Cooper Teare says his coach Jerry is "anti-racing"

Of course. High burrito diet is more difficult to maintain with extra testing

This is why track ain't too popular. All the most popular sports have a regular season and corresponding playoffs with intriguing head to head matchups the focal point.

What’s the point of having a corvette if it’s just going to sit in the garage until the end of time

Honestly, that's gotta be a little depressing.

Train train train train train. "Oh hey, you're in amazing shape, but let's give it 6 more weeks and then race."

Gets injured 4 weeks later. Season over.

A couple cycles of that and I'd leave the group too.

Exactly.

It isn't optimal for Lebron's body to play 82+ games in a year. I am sure Lebron would play a lot better if he could take weeks off to recover between games. But he plays regardless because sport is entertainment and the NBA is a unified league with rules.

If track every wants to grow athletes need to race. Which means fans, coaches, and athletes accepting they won't be at absolutely peak performance. It will require a massive shift in mindset.

I don't see it happening and it is just getting worse if anything.

Personally, I don't want to see athletes complaining about losing contracts or not making any money unless they are racing 15+ times a year

Yeah, I just don't get it, especially in track and field. A good career in track and field lasts maybe 8 years for pros - there's exceptions like Kipchoge, but they're outliers. The odds are that Teare will be done by the age of 32. Does he really want to piss away his peak years stuck running around highs school tracks in Flagstaff and Utah? It's a miserable way to spend a career when there's opportunities to travel and race around the world.

When u don’t race u don’t have to worry about excess drug usage. Just use it when the time to race is nearing

Lebron already takes 3/4 plays off

I’d rather see LeBron out there slacking from time to time, then a guy like Kawhi skipping half the games when healthy.

It will be interesting to see how Abby Steiner's prolific-racing career pans out compared to SML's ""Jerry-esque" racing strategy. I think Abby literally raced ten times more than Syd last year.

Also, is this a reason US distance struggles internationally? These guys are training to beat the best in America, but they don’t get the experience of racing the best in the world. One of the best methods of improving is to be beaten. If you are competitive at all, you will do everything you can to get up there next time.

I think the issue is that there haven't been any other US groups that are as competitive as BTC in years. There was NOP, who raced more, and since Rupp was the best in the country, I think people were satisfied with mainly following him, and a BTC athlete in any race was a pleasant surprise. Once Rupp moved up, and especially once NOP fell apart, all of the best US distance runners were in BTC. That became an issue when people started realizing BTC athletes only run time trials and championships unless they're medal caliber.

I'm hoping that OAC is proving you can race more often and still get world class results, but I can't fault Jerry for focusing on peaking for championships. It's not his fault those are the only meets that actually matter. Instead of being upset with BTC for never racing, we should get upset with World Athletics for creating an incentive for athletes to only focus on a few meets in the summer, and change it so that it's best for athletes to race more.

It'll always be funny to me that Shelby Houlihan was banned for doping in December 2020 and nobody noticed for 6 months

Not a single athlete in the world cares what you think. Playing 82 NBA games a season is physically destroying players bodies and it is not helping with marketability. Both track and the NBA would benefit from structural changes that allow for athletes to compete at a healthy/peak level.

Everyone complaining about someone not racing is being ridiculous, they aren't your entertainment puppets.

Professional sports wouldn’t exist without the entertainment element.