Is Donovan Brazier update?

(Nothing posted on his IG for over a year)

I think the brazier era is over folks. Saying this as someone that grew up 15 mins from kenowa hills, not as a hater. Its been so so so long since hes been in action. Hes either gonna move down to 400m or up to 1500m or retire. 800m training is ridiculously hard to stay healthy for

What makes it impossible for him to stay healthy is being coached by Pete J.

Brazier will be world record holder!

(Please Donovan I’m begging you, you are my late childhood hero and the child inside of me will die with your career. I can’t handle another gut punch where you look to be in PB shape all through indoors only to break and not even make it to the world championships while someone wins in 1:44, it physically hurts me every time it happens)

I think he needs to go back to the Texas A&M staff, I think they are the best 400/800 program not just for college but in the country as a whole, and I think they’d love having him back.

Hes not a miler, so I don’t think it benefits him to train with a bunch of 1500m-5000m guys, and work under a coach that specializes in those distances. If you’re the potential world beater that Brazier is, you need to be part of a program centered around you

Other than Pat Henry, they are not the same coaches as when Brazier was there.

Brazier had his greatest success in NOP. Salazar is technically an option now, so…

I’m only saying this half jokingly.

Track season has been over since august. He’s probably fishing.

He's not a 400/800 guy though, he's a 800/1500 guy with an uncharacteristically fast 400. That's one of the reasons he's such a talent. He ran 1:47/solo 4:07 in high school and 1:42/3:34 (52s last lap) so this is nothing new.

But yeah, Brazier's years in the 800 are probably over :(

Shame to see one of the greatest US prospects in recent years go down that path.

The saddest things are the little glimmers of hope we get year to year, a new 400m PB, a 600m WR, an 800m title against a good field etc.

Its like he just can’t stay healthy and in race shape for the 6 or so months he’s expected to, and that makes sense, I’ve never been successful focusing on 800m for both indoors and outdoors, I have to either go mile/3k indoors or 1500m outdoors or I fall apart and break. I’d imagine sitting in 1:42-1:44 shape for half the year and working on getting in that shape for the other half is completely unsustainable long term for most pros even.

Salazar was never his coach.

Yeah, for sure. I remember thinking about 1:41 after than 600 in New York.

Seems similar to the issues some of the top 400/800/jumpers face - the training is just extraordinarily intense, especially when approaching it from a year-round perspective.

Makes a ton of sense why those events had the most cases of doping when you look at some of the injuries nowadays. That sort of chemical recovery and aid is almost required in order to recover and perform well in those events.

Absolutely, an event that requires you to be extremely strong, extremely lean, extremely conditioned, and extremely fast makes it very hard to be good at it naturally.

It seems to look like the lower mileage approach gives an athlete a flashier PB but higher mileage gives a higher longevity. Guys like Murphy and Symmonds and probably Hoppel stick around for a decade a piece but never quite get that world dominating performance in, but the 15-25 mpw types like Brazier tend to show up for 1-3 years, be completely dominant, and then can’t do anything meaningful for the rest of their careers.

We should call him DONEovan Brazier.

He's only 26. I remember reading that recovery from Haglund's deformity surgery can require 2 full years. And that's generic, not for a world class athlete dependent on his feet.

I didn't know much about Haglund's deformity, which is essentially a bumpy growth on the heel in the achilles area. Once I read about the 2 year timeline I knew we wouldn't hear from Brazier for a long time. He has to be patient. 2024 might be borderline but if the surgery was indeed fully successful he could return to prominence not much later.

I agree that Brazier is NOT a 400/800 guy, I dont think he is a 800/1500 runner.

I see Brazier as a very good 800m specialist who's 400 and 1500m potential are about equal. If he trains more 4/8 his 4 is better and if he trains more 8/15 then his 1500m is better.

Really he needs to find which method helps him stay healthy for this year.

You mean there are still some people who are dreaming of Donovan Brazier's comeback? This is laughable. Dono ain't coming back. The earlier you take this to your bank or brains, the better for you!!!!

I’ve heard that in the past Brazier didn’t like having training partners that could potentially beat him so that could be why he stays away from the top 400/800 training groups. Not sure how much he and Clayton Murphy really trained together but it probably wasn’t much when NOP was still around which would make sense.