Wow... "I'm not into running an American record in front of 30 people and a bunch of trees."

thanks for the additions. Plaatjes and Lagat obviously aren't American born. DK's was at World Indoors, but that is a medal. Obviously if you count other than world outdoor and olympics, you get Ritz at World Junior XC and World 1/2 Marathon. Diemer it was. Did Marsh never get in there? If you count World Cup, then Cook's athlete Manzano counts.

Erik Nedeau

Are we not counting olympic medals? Is that why Meb hasn't made the list?

Many here (surprise) are taking the quote out of context.

During the interview he said that he doesn't believe injuries are a given and that his job is to get his athletes ready to run well when it counts. That's all.

He also said a lot of nice things later in the interview about Alan and his former and present coaches, so I didn't take the earlier quote as dissing on anyone specifically.

He's not a guy you should be parsing for nuance, which made the interview very refreshing to me. He was self deprecating and had some very frank comments. It made it worth listening to, so chill.

Yeah, some of y'all need to listen to the context of his statements again. Coach Cook is somewhat unorthodox, to be sure. He, however, is certainly no idiot. Dude knows a lot and how to implement it. While I don't necessarily agree with his style, his message about performing well in championship situations (by virtue of being healthy for one thing) has merit.

Out of all of those medalists cited above only Craig Virgin has set an AR in a championship event. Did Cook coach Virgin? I don't think so.

Again, this was miss quoted.

He didn't say setting AR at a championships.... do your homework...

"I'm not much into running American records in front of 30 people and maybe 20 trees. I think you need to be ready when it counts. ... I believe you gotta race. And I think you gotta race at the right time and be ready to go when it counts. If somebody runs an incredible time then they can't make the American team, that's bullsh*t!"

Exactly. Good that someone around here has a modicum of listening comprehension skills. He was just saying it's better to have a 90% fit/100% healthy athlete toe the line, rather than just see how fit/fast one can get with gobs of training, which all too often results in running fast at an inopportune time and/or becoming injured.

Bunch of Trees wrote:

Out of all of those medalists cited above only Craig Virgin has set an AR in a championship event. Did Cook coach Virgin? I don't think so.

Position Athlete Country Mark .

1 Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 29:54.66 (OR)

2 Elvan Abeylegesse TUR 29:56.34 (AR)

3 Shalane Flanagan USA 30:22.22 (AR)

ciego no más wrote:

Bunch of Trees wrote:

Out of all of those medalists cited above only Craig Virgin has set an AR in a championship event. Did Cook coach Virgin? I don't think so.

Position Athlete Country Mark .

1 Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 29:54.66 (OR)

2 Elvan Abeylegesse TUR 29:56.34 (AR)

3 Shalane Flanagan USA 30:22.22 (AR)

Hell yeah! Touché to all you Cook haters and critics.

This is where you are suppose to say "Nevermind!"

[2x, actually...]

Rakunishu wrote:

And just what does Cook have to his name? Coaching a woman to a bronze? Congrats, that'd be similar to coaching a D3 male runner to qualify for nats.

No, actually they're not similar at all.