44 ex-Colorado runners have publicly come to the defense of Colorado track and field and cross country coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs, voicing their support and sharing their positive experiences at the University...
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There was another thread on this topic which has been closed to new posts. The thread needlessly focused on one runner supporting Wetmore instead of the main issue at hand.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKq87fOR2_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_linkWhat do we think?They have every right to state their opinion, but the whole "he was nice to meeeeee" thing shouldn't have any bearing on an open investigati...
I deleted some posts that came up from non-registered users as I hadn't had time to make it "registered users" only. Anyway, here is an instagram post that has the document signed by the alums. It's in the article but I know some people won't bother to read it.
Great to see. Everyone wants to be a victim in todays worlds. One girl that was raised poorly shouldn’t be able ruin someone’s career that did nothing wrong
Athlete tries collegiate running and it doesn’t work out. They weren’t a good fit. Athlete is bitter, blames coaches, and wants to get their pound of flesh. It happens a lot.
Civil discourse is in decline, with potentially dire results for American democracy.On college campuses across America, visiting speakers are disinvited, or ...
Coach that marries former athlete means that some form of grooming was going on when he coached her. These 44 athletes are playing a dangerous game, as they don't know what the investigation will unearth.
Interesting none of (Joe) Klecker, Dressel and Herrera signed on. And is Blake Theroux the only AA man in the last 8 or so years to sign? No Murphy, no Pearson, no Moussa. The AA women from that time period seem on board.
Also to the post on the prior thread about Nelson’s silence - you have to wonder if he got a package or signed an NDA on his way out the door?
In this case, I stopped a thread that was needlessly harrassing Kara Goucher and started a new one. So I did the opposite of what you allege.
As for the article, I simply wrote a factual article talking about how a bunch of alums, many of them quite prominent, came out in support of the coaches. I didn't see any other running pubications reporting this fact and thought that was ridiculous as the allegations were widely reported in prominent publications. I'm all for reporting both sides.
But I also linked to the accusations at hand. And I also mentioned some of the names of the prominent alums not on the list.
You seem to be upset that it's a fact that I reported a former NCAA champ says Wetmore did the opposite of encourage an eating disorder.
What else do you want me to do? Figure out every alum not on the list? I didn't want this to turn into a focus of individuals but maybe it's worth mentioning some other names not on there that are prominent: Olympian Shayn Culpper, Olympian and long time assistant Billy Nelson, former assistant Jay Johnson aren't on the list. There you go.
1. Most of not all the alums writing this letter and posting it to their prominent social media channels were not there in 2017-2019 when the allegations occurred.
2. The whole "No one asked us" thing is a bit self centered. Why would investigators ask any of you about Wetmore and Burroughs? Again, this is an investigation centered around potential HIPAA violations. That's what they are trying to get to the bottom of. It's not to find out why kind of guy Mark is.
3. I get it's hard to watch someone you care about under this level of scrutiny, but Adam Goucher's use of cancel culture is not appropriate here. Again, there were multiple allegations of HIPAA violations. That needs to be looked into.
4. Maybe it was unfair to target Kara, but Kara, unlike the others, has been a major major advocate for speaking up against abusive coaching practices. She has put herself in the center of the firestorm and gained attention, admiration, and also blowback as a result of her doing so. She knows firsthand how hard it is. To see her the turn around and not offer support or at least the respect of remaining neutral to someone who is also alleging abuse was jarring. If nothing happened the investigation will show it. Kara using her platform to undermine an accuser (I'm sorry but that's what this letter does) flies in the face of what she stands for, and no amount of lip service ("I'm not invalidating anyone's story!") can change that.
5. To be clear, I'm not sure I believe Mark is an abusive coach. But there is an investigation and that should be respected until it's concluded.
1.) If the 44 saw or accepted some practices others would deem inacceptable, they would have a lot at stake to say, oh, now I have a problem with Wetmore. By signing this statement, they are protecting themselves as well.
2.) What is OK with some isn't OK with others. Some accept that losing weight helps in athletics; others find it offensive and wrong. (For me, the truth is somewhere in between.)
3.) Those who didn't sign just want to move on or don't want to be involved. It's not necessarily a statement on Wetmore et. al.
4.) Based on my fan observations, some CU runners did have weight loss during the program and even spoke about it afterwards. However, it has never been clear to me if there was coaching pressure or a personal perogative to do so.
1. Most of not all the alums writing this letter and posting it to their prominent social media channels were not there in 2017-2019 when the allegations occurred.
2. The whole "No one asked us" thing is a bit self centered. Why would investigators ask any of you about Wetmore and Burroughs? Again, this is an investigation centered around potential HIPAA violations. That's what they are trying to get to the bottom of. It's not to find out why kind of guy Mark is.
3. I get it's hard to watch someone you care about under this level of scrutiny, but Adam Goucher's use of cancel culture is not appropriate here. Again, there were multiple allegations of HIPAA violations. That needs to be looked into.
4. Maybe it was unfair to target Kara, but Kara, unlike the others, has been a major major advocate for speaking up against abusive coaching practices. She has put herself in the center of the firestorm and gained attention, admiration, and also blowback as a result of her doing so. She knows firsthand how hard it is. To see her the turn around and not offer support or at least the respect of remaining neutral to someone who is also alleging abuse was jarring. If nothing happened the investigation will show it. Kara using her platform to undermine an accuser (I'm sorry but that's what this letter does) flies in the face of what she stands for, and no amount of lip service ("I'm not invalidating anyone's story!") can change that.
5. To be clear, I'm not sure I believe Mark is an abusive coach. But there is an investigation and that should be respected until it's concluded.
This pretty much sums it up for me as well. We collectively and many of the alums that have showed support for Wetmore don't know what took place.
This is akin to a friend of a murderer saying, well I never saw them murder me or my friends! But they are being accused of murder, so maybe we should wait and see what the evidence all says.
I will leave you with this quote from Wetmore himself (if he said this in public....what might he say behind closed doors?)
"You should look like a skeleton with a condom pulled over your skull"
I have no dog in this fight, I've read RWTB and am honestly indifferent to whether Wetmore and Burroughs remain in CU's employ. This article is really just a report about a social media campaign and it's noticabley light critical questions. I look at and see it as essentially amplifying their crusade in the court of public opinion. I read the other thread and if Kara had the courage of her convictions then she would be standing up to or at least ignoring critical response to her post rather than deleting it. She has a book to sell, however, so it's understandable that she can't risk turning off any potential customers. It's entirely predictable that anyone who was a Buff all-American would sign on. No surprise that Jay Johnson isn't on the list, a bit more unexpected to not see Billy Nelson, Alan and Shayne Culpepper, Joe Klecker, or pro level marathoners Laura Thweatt and Carrie Verdon listed. Also no Madison Boreman, Rachel McArthur, Lalo Herrera, John Dressel, or Ben Saarel. And that's only those who are fairly prominent names, these 44 are just a small fraction of the varsity runners from about 30 years of Wetmore's coaching career there. They just had a track and xc reunion a couple years ago, they should have contact info from the alumni office for everyone still connected to the program and that's not a lot of good response to collect in two weeks. It's several big names trying to shout down the 14 whistleblowers. There are no heroes here.
In this case, I stopped a thread that was needlessly harrassing Kara Goucher and started a new one. So I did the opposite of what you allege.
As for the article, I simply wrote a factual article talking about how a bunch of alums, many of them quite prominent, came out in support of the coaches. I didn't see any other running pubications reporting this fact and thought that was ridiculous as the allegations were widely reported in prominent publications. I'm all for reporting both sides.
But I also linked to the accusations at hand. And I also mentioned some of the names of the prominent alums not on the list.
You seem to be upset that it's a fact that I reported a former NCAA champ says Wetmore did the opposite of encourage an eating disorder.
What else do you want me to do? Figure out every alum not on the list? I didn't want this to turn into a focus of individuals but maybe it's worth mentioning some other names not on there that are prominent: Olympian Shayn Culpper, Olympian and long time assistant Billy Nelson, former assistant Jay Johnson aren't on the list. There you go.
I want to also add one thing--at least one of the accuser's names are public. Say what you will about this person, but she does not have the platforms that these athletes have. Posting this, without knowledge of what did or did not happen to that accuser can be seen as targeting her too. Again, there were 44 athletes who wrote stories, but Kara in particular has been an advocate for victims.
Yeah....LOL @ Kara. If anyone defended Salazar I'm sure she did or would have lost it on them. What happened to "#believewomen!" "#Believe the Accuser!" "#believe their truth!" ???
As we've seen time and time again , one sees that all go by the wayside when the person being accused is a friend of yours or someone you like. Suddenly the narrative instead becomes: DON'T believe! Believe the accused!
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
In this case, I stopped a thread that was needlessly harrassing Kara Goucher and started a new one. So I did the opposite of what you allege.
As for the article, I simply wrote a factual article talking about how a bunch of alums, many of them quite prominent, came out in support of the coaches. I didn't see any other running pubications reporting this fact and thought that was ridiculous as the allegations were widely reported in prominent publications. I'm all for reporting both sides.
But I also linked to the accusations at hand. And I also mentioned some of the names of the prominent alums not on the list.
You seem to be upset that it's a fact that I reported a former NCAA champ says Wetmore did the opposite of encourage an eating disorder.
What else do you want me to do? Figure out every alum not on the list? I didn't want this to turn into a focus of individuals but maybe it's worth mentioning some other names not on there that are prominent: Olympian Shayn Culpper, Olympian and long time assistant Billy Nelson, former assistant Jay Johnson aren't on the list. There you go.
(1) you don't want me to post the TRUTH here about how you are constantly pushing your agenda on the boards?
a REAL story would ask the question whether Wetmore created an environment that encouraged eating disorders. And you could find facts and people on both sides. Will you do that? I'm asking
(2) "Factual article." Okay, and written with the AGENDA to shame the victims. Reporting is about finding the truth, not about reinforcing your preconceived notions.
(3) There is plenty of information about how Wetmore created situations that encouraged eating disorders. But did you do any reporting on this? No, of course not. Will you? No, you won't. Because you have an AGENDA
(4) What do I want you to do? I want you to actually do some REAL and BALANCED reporting.
What you need to do is what I already said: a story that asks whether Wetmore created an environment that encouraged eating disorders? Your reporting, assuming you know how to report, will find people on BOTH sides of the aisle, and the reader can MAKE THEIR OWN OPINIONS
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Reason provided:
Rojo will never write a real investigative piece on this topic bc he's not a real reporter
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