For years, critics slammed Eilish McColgan for being too skinny. Has she proved them wrong?

I couldn't agree more with your last sentence.

Well yes.

People always try to impose their view of what a healthy body should look like. This tends to veer towards the average-slob tendency of being trim, but with a slight excess of body fat.

I'm sorry to say, but if you want to be the best distance runner in the world, you're not going to do that with an average-joe-slob physique; especially if you're tall.

People seem to pay no attention to the builds of East Africans; they seemingly overlook that they are on average 8-10kgs lighter than their Western counterparts.

It's odd that Eilish should attract so much criticism, given that her mum was built exactly the same way - and most of her rivals are too, albeit she tends to be much taller than they are.

It's astonishing to me the comments that people send to McColgan about her weight. Serious kudos for her to even stay on social media and share her experiences.

Eilish is tall. All top athletes are skinny. She just looks thin because she's taller. She's the way you would expect her to be as a pro runner.

Her body is perfectly normal and anyone that has said otherwise is talking crap.

Shouldn't even be a talking point.

If she is "too skinny", what does that make KoKo?

It is absurd how skinny some runners are getting these days, and personally I'm not a fan of any of the 'weight cheats'. I'm guessing Semaglutide (Ozempic) is going to be a real game changer in this area as it will allow virtually anyone to be a 'weight cheat' if that is what they want.

Doesn't she have a history of stress fractures and other odd injuries? Sure it's part of the sport, and you shouldn't be harassing people about their weight, but let's not say there's no risks to being extremely skinny.

I have seen her in person and she definitely looks skinny to the point of being unhealthy. However in order to be competitive in long distance running and endurance sports in general, this body type is required.

Lauren Fleshman would like say…good for her, people shouldn’t be harassing McColgan because of her body type but equally it is not realistic to expect ALL female runners in HS, college or even the professional ranks to look like McColgan because of genetics.

Critics? You mean a$$wholes and LRC trolls? Yeah. They totally matter.

Klosterhalfen is 5cm shorter and 5 kilos lighter. Amazing.

These were the kind of kids in school who, if they were turned sideways when the teacher took attendance, got marked "absent."

She’s not too skinny for running. There’s a ton of things she is too skinny for. Sumo, tug-o-war, being a Kardashian, the list goes on and on.

Too skinny is a relative term.

Is it true that runners are getting skinnier? Or is it more that the average waistline of the average person is increasing?

If she were not a runner, there would be serious cause for concern.

Ludicrous.

All top endurance runners are very slim.

She is just tall compared to the East Africans are typically well below average height for a woman and so it accentuates her build. She is not even that tall 5'9 or 10. Nesxt to a load of 5'2 short arses she stands out. Their body fat would be very similar.

When I was running I could get down to 10st 7lb or even 10st 5 to 6 foot (why don't Americans use stone if you are going to stick with imperial do it right. Stone Pound ounce dram.

Anyway sneaked into a race for top uk runners and my dad said I looked like a body builder next to them. I could get my weight down purely by training but an international once said I had legs like a rugby player. Well that's not really a runners legs!

Look at Mo Farah that's what it takes. Bekele & Geb only looked slightly more bulky because they are both very short as are a lot of distance runners -less weight

A lot of wester distance runners are slightly overweight or bulky for distance.

A lot of it is down to severe diet restriction of East Africans. The look like typical Brits 100-120 yrs ago. They are half starved it affect height as well. An Ethiopian international told me of the lack of food growing up. Plus they don't have all the crap sugar and cakes we have. One day Kenya will become developed then their runners will disappear. Sooner once everyone realises like Kipro that they're not just skin and built to run...its off the back of EPO

This whole post should really be taken down and the moderators should know better.

Salazar was banned for life partly down to his weight shaming. Eilish is just built naturally like that with JH it was whatever old Salad Bar was up to and she noticably changed

Her improvement has nothing to do with weight and everything to do with adding a lot of mileage.

Thank you, and ignore the haters.

Check out the 3:30 pace group in a U.S. marathon. It’ll be full of dudes that could likely be sub-elite if not for the extra 50 to 75 pounds they’re carrying.

Hobby-jogger to sub-elite = -50~75lbs

I think additionally runners who we only usually see through the TV screen seem “larger” in build than they are in person. I was shocked when I first saw Letesenbet Gidey in the flesh. I had always thought she seemed a little more robust than her fellow Ethiopians and that is true - but only because they are so tiny and skinny. In person Gidey is very slender but oh so graceful