Georgia Bell: most talented mid distance runner or most obvious doper at the Olympics. Which is it?

talent.

I hope everyone knows the answer.

keep in mind that it wasn’t too long ago that 3:52 was a near impossible time for even the best of the best 1500 runners to run.

she’s not just some dormant talent. 31 is past prime for anyone at this event.

this 1500 reminded me of the women’s 2012 1500. We’ll see what the medal stand looks like in a few years.

As a Brit it's suspicious. Completely different to Muir's trajectory.

You’re assuming she was well coached as a collegiate More likely she healed up, got stronger and fitter then set a running goal that was worthy of her drive and talent.

You’re assuming she was well coached as a collegiate More likely she healed up, got stronger and fitter then set a running goal that was worthy of her drive and talent.

So is the rest of the field clean and she is doping? Or some random Brit got much better dope than the rest of the world?

There were suspicions about Katir - ultimately justified - who improved 8 secs in a year, from 3:36 to 3:28. Bell has more than doubled that improvement. That pretty much answers the question.

I wonder how Muir feels. She has been at the top of 1500m for almost a decade and to watch a compatriot break her British Record after a year of running.

Definitely the later, no doubt about it. Add in j hull from australia.

I heard she has the patented Sinpson gene where world class talent lies dormant until the athlete turns 31. So suck on it haters. That said, she knew how to play the game.

Muir is the only athlete in that final that I think could have been clean. If she was doping I can well believe she would beat Bell and Hull and even Kipyegon.

? Simpsons prime was 2011-2017 aka age 24-31. Simpson was also high mileage and ran sub-4 in college. Could not be any more different than a 30mpw runner like Bell. Unless this is a reference I’m unaware of. You hear a lot about how Bell was great as a Junior but 2:03 at age 20 is good, not amazing. There’s something going on here, as her talent level seems to be on the Kipyegon/Hassan level.

Her progression is a red flag, no doubt about it. As a Brit, I was happy for the medal and performance in isolation, but there's no getting away from how unusual her story is. My default is to give every athlete the benefit of the doubt until something happens to take it away (I always said the same about Katir), but we've never seen anything like this before in the 1500. We have seen it in the marathon, with Kiptum and Assefa coming from nowhere to drop WR times, and Sedjati seemingly just emerged from the blue without a single performance to his name before he dropped world class times. So, I'm not going to go all in and say Bell is doping, and she definitely has talent as her age group record shows, but if anything does ever turn up, it won't be a massive shock

And now muir has a lifetime of sticking her arm up cows backsides.

this...also the 5 year hiatus may mean she was doping but not competing so she wasn't tested?? Not sure how it works but it seems like a big jump and she did seem to come out of nowhere.

Of course she is talented regardless of doping or not.

What happened I think is that duathlon gave her an aerobic base better than running middle distance training had given her.

That she really decided what she wanted to do.

That she developed her speed and anaerobic ability. I think that for her the speedwork was the key.

She is also a very smart and confident racer. She ran a short way with someone to take the wind all around the final at her highest possible speed.

I think for example St Pierre had similar physical ability, maybe missing som top end speed.

Hull would be far ahead if she hadn't run in second lane for much of the race.

With that kind of pacemaking and protection from wind God knows how fast Kipyegon could run at peak fitness. 3:48? Even 3:47?

So she is still seconds away from the lead. If both she and Kipyegon are equally doped or clean who do you consider the greater talent? The question might not be binary.

A decade of duathlon training and racing. Getting in 15-20 hours of aerobic work each week on the bike in addition to doing some quality running. She was the world age-group champion in 2023 and considered a UK running prodigy in her teens. Perhaps she is an outlier that thrives on cross training and has a really big engine as a result? If reports and articles are accurate, then 30 miles a week of running plus the riding above is far more overall training volume than most other middle-distance women are doing. It's not like she sat around getting heavy for ten years, joined a Couch-to-5K program at New Year's, and then a miracle happened.

From your reaction the paranoia is all yours.