Gabi Rooker is sus

This thread is useless without pics so hopefully this link works.

I understand the suspicion (spell out your words, kid) but it isn't completely unbelievable that someone was in the "wrong" sport for a while -- a person sticks with their first love sport (in this case, gymnastics) because they are solid at it and are good enough to keep making it at each new level of competition for a while, and don't discover that there is another sport that they'd be truly elite at. It's not unprecedented.

Frerichs was a gymnast whose only cross country state result was like 54th in Missouri while a gymnast. Then she was the American record holder and 2nd at the world championships as a runner.

Not a kid. Runner for almost 40 years and NCAA All-American here. Sorry that I call it like I see it, but I don’t like people taking shortcuts. I could be wrong, but I would call this unprecedented. Let’s start a list…

Frerichs is also extremely sus IMO, ran well in HS, was an NCAA champion, and took many years to get there, so not a great comparison other than having a gymnastic background.

Then you should stop saying "sus" like a teenager.

you pressed bro?

I find Gabi Rooker's story to be very plausible, but I'd put Frerichs in the suspicious as hell category.

You're a liar AND you're stupid AND you suck. That's more valid conjecture than your verbal diarrhea on this thread.

You are not the real gentlemansavage. You just split the user name and called it your own. This username goes back 20 years, verifiable via the statman caruthers pr thread....please stop using it. No, I don't care if you "think they are not the same"....

Nah, she's not sus. Just happens to be genetically gifted. Her training group includes Heather Kampf who has a lot of running experience in general, so I think that helps immensely. But yes, hopefully she is in the testing pool.

I bet you even wear the shirt, don't you?

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Sorry, I've never seen the thread you refer to nor your exact login until now. I registered in 2020 but it's not like I look on here daily.

There is still such a thing as talent. A guy joined my running club after his friends dared him to run a 5k with them. This guy was a talented athlete in HS and played basketball and ran some track at a small HS. No organized sports in college, but got into working out at the gym and would play pick up basketball and intramural sports. His first 5k was just under 20 min. After a few months of training with our group, he got down to 17 min. A few months later, 16:30. He then started running with our coach and some ex Div I guys in town. A year later, he was running low 15s and 32 for 10k. Within three years of joining our group, he broke 15 on the road and got elite invites for some road races.

I think Gabi's marathon debut was a bit of a sandbag run, or a well coached cautious first marathon. Also, she was very active after her years as a collegiate gymnast and tried soccer, swimming, crossfit among other things. She was probably had as much physical strength, stability, etc. as any pro runner when she started training and just needed to build her cardiovascular system and endurance. Finally, age does not mean as much for women. They do not loose testosterone as they age like men do. So, women often can have very successful distance running careers in their 30s and 40s. Colleen De Rueck has some of her best years in her late 30s and early 40s. D'Amato and Hall are also examples.

Just because she wasn’t an elite collegiate runner doesn’t mean she can’t be a more talented marathoner than 99% of NCAA D1 runners. It’s not a difficult concept. Her progression would be unusual for someone who’s been running competitively since high school, but it makes perfect sense for a major talent who didn’t start running until her thirties.

I think D’Amato is a pretty good comparison, having quit running competitively in 2009, running 3:14 in March of 2017, before progressing all the way down to 2:19:12 at age 37. The best example of a similar case I can think of is Priscilla Welch, which is even more extreme:

Pack-a-day smoker until she took up running in her mid-thirties. Ran 2:59 in her first marathon. Went on to set a British record (2:26) at 42 years old and won NYC at nearly 43.

According to her profile, her favorite song is Dance Yourself Clean, pretty much impossible to be doping.

Relax fool.

Occam's razor actually gives you a much more likely answer here: she trained for five years. That's plenty of time to get from "can't finish a 5k" to qualified for the trials. She was also a gymnast. Those altheletes train with dedication that far exceeds your average runner. You can run anywhere. Access to proper gymnastics equipment is limited.

Although she could certainly be dirty, it doesn't explain that drastic progression. EPO would give her what, 10 minutes in a marathon at her level? I'm sure there's various cocktails of drugs focused on faster recovery that could eventually result in more benefit as one is able to train harder, but clearly the majority of that progression is natural.

I think you are supporting my point.

Of course she is talented. Impossible to argue that. Take 30 minutes off her PR (no matter what the progression was) and she would still be extremely talented.

Assuming EPO and/or nandrolone (or the like) provides 10 minutes on top of natural talent, then perhaps a plausible time would be 2:34, which would still be faster than 99% of D1 women runners and most elites. Incredible, but plausible.

However, 2:24 in just 5 years of total running experience (only 2-3 years seriously) is just too fast too soon. It’s chemical + talent.

If it was a 2:34 PR we were talking about, then we wouldn’t be having this thread/conversation.