You're all right, 36 year olds are usually at their peak athletic ability. No other possibility for his drop in performance other than him being off the sauce.
I'm not saying Rupp is going to do it, but Meb Keflezighi was looking extremely washed up with a 23rd-place 2:23 NY Marathon in 2013, at age 38. He won Boston Marathon less than a year later. So, it's possible; not likely, but possible.
Rupp has shown that he's willing to race when he's not at his best against top fields. He could be mailing it in, racing lower tier races against lower tier runners. Instead, he's going out there and taking a beating.
It's past time for "rupp certified" to be retired.
Our best have gold medals, look at the sprints. If your best doesn't have golds, plural, are they really your best when you have other athletes with multiple gold medals?
sat on the starting line of the oly trials marathon, and it was never in doubt. No one in the US will beat him in 2024, either.
Our greatest American born male distance runner of all time, and 2nd after Lagat for all American males, and all people want to do is tear the dude down.
He is old. Things start to tweak weirdly at that age especially after years of high end training. He still might have enough left to make the marathon team if everything clicks on the race day. American men's field is pretty weak.
He’s really not that old by today’s standards. If you don’t think there was a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy with a lot of the stuff Alberto was giving/ rubbing on Galen, I envy your naivety
He's a marathoner who has been running and training at a high level for very long time. Dude ran in the 2008 Olympic 10k finals. How's everyone from 2012 doing? How about the American team from Rio?
I think it's naive to ignore how difficult it is to maintain consistently at that level even when you're not 36. For every Kipchoge or Beleke there's dozens of anonymous-to-letsrun guys who ran a fast marathon out in some desert time trial, probably faster than Rupp, and then never did it again--and certainly never won a WMM medal.
Our best have gold medals, look at the sprints. If your best doesn't have golds, plural, are they really your best when you have other athletes with multiple gold medals?
Weird take. No one said he's the greatest American track and field athlete, but he's clearly among the best marathoners (and best distance runners overall) the country has ever produced.
Can’t win without a mechanical advantage and without doping
All runners (elite, average or below) have their own biological clock. Some tap out early and others continue on. Why bash a guy who has performed better at all levels than anyone posting on this board?
I thought I was elite caliber back in the day. But runner's dystonia sent me on another path at 24 years old (didn't find out the cause until some 35 years later). Sucked at the time, but that was that.
Heard in the Ben true interview by letsrun that’s Galen rupp was “limping by”…just age or was he injured in the race? Looks like his best days are behind him now that he’s off the Salazar high test
LRC note: The poster is referencing LetsRun.com's Wejo saying "I saw him [Galen Rupp] limping out of here"
I know it’s fun to crap on people and it seems like Rupp is clearly washed, but try to act classy for once. I know it’s hard on Letsrun where everyone has to a nihilist jerk who only wants to tear people down but maybe just once appreciate some greatness
Heard in the Ben true interview by letsrun that’s Galen rupp was “limping by”…just age or was he injured in the race? Looks like his best days are behind him now that he’s off the Salazar high test
LRC note: The poster is referencing LetsRun.com's Wejo saying "I saw him [Galen Rupp] limping out of here"
I know it’s fun to crap on people and it seems like Rupp is clearly washed, but try to act classy for once. I know it’s hard on Letsrun where everyone has to a nihilist jerk who only wants to tear people down but maybe just once appreciate some greatness
Do you know where Galen is in his training cycle? Did he say he was in peak running form? No. He actually performed exactly as he said, which was that he was not in top shape but using this as the start of a build. In the race they said he dropped off early and if you look at his 5k splits he pretty much ran even splits. What does that say to anyone who actually races? He didn’t do our hard and fade - he went out in the shape he knew he was in and ran the race. Looks like he wasn’t in top shape - oh wait, was that a surprise? No, because he said that. It’s like you all like sounding stupid just so you can insult a runner who has achieved more than any of you ever could hope to in this sport. I guess it makes you feel big to try to lessen a guy who is so much better than you, but maybe just get some counselling.
Hassan won 2 world golds and 2 olympic golds without Salazar. She seems to be doing just fine.
Salazar coached Hassan to those 2 world gold's in 2019
No. He didn't. She spent a fair amount of time in interviews trying to answer for her ex coach's suspension. Tim Rowberry has been coaching her since 2018, about a year before worlds.
He’s really not that old by today’s standards. If you don’t think there was a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy with a lot of the stuff Alberto was giving/ rubbing on Galen, I envy your naivety
He's a marathoner who has been running and training at a high level for very long time. Dude ran in the 2008 Olympic 10k finals. How's everyone from 2012 doing? How about the American team from Rio?
I think it's naive to ignore how difficult it is to maintain consistently at that level even when you're not 36. For every Kipchoge or Beleke there's dozens of anonymous-to-letsrun guys who ran a fast marathon out in some desert time trial, probably faster than Rupp, and then never did it again--and certainly never won a WMM medal.
Galen Rupp is a fighter--he isn't Jack Nicklaus at age 46 winning the '86 Masters but if he pulls out a big win at a WMM or somewhere like that it'll remind me of that. Same with Tiger's resurgence.