Parker’s lack of a kick means she will never win on the track

These threads are always so amusing! A bunch of armchair experts and aging local road heroes assessing a young runner’s career on limited data and a hitch in her form.

Regardless of how her career turns out, Ms. Valby has cashed in. She’s surrounded by a loving and dedicated family and will very likely marry a financially successful man. She’s making the most of her gifts and I applaud her for it!

But, tell us all about your storied achievements as an elite athlete, coach, or agent? We are dying to know your credentials and how you developed this keen eye for talent and prognostication.

“hitch in her form”

You raise a very important topic. Last summer at the Trials, Valby seemed to have a very distinct “hitch”…maybe a slight limp…Wasn’t there some investigative slo-mo video shared here? What happened to the “Coach Timmons Training” guy? Is that hitch still there?

She’s going to be like Malenia?

Another ignorant, uneducated post. We ALL know that. She will be a success in life, unlike you, you cynical loser.

She's a front runner. She may have gotten away with it in college, but at the international level of competition it's a disaster

It sure was a disaster after college qualifying for the Olympics and then running most of the race with the leaders. She really should take your advice.

@ValleyBee. Exactly. Qualifying and running with leaders is different from winning. She'll do fine on the us stage for awhile. But no kick, no medals.

Is English not your first language? You said it would be a disaster for her. A disaster is falling and not finishing. A disaster is getting lapped and finishing last. But Valby making a team and having a great race in the Olympics was an acomplishment that nearly everyone said was impossible.

To many on this website, anything short of an Olympic gold medal will be downplayed and a “disaster.”

Americans deserve ALL the medals - any medal we don't win has been stolen. It is as simple as that! Hopefully Trump starts to resolve this issue of cheating by all manner of countries which prevents our sweeping all medals. Canada should be taken over after stealing the gold in the 4x100m Men's relay. By 2028 we should be in a position to win everything - the test is making our team, then the medals will be guaranteed.

She set a 6 second PR in a 3k. I wasnt shocked she didnt have a "kick"

I would say just OK. She was the 3rd American and Kelati out kicked her by 10 seconds. How she ran was just about what people predicted. If it was a fast race she could have been lapped, and she would be buried over the last lap or two, off of a slow one.

You are obviously a bigger fan than most of us if you expected to qualify amd then run with the leaders. I am a fan but I didn't even expect her to qualify.

In the trials, there few women running that had PRs of sub-30, so reasonable people would have thought she had a good chance of making the team.

Of course running with the leaders can be both more or less impressive. The leaders could have easily run 30:00 pace which would have quickly gapped Valby. They could have even matched her PR through 5000m. Valby’s splits were 15:51/15:08, which is probably equivalent to running an even paced 30:35, but she still has long ways to go before coming world class.

“Marry a financially successful man” - sexist much?

Yes she needs to win Olympic Gold while still in college. Anything else is a "disaster" and her coach doesn't know what they are doing.

Lots of talk about training in this video. Coogan says he thinks Valby could run 14:35 today. There is a piece about developing a kick.

The picture in that thumbnail looks more like Schumacher than Coogan, no?

Thanks for the link. Didn’t one of the posters in this thread, “kickers..wins”, estimate that was her fitness last summer based on her 10000m splits in the Olympics?