I mean, this is kind of a dumb question. How are any of us supposed to know other than just a blind guess. She has a great coach, but so have plenty of other very promising young talents who didn't pan out. There's literally no way of knowing.
No one can know for sure. Jane reminds me a lot of Parker Valby, but maybe even more talented. Post college, Valby has raced what, 3 times, with the highlight being a 10th place at USATF XC. Jane could be the phenom who tops the world stage or she could end up in an injury cycle that takes her out or limits her for years. She does seem a lot more focused than PV so there is that.
I am rooting for her. Would love to see her on the podium in Los Angeles, but will she burn out like so many young superstars?
In my opinion, her slenderness is actually a GOOD sign. While many of the American prodigies who burn out (Ostrander, Tuohy, etc) are less thin, and American elite women as a whole are usually less thin, the extremely successful east African women are VERY slender. So perhaps this is a sign that Jane could compete with some of them.
Would be very very rare for a world class American 18 year old female distance runner to get to her mid 20s without a serious and long breakdown period.
I'm rooting for her sure, but we have to expect that she'll go through a 1-3 years of injury cyclism.
Just don't get too excited, is all I'm saying. Odds are she doesn't have clear sailing.
Her current physical condition is not sustainable as she appears almost skeletal.
We hear about the women who burnout, nut there are for Example Lydia Cheromei, Meseret Defar, Tirunesh Dibaba and on the Mens side Eliud Kipchoge who were Great at very Young ages and got better and were still doing great things 10-20 or more years later, Allyson Felix is an example of this in the Sprints, Heike Dreschler Was World Ranked in the Long Jump 21 Different Years. I think jane Hedengren will be a force in Womens Distance Running for 15-20 or more years. And She will win World Cross Country more times than Grete Waitz did.
Lydia Cheromei was 3rd in World Junior Cross Country in 1990 at age 13, She won The Senior World XC at age 14 in 1991 in 2018 she ran 2:22.11 in the Marahon She ran 2:33 in 2019 in her retirement race 29 Years after her World Junior Cross Country Medal. I think Hedengren will be running Great Marathons in 25-30 Years It has been done and it will be again
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