Fred Kerley said that high schoolers competing against the pros is "hurting our sport."

What truly hurts the sport is that he's probably on more drugs than the Norwegian science experiment, Shelby, and Kiprop combined

He sounds a lil scared of Wilson. Maybe get faster legs rather than a mouth?

Fred is not really offering a coherent argument. If he thinks it is hurting the kid, then that is possible. And then hurting a kid could lead to hurting the sport? Is that his argument?

Fred is right. The kid ran a 47. 400m leg in the Olympic 4 x 400m and almost caused the US to not qualify for the final.

The kid should be working on his form and getting his 100m and 200m down.

The best 400m runners can break 20 in the 200m. The world record holder for 400m even broke 10 for the 100m. The former 400m world record holder ran 19.3 for 200m. The only 43. 400m runner who didn’t break 20 was Wariner, who ran 20.1 but was he tall, slim, and had perfect, relaxed form. Wariner was smooth as silk at 400m pace and had a glorious, long career.

The kid may have already run his lifetime PR. The plan the kid is currently following will allow him to thrash out 44. for 400m when everything goes perfectly once a season or so. When the injuries start coming from redlining himself at 400m so often and so young, It’s all downhill from there.

The next great US 400m runner still thinks he’s a 100 and 200m man.

FINALLY someone else agrees. I'm terrified that Quincy Wilson is going to be far too overhyped. I mean, seriously, a 16 year old kid run 44.20?? People say he'll be going under 43, but the thing about Quincy is I feel as if he's an endurance-based runner. His 200M PR isn't even sub-21. The quoted post makes a good point about how the best 400M runners are the ones with insane 100/200 speed (Michael Norman, WVN, Michael Johnson, etc)

I can't ever see Wilson going under 43 let alone 44. He just doesn't have the top speed. I feel like he'll end up pursuing the 800M before that. We will see what happens this season but it's just all too familiar.

Fred is 100% right. Wilson needs to stay in his own lane and not overwork himself to the point where he attempts to overshadow the professionals that are 10+ years older than him. I wonder if many of the pros dislike him because of it. We saw what happened in the 4x400M and it was almost a complete failure because of him, thank god for Norwood clutching up. It bothered me to see him still get the gold medal afterward though

Haha why would anyone listen to Fred Kerely.

Guy is a low IQ moron and nothing but garbage comes out of his mouth everytime he talks.

Big K is gonna catch some heat for saying that, but he's saying what most pros quietly think. Noah Lyles feels the same way and hasn't been shy about it, probably the only thing those two guys can agree on. These things happen when you have a kid that can't drive competing against grown men with their contracts (livelihoods, rent, groceries, money for their kids, ect) on the line.

On the other hand, some of this strikes me as an old man yelling at a cloud. The simple truth is that QW might be the future, a prodigy beyond belief, and the face of USATF for the next few Olympic cycles, and all these pros are just gonna have to sit down and get used to it if that ends up being the case.

Also, QW gets unfairly maligned because of his 47 leg. He pulled his hamstring the day before the mixed relay and wasn't even supposed to run at all. The showdown with Bryce Deadmon in Florida was supposed to decide the last spot for the mixed 4x400. Politics ended up getting him on that relay, for obvious reasons.

I'm happy to see Quincy planning to run some in college. As soon as an athlete leaves college early for pros they rush themselves up a competition level and none are ready. A couple one off races vs pros is fine and healthy but if you only are comparing yourself to pros instead of people in your younger years.

Fred Kerley is 100% correct speaking as a professional, it's bad for the professional sport

But virtually everyone's initial reaction will be to oppose him, of course and then their brain will accelerate down that path by crafting a story as to why it's perfectly logical Fred is jealous, envious or some other negative emotion and this is unfair to Quincy

I agree it's a risky path for Quincy. One could put forth Obea Moore as probably the most similar athlete ever to Quincy, right? That didn't work out too well, but it also doesn't mean Quincy is living the same life as Obea or has the same sh.tty massage therapist Obea had that may have messed up his hamstring

As an example, think of other sports where high school kids that were actually good enough to compete just suddenly jumped in
- What about Caitlin Clark playing in the WNBA when she was a junior in high school, would that have been ok if she could hold her own in the league?
- Certainly worked out for Luka!

While I sympathize with Fred, the fact that his viewpoint holds such little merit outside of "what if he gets hurt?!" goes to show why Track is fundamentally not built to be a professional sport: athletes of any age can and do come and go at the very highest level meets in the world because the only thing that actually matters is your time/mark when it comes to T&F

Because athletes can just pop in suddenly at the very highest stage and compete there is no continuity of athletes so it's hard to care about them much emotionally. Plus they are all just individuals coming and going on random teams whose name changes every few years when the title sponsor changes.

T&F is not a professional sport as it's currently setup, that's why you see all these athletes in the Olympics in commercials for Home Depot or whatever where they actually work and get paid the other 47 months of the Olympic Cycle

tldr; Fred Kerley will always be a hater as long as he's being paid to larp around as a professional in what is very clearly an amateur sport

The odds of a 44.20 sophomore who is still growing never improving are very, very low. If he doesn't hit 43.xx in high school, I will eat my hat. He may burn out, though, and I am not sure that it is a good idea to be competing against pros at that age, but he's good enough for it, that much is true.

The Obea Moore comparison is not as relevant as appears at first glance. Quincy already has a career four times longer than Obea.

"we are going to hurt their feelings because I’m talking s**t in the call room and looking at you and I’m staring down at you and I don’t care"

Is this a sprint thing or a cultural thing?

I can't imagine someone like Connor Mantz or Emily Sisson doing this to another runner right before a distance race.

He sounds stupid. How tf is Wilson competing against pros bad for the sport? Because he talks sh!+ in the call room? What?

Your post is way to long to read but I tried skimming it and didn’t see anything explaining why Fred is right and Wilson shouldn’t compete against the pros

It's track. What matters is time and nothing else. If the pros think the kid shouldn't race against them, all they have to do is run faster than him. How's that going?

Originally because of an incorrect article written by Pulse Sports, the title said Fred Kerley was talking specifically about Quincy Wilson. Our Jonathan Gault has listened to the podcast and says he never referenced him. He was talking about HSers in general.

As a result we have changed the title of the thread.

The kid ran one bad race last year and ran a 44.2.

He of course deserves to compete.

Doubtful that a 16 year old has "already run his lifetime PR."

Wariner's career was too short. Never broke 44 from age 25 on.