USA women’s distance is really bad right now

Agreed.

US distance women are going backwards. Paris 2024 was not a good distance squad.

It reminds me of the 90’s. No chance at medals.

The good news its easy to make a US team.

I’m glad you said it, because we are all thinking it.

Does this include Nikki Hiltz ? Some days Nikki is a man and others days Nikki is a women.

I think Hiltz being a nonfactor in the Paris 1500 finally proves she's a woman and nothing else. If she was a man, she'd have placed top five, as all our men in fact did. It's just science, I'm sorry it goes against her delusions. Facts don't care about your feelings, or whatever.

Two woman ran 3:57 or faster in an Olympic 1500m final and were not close to medaling. Tell me, which among you saw that coming?

I wouldn't doom and gloom yet. St Pierre just got an Indoor Gold this year at 3000m with a really good time only 4-5 seconds off the WR (and ignoring those doped to the gills China records).

Paris was a backwards result, but you could argue that at peak performance, they have runners that are competitive on the world stage.

If US still sucks by next year, I'd be more worried.

I just don't think US women are willing to risk it after what happened to Houlihan. I think her getting busted scared off a lot of our female distance runners from doing what's necessary to compete globally.

For whatever reason the men don't care and still put in the work.

With a comment like this - please stay in Oklahoma and for the sake of mankind; do not breed.

So "putting in the work" means doping to you? What kind of broken soul do you have?

Indoor worlds means nothing compared to world champs or OG. It’s a baby meet in reality.
Maybe Coogan and can threshold an Olympic gold medal in his dreams but it’s not going to happen in real life.
Nikki gave it a go, but the talent is not there and she has a vagabond lifestyle. Ellie has a coach that can’t get it right at global championships. The 5k and 10k teams were the worst we have seen in years for the US.
These women were too happy to be Olympians and not able to compete for actual medals.

Let's be honest it's pretty hard to compete with today's clownworld times like 28:46 and 14:00 (sub-14s coming soon).

Valby has massive potential and I think Alicia Monson could maybe sneak in for a bronze in the right race a la Grant Fisher, if she were healthy.

St. Pierre’s unfortunate luck just might be that her best distance (3000m) isn’t an Olympic event. It’s happened to more than a few world class runners.

Agreed and she's probably not built to steeple either. I've long thought she should make the 5k her primary race, though at the same time I think she might have placed higher, and as first American, had she not tried to follow the suicide pace in the 1500 final last week. I don't know if she has a crazy time like 14:10 in her, but it's not totally impossible, and her kick would rate a lot higher among 5000 types than it does among milers, so if she could hang with a championship lead pack, you never know what she might pull off on her best day.

On Jan 13, 2025, US women's distance running will be back on top with the Burrito Girl making her return from her doping suspension. So, don't worry.

In all seriousness, I think the US women are very good, but their competition just leveled up the past few years. Sub 4 1500 used to be world class. Now it won't get you out of the semis. In the 5k, you have no chance unless you can run 14:30 . . . in a tactical race. So, I think the US women just haven't come to terms with the kind of pace they need to be able to compete internationally.

I think we will have a good 5k team in 4 years with Monson, ESP, and Valby/Tuohy/Henes/etc

We have some excellent up-and-coming women in the 800: Whittaker, Wiley, Willis, Gorriarian

Might take a little longer to field a strong 1500 squad but I am bullish on Wiley and Engelhardt. For better or worse, wizard coach JS (the one at Oregon) is managing some of our best prospects of recent vintage

In my opinion the culture is there nationally but HS and college coaches need to do a better job of individually tailoring training; there are probably many female - and male, for that matter - phenoms who could stay healthy and gradually improve off the Valby method, it just takes a lot of patience and self-belief to try that approach vs miles miles miles

Kenya/Ethiopia + Sifan Hassan are so far ahead of everyone. Limiting each country to only 3 people slightly opens the door that half of those will have a bad race and let someone else enter the chat. It was basically the same on the men's side 10+ years ago, but now there are so many countries with contenders on the men's side. As seen by 13 men from 8 different countries being in contention going into the bell lap of the 10,000m on olympic record pace.

I agree, I don’t think our women are doing poorly, necessarily, just did not run their best races at the Olympics.

Athing Mu, if she’s her at her best, could still be one of the top 800m runners in the world.

Hiltz and ESP are running 3:55s when it takes a 3:52 to medal, a time that only 3 women had ever run a few years ago (omitting China’s infamous “Ma’s Army” and before Genzebe Dibaba, no female runner had run.

The 5000 wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t enough.

In the 10,000, this was a low event for the US. With Monson out, there isn’t a runner rn who could realistically compete for a top 5 position.

Non of those women can be world class