon Gault and LRC if he doesn't like the way they do things?
He is. He'll soon find out that like it or not, Letsrun is the main news source for the running world. No one else reports breaking news. Runnersworld publishes things after they happen in magazine-like format. That's fine, but if you really want to know what's up, you come to Letsrun.
