If he enjoys cross country, I think this is a great idea. I really worry about the pressures that are about to be placed on this young man.
There are many examples of prodigies who responded poorly to early stardom. Burnout, mental health problems, and injury are real risks.
Cooper's family needs to put Cooper first. No social media. No professional contract. No media hype. Just let him enjoy high school like other kids do.
Maybe. He should not run xc this year as worlds is in Sept. It will be Oct by the time he has recovered, earliest and 5k and 800 training are a bit different. Perhaps he could do well in hs competition without specialized training though. But why go from racing the best in the world to racing hs'ers.
Original post was a bit of a joke but his 15:58 pr in the 5k is fine for like 1:46 but most of these guys at 1:42 are much faster. Even his mile is is 10+ seconds slow for a 1:42 guy. Considering his 400 progression he seems like a guy with huge natural speed. He’s definitely not going to do double threshold and 80 mile weeks but some more aerobic focused work and a few races at like 90% effort is likely
If he enjoys cross country, I think this is a great idea. I really worry about the pressures that are about to be placed on this young man.
There are many examples of prodigies who responded poorly to early stardom. Burnout, mental health problems, and injury are real risks.
Cooper's family needs to put Cooper first. No social media. No professional contract. No media hype. Just let him enjoy high school like other kids do.
“If he enjoys cross country, I think this is a great idea. I really worry about the pressures that are about to be placed on this young man.”
What? The kid is living the dream. If I had had his talent, I would I would have been loving life. Should all the 800m runners that can’t break 1:50, be thankful they’re not good enough to make the WC team? I’ve been reading The Jim Ryun Story by Cordner Nelson and Jim really enjoyed his successes in HS.
If he enjoys cross country, I think this is a great idea. I really worry about the pressures that are about to be placed on this young man.
There are many examples of prodigies who responded poorly to early stardom. Burnout, mental health problems, and injury are real risks.
Cooper's family needs to put Cooper first. No social media. No professional contract. No media hype. Just let him enjoy high school like other kids do.
I appreciate your wanting to protect this kid, but I couldn’t disagree more. The only thing that is certain at this point in his young life is that he qualified for the world championships and he absolutely should go run the world championships. One never knows if this opportunity will come around again, though it’s about 90% certain in his case. Also, he has the opportunity right here, right now to set himself (and his family to come) up financially for life with a big contract from a big shoe company. Take the bird in the hand. If it doesn’t pan out ten years from now, what has he lost? He’ll be 26 and just starting life but with generational wealth. Far more likely, he’ll be an Olympian and AR holder.
He can still otherwise go to high school, be a kid, train with the team and his coach in the fall but just not race. And college? Well, he can still *attend* college to get the monkey off his back, but maybe it will be the 6-8 year plan, and he’s already better than all the collegiate competition anyway.
Original post was a bit of a joke but his 15:58 pr in the 5k is fine for like 1:46 but most of these guys at 1:42 are much faster. Even his mile is is 10+ seconds slow for a 1:42 guy. Considering his 400 progression he seems like a guy with huge natural speed. He’s definitely not going to do double threshold and 80 mile weeks but some more aerobic focused work and a few races at like 90% effort is likely
He also hasn't raced a mile or anything other than 800 against the highest level of competition.