Do you guys not see it? Jerry is stepping down at BTC.

But is he planning to leave before the Olympics?

He'll probably coach whoever decides to stay but his contract with Nike and BTC might be up afterwards.

I think he's always wanted the Oregon job, but that job doesn't open up very often so he had to pounce on it when he had the chance even if it was a bit early.

Of course Jerry is going to step down as coach of Bowerman. Nike was aware of that as soon as Jerry took the University of Oregon job. He wasn't going to do both jobs forever. It was just a matter of time before he quit Bowerman.

The only question is will Bowerman get a new coach? Or will Bowerman fold? I think Bowerman will fold. They have almost no top quality runners left.

Nike isn't just aware of that, that is part of Nike's plan to wind down BTC after the doping scandal, because BTC is now too damaged in the eyes of most elite and the public. Several of us have been pointing that out for a while now.

Now everyone can eat all the burritos they want!

Stepping down 9 months before Olympics?

Nice move…

I'm not saying he's stepping down immediately I think he's announced to the team he might be leaving after the Olympics and he's letting them all know a year in advance so they can make the decisions on their own to stay or leave

You are giving far too much credit to JS.

He didn’t communicate the move to Eugene/U of O with the pros. The pros found out through the back door and confronted JS about it. Why then would you think he would give an advance year warning of his leaving BTC?

JS thinks he is a good communicator and manager - he is not. He is a great coach for those who can handle his training regime and not so much for those who can’t. That has been proven over the years with very good results.

JS does know how to milk a situation for financial gain - that is what he has been doing for a year and a half getting a paycheck for trying to do both jobs. Some of the athletes gave him a years chance to see if it could work - those athletes are leaving now. Other athletes left with the forced move to Eugene.

Much more to this than just the move to Eugene and it all points to JS and Nikes unwillingness to manage their employee.

I wish all the athletes well and sure as heck hope Nike saw the writing on the wall and developed a plan for the remainder of this year and going forward for those athletes. If Nike did not and did not communicate it’s intent of BTC perhaps they have let the BTC athletes down as much as has JS.

I applaud Grant Fisher for taking hold of his own destiny and driving his own ship. Undoubtedly, he has been developing a plan for some time and gave time for JS and Nike to make change - which they haven’t. Wonder what others will do?

As I experience more and more in life I realize coaching is way more about how you deal and work with people than the actual workouts and running.

Seems like another case where a coach lost sight of that. You see it all the time.

I think we knew this at the start of Q2, 2022, shortly after Shelby's bust.

My take is the powers that be up the corporate Nike branch (perhaps BTC is a subcomponent of marketing), which resulted in an exit strategy for the group.

The immediate cut down on funding caused an early group to leave by last fall. Nike (marketing) probably put an exact date out (Q3 2023?) where funding for BTC would be officially stopped for the top group too. They gave everyone time and one last season (to cover up truth). Jerry and Shalene were refactored to fill U of Oregon coaching slots last year to embark on that new opportunity because Robert Johnson was in hot water.

Now is the end of the road. We are in Q4.

Someome should put together a timeline of events with exact dates from Shelby's bust to now. Show exits, Oregon hires and other stuff.

We did not know this. GF's announcement he was leaving Bowerman was a shock, and it happened a couple of days ago. There's been tons of talk about it.

Plus, I don't remember seeing even one post before a few days ago that said JS planned to shut down Bowerman. I remember seeing posts saying that it would collapse under the SH doping scandal, but that's different, and not what the OP is suggesting.

Even the past few days after GF announced he was leaving, I hadn't seen any threads suggesting that JS precipitated the exodus by announcing he was leaving. The OP may or may not be right, but it's not something we knew all along.

The big question I see is what is next for Nike? Without BTC there is a big hole in training groups available for top american distance talent. Not everyone can go to Mike Smith or On. Will Nike sponsor a new group or is this it?

One or two track options is fine as long as they work with just Americans.

We need more options for roads as it is a different sport.

It was just a matter of time. JS can't coach both U of O and Bowerman. What about Solinsky taking over Bowerman? Maybe he and Shalane can co-coach the club.

BROSNAN! BROSNAN! BROSNAN!

I didn't realize had an affiliation to Bitcoin.

On limits the number of athletes per event per country.

Jerry thought he could do the same thing Mike Smith is doing, coaching a college plus a pro team.

the difference is Bowerman is a much bigger commitment than Mike Smith Elite, which only has a few select athletes. Smith doesn't even have a website or a team logo, while Bowerman is run like a company - merch, youth camps, promotion, etc...

Also Mike Smith tells his pro runners up front it's just a part time thing and that NAU is his priority. Abdi talked about this in an interview, saying he and Louis are out training by themselves most of the time, their running schedules made up by Smith. they just report their times to Smith and only train with him in person maybe once or twice a week. and Smith almost never travels with them.

Is it just random happenstance that the 2 greatest coaches in the world are initialed JS? Or, here it comes, are they actually the same person!