Molly Seidel: "Who’s the GOAT?’ Who fucking cares? Who’s got the story that’s going to get people excited?”

I care more about performances than made up encounters on airplanes.

So edgy

It's not this or that. its both. Of course Hassan is more interesting than all of them put together. And she is also in the GOAT conversation.

Do the Kenyans and Ethiopian GOATS even know who Molly is? Not like they see her in a marathon very long.

Of course someone who's best is 4 kilometers behind the wr would say "who cares about the GOAT."

Also, does this mean that her antics are just a public persona for media attention?

Molly Seidel is payed $30,000 per year to be a content creator for Puma.

Kiptum is payed lots more to run a really fast time. Other people will write his story.

It's easy to not give a sh!t about winning, when you can't.

Also, what's with not allowing profanity in a thread with fvck in the title?

She couldn't be more correct (although I found the f-bomb to be unnecessary).

GOAT conversations don't grow the sport. They don't get people off the couch and out for a run. They do very little, if anything, to increase viewership of major races. They don't increase the prize pools or attract new sponsors.

Presenting the audience with stories they can relate to, or giving them living examples of what they can aspire to be will get more people to run, to watch, to consume running media of all types, and sponsors will want to get in front of them.

A father dragging his disabled son through an Ironman will get more people up and out the door and will drive more eyes to the annually televised centerpiece of the sport than will the first man to break 8 hours.

It’s both.

I care a lot about the champion, the GOAT, the gold medalist.

I also care a lot about the narrative. The most memorable recent moments both involved Abbey D’Agostino (her fall at the Olympics and finishing the race; her gutsy race to get the standard at the Olympic Trials but coming up 4th.) She’s not a champion (post college, anyway,) but stories like that about athletes are enthralling. I’m more likely to follow a runner based on their narrative than I am simply because they win.

And then, of course, you have the rare mix where the 2 come together: my favorites being Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan. Both GOATs, both interesting narratives, both irresistible to get excited about.

I thought her quote was brilliant; unguarded, honest. (And certainly not intended to attract eyeballs.)

All this GOAT talk just goes around and around in circles. We'll never all agree. Who needs it?

The 'stories' briefly get a non running fan's attention, then they go back to not caring. The people who actually care, they care because they like to see the competition and they like to see people running fast. Fast times get people excited. Non running people don't know what times are fast, so they need to be distracted by lame stories. And most of the time these stories are over dramatized to seem more interesting. The reality is more mundane.

Seidel is a classless woke moran.

The Brojos can do whatever they want. Ivy League logic.

This reminds me a little of these singing competition TV shows. So sometimes the contestant has some really sad story and they are performing because of this sadness, for example, and then they could sound like me and the crowd would love it, but usually they sound pretty good and the crowd goes into a frenzy. So Molly is a pretty good singer but it sounds like she admits she needs some story to “enhance” the delight of the audience whereas Kiptum or Hassan are just great singers.

*whose

Both hit on the same thing, you have to know something about an athlete to care about them. Whether it is the times and places they have thrown down in the past that make a goat discussion possible or something else, like you watched them run in high school.

If you want to make the sport interesting, people have to care about the athletes racing. The next step is having races that are actually close. The longer the result is in doubt the more interesting.

Too hilarious how much Molly unhinges little weak and insecure men 😂🤣🤡

The irony is we only know of Siedel bc of her excellence in college and Olympic marathon.

if she was a 2:34 marathoner saying this It would get no coverage.

the faster you are the more people listen to you. Now if she was a 2:12 athlete saying this it would be incredible to be that close and still “not care”. Why nuguse’s thoughts about going to dental school are refreshing.

steve ovett had a similar approach but he was world record holder at the time not 10 mins off.

The difference between running and other sports like MLB is that we are an individual sport. I think people are equally likely to go see an individual run as they are a running event. On the day of the NYC Marathon I go out to see the winners but also other people along the course whose names I know and people for whom I want to root. If there is a compelling write-up on letsrun, I am more likely to care and check them out.