I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. That Mike Smith has paid less attention to him? Sabotaging him?
I think what people are really hinting at here is that Smith’s coaching incentives are tied more closely to his Nike athletes like Parker Wolfe than to Nico, who’s with Adidas. Training will help Parker beat Nico, not Nico beating Parker.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. That Mike Smith has paid less attention to him? Sabotaging him?
I think what people are really hinting at here is that Smith’s coaching incentives are tied more closely to his Nike athletes like Parker Wolfe than to Nico, who’s with Adidas. Training will help Parker beat Nico, not Nico beating Parker.
How does this even make sense? They likely do some of their training together.
Of course they train together at times, that’s how groups work. But the entire system still has to be built around the priority athlete. If Parker Wolfe and the core of the group are Nike, then the training calendar, race selection, peaking schedule, and long-term development plan are naturally going to be optimized for them first. That’s literally the job of a Nike-backed coach, to get Nike athletes to perform when it matters. Nico being Adidas automatically puts him on a parallel track, he can benefit from the environment, but the system isn’t truly being engineered around his championship needs. You can’t tailor one program perfectly for two athletes with different sponsors, race targets, and incentive structures at the same time. One of them is always the priority.
I could be wrong, but I would guess that Nico and others like Blanks who ran at the World Championships have just started training again in the last couple months, whereas Parker has built steadily thus far since graduating. Very strong performances from Nico and Blanks in this context, and obviously fantastic race from Parker showing his progress in the last year.
Of course they train together at times, that’s how groups work. But the entire system still has to be built around the priority athlete. If Parker Wolfe and the core of the group are Nike, then the training calendar, race selection, peaking schedule, and long-term development plan are naturally going to be optimized for them first. That’s literally the job of a Nike-backed coach, to get Nike athletes to perform when it matters. Nico being Adidas automatically puts him on a parallel track, he can benefit from the environment, but the system isn’t truly being engineered around his championship needs. You can’t tailor one program perfectly for two athletes with different sponsors, race targets, and incentive structures at the same time. One of them is always the priority.
The entire system still has to be engineered around the priority athlete. If you’re a pro and think a true team environment can work for two of the same, you’re wrong. Training groups are important, but this set up is a disaster waiting to happen. If the core of the group and the funding are Nike, then the workouts, race schedule, peaking windows, and long term plan are naturally going to be optimized for the Nike guys first. That’s literally the job of a Nike backed coach. Nico being Adidas means he’s always going to be on a parallel track, benefiting from the group but never the true focal point. And long-term, that was never going to be a gold-standard setup anyway a Nike coach training non-Nike athletes will always have built-in conflicts when it comes to whose agenda truly gets served.
If Nico truly wants to be the best ever, there’s a real argument that training alongside Parker and the Nike core might actually be helping them more than it helps him. The system is built to elevate the Nike guys, not to maximize Nico’s ceiling as an Adidas athlete. In that setup, Nico risks becoming the perfect training partner pushing Parker and the rest to higher levels while his own long term peak isn’t the true priority. Yesterday was glimpses of that.
Ah yes, the classic LetsRun move, someone disagrees with you, so you call it out as “wrong” instead of just accepting different opinions.
Different opinions like a coach sabotaging the most talented kid he’s ever trained, who he’s worked with for six years, so that he can maybe get minor performance bonuses on top of the multiple hundreds of thousands a year he’s likely already getting?
I think what people are really hinting at here is that Smith’s coaching incentives are tied more closely to his Nike athletes like Parker Wolfe than to Nico, who’s with Adidas. Training will help Parker beat Nico, not Nico beating Parker.
How does this even make sense? They likely do some of their training together.
Smith yells at Nico during his workouts telling him Parker is on another level. He then finds Nico’s post workout snack and throws it out. I heard he even once hid Nico’s keys
Ah yes, the classic LetsRun move, someone disagrees with you, so you call it out as “wrong” instead of just accepting different opinions.
Different opinions like a coach sabotaging the most talented kid he’s ever trained, who he’s worked with for six years, so that he can maybe get minor performance bonuses on top of the multiple hundreds of thousands a year he’s likely already getting?
I’m staying impartial, but it’s fair to point out that a lot of people are questioning Nico’s training situation. It’s far from perfect, and certain circumstances are naturally going to draw criticism.