Citius Mag is bs journaling

^ finally a critical thinker. Yes, anyone can SAY what they THINK happens, and if they actually had something even close to this then obviously the university, or title 9 department, or safe sport or a whole host of oversight structures would address the problem…

unless…. There is no problem.

And when that happens the professional victims have to scream and pout in the only space they can to get that much needed attention.

funny how this only lives on on an anonymous message board. Huh.

This is 100% accurate. I was also on the team and experienced extremely scary and physically detrimental responses to "bad" workouts, weight gain, etc. She regularly would scream profanity at athletes in front of the whole team. She continually discussed weight, monitored what we ate, how much water we drink, demanded "post dinner brisk walks", directly told myself and other runners that she "was not paying us to f***ing eat but to run". She dismissed injuries, obvious eating disorders, illnesses, and severely depressed athletes. She continually blamed the athlete for any poor performance and even accused athletes of faking being sick during Covid (!!!!). An "internal investigation" was done by Furman in 2020 but absolutely nothing came of it. Many athletes are too afraid to share their experiences because of the ways that Rita impacted them and the powerfully manipulative hold she still has even years later. This is disgusting behavior with many eye witness accounts yet nothing has been done. There is a way to run well at the D1 level that doesn't include developing life altering eating disorders, incurring multiple injuries, or hurting your body in the ways that Rita supports. She comes across as a supportive female coach but uses her platform to harm. This must end.

This is an issue with NCAA and TF as a whole. It took YEARS of allegations at CU for any information to come out. This type of behavior is hidden in a way that the coaches can "get away with it" ie not incur legal backlash. This type of abuse occurs all over with very little change. Are you saying that if abuse is not properly punished then this abuse is somehow acceptable?

An open and closed investigation is not an absolution of what has been alleged. We are human beings— things are much more complex than black and white, right and wrong, etc. I had to speak to DCF (DCS, CPS, etc. acronym varies by state) many times as a child and none of those visits provoked a removal from home, yet I can assure you the abuse was very much happening. Much later into our adulthood one of my sisters admitted she used to pray to God and thank him I was the one on the receiving end instead of her. We lived two different realities in the same space, yet both are true. I encourage people to be respectful and slow to judge other people’s experiences.

That being said, the topic of this thread has to do with Citius and their so-called “bs journaling”. Let’s keep the discussion in line with the title of the thread. If anyone has any other grievances with Furman or the coaches there I encourage it to be aired out elsewhere (maybe like close friends, or even start another thread if you really feel that triggered by the Citius post).

You want to talk facts? 6 years of Furman's women recruit history below.
Class of 2018: 2/4 transferred or left the team
Class of 2019: either 0 recruits or very quick transfers
Class of 2020: 2/8 transferred
Class of 2021: 4/6 transferred or left the team
Class of 2022: 3/3 transferred or left the team
Class of 2023: 2/4 transferred

That is 25 women recruited to the XC team and 13 transferred - 52% of women recruited to Furman left the team.
Additionally, just because athletes stayed at Furman for their whole undergraduate career does not mean they were treated with respect.

These “facts” are blatant lies. Please attach names and you wouldn’t get 20% there. I have no idea how they’re married, they’re opposites. But Rob just doesn’t waste time on nonsense; I can also tell you firsthand experience he ultimately cares way more about you as a person then your PRs or place on team. As for Rita, she has completely changed from when she first started. All that to say, 98% of these posts are from Quinn McConnell and her mom. Move on.

How are these facts “lies”? You can find all recruiting class information year by year on the internet.

> I am very sorry you feel this way

Hey Rita

All the PR in the world won't stop the truth from coming out

I should not waste my time with people making things up for letsrun...but here we are;

I won't count the class of 2024 since they are just a semester in, but Furman signed a group of 8 women to the team to start this Fall.

Class of 2023 - Furman had zero freshmen women and zero transferred (0/0 transferred)
Class of 2022 - Camryn Wennersten, Jenna Mulhern, Carly Wilkes, Emma Jones, Clair Garrett. All still on Furman's team (0/5 transferred)
Class of 2021 - Sierra Bower, Kaylie Armitage, Callie Harper all still seniors. Meghan Ford Transferred (1/4 transferred)
Class of 2020 - Beth Donnelly, Emily Little, Kylie Wittman, and Jonna Strange all graduated from Furman in the spring. Megan Marvin, Madelynne Cadeau, and Bethany Graham all came BACK to Furman to use their 5th year of eligibility (0/7 transferred)
Class of 2019 - Nicole Matysik is a current 6th year on the team, Abigail Robertson graduated from Furman in the spring, while Lauren Peterson and Quinn McConnell transferred (2/4 transferred)

So in the last five years Furman has had 3/20 women transfer without graduating.

Kick Rocks.

They were talking about the college classes, not HS classes, moran.

Go look at the HS classes of 2014-2019 and tell us what you find!

I was pretty enthused about them at first, but then they seemed to become fanboys more focused on making friends with what they believed were “the cool” athletes than on objectively reporting the news. For that reason I stopped following.

This was what a Citius “journalist” asked Sha’Carri Richardson at a *press conference* at the Budapest Worlds. I can’t believe this “reporter” was credentialed. I cringe and weep on behalf of the profession.

“I want to be able to speak some life into you. I just want you to know I’m so proud of you. I’m just so proud of the way you have handled yourself, the way you have grown over the years from LSU to now to be able to come out with a World Championship medal. For everybody who doubted you, on social media, because
I know it can get real ruthless, for all your competition that didn’t believe in you, for the moments you probably didn’t believe in yourself, I’m just glad you came out here and did what you are destined to do because, girl, I truly believe you are anointed by God because you have been through so much, but here you go, on top, and it is your time and I’m so happy for you.”
And breathe. She went on to ask Richardson how she plans to transcend the sport.

If you also want to share “facts” don’t say a made up statistic of “98%” of these being from some girl and her mom. Grow up and realize this is an actual issue that more than just that girl have been impacted by.

I have no comment on the story, but Citius is not really journalism. It's basically a fan platform. Chavez does some good work in promoting athletes and the sport. His interviews are great, so much better than LRC interviews. He builds a better rapport with his guests and it seems more like a conversation.

But he's a rabbit int he headlights when something serious needs to be covered. He completely sh1t the bed over the Houlihan case, didn't know what to say or how to analyse it. I disagree with where LRC ended up on the Houlihan case, but they knew how to debate it properly. Different platforms, different strengths.

I have fond memories of Robert 1:1 coaching me for few of my workouts (when my training plan called for a slight deviation from the others on the team). His approach showed and taught me about professionalism, that I carried forward with me in my career.

Citius has always felt like promotional, ra-ra material rather than actual journalism. I'm sure their income also depends on not being too critical of the sport. They remind of those small town websites or free newspapers that just report on community events without doing any actual journalism, investigative reporting, or critical opinion pieces. Even their "About Us" says they are "ex-journalists".

Chris Chavez is a nice guy, but he’s woke woke

....