I'll start my reply by making it clear that I am an outsider. I do not follow these individuals, know what kind of breakfast cereal they ate or what kind of dog they own.
Watching the race and seeing this young man race for the first time this track season, I thought he looked extremely thin and weak. Too thin? His thrashing and efforts did not seem to translate into moving faster. To me, he appeared to be fighting himself physically instead of letting things come to him.
I know his achievements, marks, and talent so I know anything perceived as a negative comment is knit-picking. I am not intending criticism, just trying to figure out why such a talented runner looked like he was a fish out of water (against other really good runners) on that particular night.
I'll start my reply by making it clear that I am an outsider. I do not follow these individuals, know what kind of breakfast cereal they ate or what kind of dog they own.
Watching the race and seeing this young man race for the first time this track season, I thought he looked extremely thin and weak. Too thin? His thrashing and efforts did not seem to translate into moving faster. To me, he appeared to be fighting himself physically instead of letting things come to him.
I know his achievements, marks, and talent so I know anything perceived as a negative comment is knit-picking. I am not intending criticism, just trying to figure out why such a talented runner looked like he was a fish out of water (against other really good runners) on that particular night.
I'll start my reply by making it clear that I am an outsider. I do not follow these individuals, know what kind of breakfast cereal they ate or what kind of dog they own.
Watching the race and seeing this young man race for the first time this track season, I thought he looked extremely thin and weak. Too thin? His thrashing and efforts did not seem to translate into moving faster. To me, he appeared to be fighting himself physically instead of letting things come to him.
I know his achievements, marks, and talent so I know anything perceived as a negative comment is knit-picking. I am not intending criticism, just trying to figure out why such a talented runner looked like he was a fish out of water (against other really good runners) on that particular night.
He pretty much always looks like that.
I don't doubt you and as I said my observation is limited. I don't recall him looking that emaciated in XC but I defer to those who are more informed.
I will say that I don't think he was thrashing in XC he the way he seemed to be yesterday. To me he looked like a slightly dumbed-down version of Paula Radcliffe and maybe it is that which made me notice what appeared to be an overly thin and weak appearance. He came across as frail to me in the context of the other exceptional runners who looked far more in control and physically stronger.
Nico, the rest of the high and mighty from NAU were good. They chose to train way too hard, too fast. Your body and mind can't handle the workload at a young age. Sad part is his brothers ,the Sahlmans are meeting a similar fate. Coaches and Kids want instant gratification instead of patiently working towards a long term goal. Yes , they did peak in High School! Time to move on from running
Nico, the rest of the high and mighty from NAU were good. They chose to train way too hard, too fast. Your body and mind can't handle the workload at a young age. Sad part is his brothers ,the Sahlmans are meeting a similar fate. Coaches and Kids want instant gratification instead of patiently working towards a long term goal. Yes , they did peak in High School! Time to move on from running
Say you know nothing at all about the NAU training by commenting this
it’s well known Smith trains his athletes with long term goals at the very forefront. Nico is a junior… not a young lad fresh out of hs. And as for peaking - say that to Luis and Abdi who are absolutely crushing it in the world stage right now.
Marathon probably his only hope as a pro with how fast everyone else is.
He could be very good in road 10Ks/HMs like Mantz too. The USA is loaded at 5K-10K and yet we don’t have sub-59/sub-2:07 guys. No shame in trying to change that.
NCAA titles do not always equate to killer pro careers.
Ask Teg, Paul, and Luis.
Winning an NCAA Championship is REALLY tough! A lot happens physically and mentally during those 4 years in college, especially if you win an NCAA Championship early in your collegiate career and then have to validate afterwards. It's REALLY tough if you come out of high school with massive expectations to improve and win. Very few runners succeed at all 3 levels (High school, College, and Professional), and by succeed I mean winning a national prep championship (or ranked #1), winning an NCAA conference and national title, and winning one or more USA championships as a pro (X-C, outdoor track, indoor track, and road racing), including earning a spot on a national team, which includes making an Olympic team. That's a tall order any runner which covers a minimum of 8-10 years or more of high level elite training and racing. How many American runners can claim to have achieved this?
Has he had some injuries in the past several months? Usually someone around age 20 has pretty steady improvement or for sure doesn't go backwards. Last night didn't look good, he blew his load with a mile to go, but didn't really go fast enough to get rid of anyone, and then faded bad. The pace was slow before he made a move to the front, so there was a lot of legs left in everyone, and he looked like he was sprinting to run a 61 but couldn't maintain it for very long.