Ritz / On Athletes are Flopping

Ritz is over cooking them and it's showing. Disappointing as a fan of the sport, because they are fun to root for. Still holding out hope that Beamish can do something in the steeple though.

Actions speak louder than words. Always thought that they were an arrogant team as a whole (Guse excluded). Full of themselves yet can’t deliver when it counts.

I’d give him a pass on Sage. She PBed in the mile last night and what can Ritz do if an athlete falls in front of his athlete and sidetracks their race. Let’s see how Geordie Sinta, Yared, Hellen and Morgan do from here…tough start.

He clearly messed up their peak. Will Nuguse even make the final?

She wouldn’t have made it to a medal regardless. and sucked in the 1500 not even making the final. A PB is nice but is was not exactly in a stacked or important race. Bottom line - when things heat up most of his athletes fail

the cards were bound to come down for salazar 2.0

he got far using On's big budget to recruit the best young talent available, get them on thyroid meds and do impossible workouts at altitude.

they are all injured, flat or in some cases like cardama-baez and Alicja konieczek off the team.

i hope the next batch fares better

Let’s not forget that Josh Kerr needed to get through the rounds on time in Tokyo, so Yared looking flat doesn’t really concern me. If he misses the final as a 3:43 miler, then we have something to talk about.

As a group though, OAC has certainly had a tough year. Reminiscent of Bowerman last year.

Only Obiri can save Ritz at this point.

Better than his performance at the Olympics in 2004. 68 first lap. Ritz the only athlete dropped. Think he dropped out

To be fair, Nuguse has run 3:46 and 3:29 this summer, the latter only a few weeks ago and 0.1 seconds off of his PR from last summer.

He DID look bad in the first round on Friday, I admit. But he's still having a fine season thus far by historical US running standards.

This is the first 18 month period in which OAC athletes were switched to full threshold training, after being one of the last groups holding out on it.

Worthy of analysis as to whether its an athlete response issue, a time in the oven issue, or a correct application issue.

They all look flat to me with no spring in their step. Hoare particularly looked to have no gears. Maybe Beamish will be saved from that by being sick/injured during the buildup and thus being a little fresher. He's my pick as a darkhorse for a medal.

I thought Morgan has said recently that they still haven’t switched to double threshold?

The story of the OAC the last 2ish years is that they are popping off during indoors and then look worse at worlds (2023 ex: Joe Klecker exploded in the 10k final, nuguse should’ve had a medal based on every other race he ran pre/post worlds, olli ran 3:29 but fractured before worlds)

Now half the people are injured, Nuguse was looking bad (hope that was just some nerves and he jumps back tomorrow because I think he also looked eh first round of USAs) and they have people who aren’t injured not making it through round 1.

Maybe they need to cool it in the winter? Or switch to double threshold to accommodate trying to do the same volume as everyone else in a single session.

And Hellen could definitely win the marathon, but I agree that her approach with ritz is probably more collaborative because she was already elite before she got to him. I think him trying to take these NCAA champs to the level of the medalists in 1-2 years works initially but now they are paying for it.

Also would he curious if anyone leaves after this season. Mario probably should go. I wonder how different the OAC training is from what he did in college.

I do assume some of their contracts are save as they are still at the top of their country respectively for event groups.

Andrews should be dismissed.

Have not adopted double threshold.

Yeah I could see that. She is a prime example of the winter/early spring great 5ks and then is cooked at USAs.

14:46 wouldve have made the team this year, with Elle choosing only the 15

Yes…. But Andrews doesn’t run well in strategic races and being over half a minute behind the Trials leaders gets you to the back of the pack, not the podium

Instead of all the athletes leaving, surely they'll just appoint a better coach. They've already bought the talent, just buy a leader to guide them.