Wejo's Post-Race Tantrum

Wait a minute....what did Webb do? Was I under a rock? Someone wanna post an article?

wejo don't you coach at cornell? tantrum is not a good way to describe it. You'd think that the brains at cornell would spill over a little bit.

Robert coaches at Cornell. Weldon lives in Dallas and does not coach.

You were at the 2008 Olympic Trials, right? Maybe you were not in the media tent at the time, but I was there after Webb didn't make the team. He was pissed. Right after his race, they walked through the mixed zone and I recall him throwing something and stomping off, obviously not talking to the media. But luckily for him, he could vent elsewhere, perhaps "throw a tantrum" away from us.

I'm wondering whether there is a root issue at work here and we get to see it when he runs bad. Maybe Alan is trying to find his identity in the sport. If he runs bad, its a reflection on him. (I hate that for the guy. That would be a huge amount of pressure for anyone) Could this be a potential reason why Webb has a difficult time being consistent? Maybe this is a new thread, maybe not.

If your son didn't listen to you at age 10, he sure ain't going to listen to the old man as a teenager.

Good art wrote:

Weldon,

...It seems you are trying very hard to justify this even with this headwind of disapproval...

Mike Black

Eugene, Oregon

Way too hard. It's embarrassing watching the LRun admins defend this thing when a simple apology and acknowledgment of overreach could put it all to rest. I don't see what is meant to be gained from any of this. It's like some weird Joaquin Phoenix performance art.

Agreed with you completely. The reason for the mass-orgasm to this thread is that people on this board are obsessed with turning every aspect of life into absolutes. There is no such thing as a gray area, according to the letsrun masses, or the general population, really. It's funny how citizens in real life situations almost exactly mimic the games of name-calling, pigeon-holing, and one-upmanship that are played by politicians. And just like people on this board will undoubtedly do, they will refuse to admit or acknowledge that they are participating in a reality-show-caliber popularity contest.

To illustrate my point, let's do a little SAT/GRE-style analogy. EXAMPLE:

Statement 1: Wejo's one utterance of the word "f***" after a race is the same as Alan Webb's ridiculous display of self-absorption and delusion last weekend.

Statement 2: A running back throwing his helmet down on the ground after a loss in the preseason is the same as that team's coach degrading and demeaning his staff and players in the media for months after they lose the Super Bowl.

In both statements, the first thing has nothing to do with the second thing. Yet people will justify the behavior of one, by claiming that something significantly less severe has also been done by a kindred party. It is ridiculous faulty logic. Even more ridiculous is the need to "defend" Webb that emerges when people are critical of his behavior. A typical defense takes the form of posters claiming that no one can comment on his performances or behavior, because none of us "culd ever run 3:46 for the mile so styfu ur just jealous" (The implication being that God granted mankind logic and leg-speed in equal measure).

The original article written by Letsrun was vastly misread, and to be honest, I was immensely happy that someone else was finally fed up with Webb's ridiculous antics. I have been following Webb since he was a sophomore in high school - that was in fact the first year I really paid close attention to the national high school running scene. I've met several of his Michigan teammates. I've watched Webb in interviews for years, as have we all, of course read Sub-4. I am not remotely surprised by his post-Boston behavior. He has indeed always been like this. Passion is part of it. But I guarantee you his passion does not significantly exceed that of his competitors. They ALL have passion. Being excited is no excuse for his behavior. You think Nick Willis doesn't have passion? You think he was happy finishing lower in the Boston Indoor Games than he did in the Beijing Olympic? Yet he still ran a cool down with Verkabeekerhas, which was a class act.

I'm not saying Webb had to do that. If he was truly that upset, all he had to do was avoid the media and do his cool down on his own. But that has never been his goal after a bad race. What he wants to do after every bad race is to do everything in his power to create elaborate excuses as to why he ran poorly. The excuses change with every bad race and they are endless. He has in his mind this childish idea that he needs to be DEEPLY disappointed in every performance that doesn't demonstrate he is the best the world has ever seen. While the notion is admirable, his execution is not. There is, and always has been, something distinctly not-believable and disingenuous in Webb's tirades. It's like he feels he has a seriously justified right to hate the world if he's not the one who wins all the glory on a certain day. All true athletes FEEL that; I don't know if I've ever seen anyone react with the immaturity which Webb consistently does.

Look back at his interviews over the years. He is literally trying to imagine up excuses during interviews for the slightest thing that does not shed him in the light of the next Messiah. It is so phony as to be embarrassing at times.

He has an incredible talent, and it seemed as though he was back on the comeback train recently with Salazar and Rupp, particularly in his Thanksgiving day performance. I hope he finds his way back to the top. I really do. I also hope he gains the maturity and the self-awareness of his far more noble and admirable competitors. And I hope the general masses gain the self-respect necessary to truly look at an issue as an objective individual, not as part of a witch-trial and groupthink-inspired cult.

really???? I considered your concerns for your son, and I believe I understand with empathy your position. I do believe having heros are good for kids and I should think it quite valuable that our champions could exercise grace on and hopefully off the track. This does not change the point of mine and seemingly many others with this article. I maintain it is really not in anyone!s interest and it is not reasonable having such a form of public character rebuke/ creteque with these circumstances as we have seen here with Alan. I maintain that people are complicated, and most scripts we write in our heads about these public people are in most cases grossly inaccurate . It is not reasonable to assume anyone should be a certain way, and when disappointed launch a negatively biased review of their charachter that in many ways tries to influence others of such illusions.

I don't believe a ten year old exists that knows who Alan Webb and Chris Solinsky are.

My 5 yr old knows who Chris Solinsky is, but I don't tell him about Webb. I can imagine in 5 yrs or so I might be discussing Webb as an example of the pitfalls of prodigy...we'll see.

ya, he'll listen well. He does now, but when he see's one of his heros and he has a jersey in hand with a marker and we are 5 feet away from him and just starts walking over there.. There is a difference in him throwing a fit and then walking over there to get his autograph.. and just walking over there..

Webb can handle his business how ever he wants. He is the one that looks like a child behaving that way after a race that means nothing.. And Wejo can write any article he wants. I don't blame him from writing the article.(I like that he did because I wanted to see what happened when I say him running hard on the track after the race) Look at how much it stirred everyone up. More hits on a website for him.

I don't believe a ten year old exists that knows who Alan Webb and Chris Solinsky are.

________________________________________________________________________

I guess you don't know any of those kids in runner families than.

Really??? wrote:

ya, he'll listen well. He does now, but when he see's one of his heros and he has a jersey in hand with a marker and we are 5 feet away from him and just starts walking over there.. There is a difference in him throwing a fit and then walking over there to get his autograph.. and just walking over there..

I get it - you can't change who your kid idolizes anymore. I was just responding to the guy who thinks that young kids don't pay attention to elite runners.

As someone who actually attended the meet and stuck around after for about 40 minutes or so, I can say that the article was very misleading about his post race workouts. I was not privy to the alleged tantrum as I am just an average person, unable to Letsrun my way into the elite athletes area. As the author of the article stated clearly you were the only people in the press area who felt what he was doing was worthy of even looking at. There are reasons why certain reporters are welcome in locker rooms of pro teams, they have the decency to not bite the hand that feeds them. It also seems unfair to paint his post race workout as a maniacal cooldown done by a stark raving mad lunatic. Unlike your article I saw Webb walk out, in his flats, not his spikes like you have stated, and begin a common practice for those in the Salazar camp. His workout was no different from Kara Goucher or Galen Rupp doing post race workouts. I even debated an old timer in the stands as this was talking place. He said "I should just go hit him with a 2x4, that's what he wants", thinking he was trying to punish himself for a bad race. I politely disagreed and told him how common of a practice it was for those training under Alberto.

Heres the thing, I don't get the hit job. Wejo, you know how hard it is to be competitive, and you have never even been near his level of competition. You also know that his ego has been shown to make or break him at times. You claim to post this article in the desire to help teach him a lesson. The only thing you do is expose to his fans something 3 letsrun weasels saw and nobody would have heard of otherwise. I have failed to find one other piece of print chastising him as you guys have. I also assume you never realized your own words would be found and used against you for your hypocrisy.

The only other time i remember such a negative reaction to Letsrun was the Chicago marathon/heat thread. Your fans told you by majority that they didn't like your opinion and it was insulting to those runners who competed and gave their best effort. Like this thread you stayed steadfast on your beliefs, despite someone using your own words to show how contradictory you are. In the Chicago thread letsrun just disappeared and ignored their fans. This time around you seem to be still responding. Have the guts this time to say you were wrong, not to apologize to letsrun and Alan Webb fans, but to Alan Webb and for the integrity of your web site.

lade da wrote:

Wejo,

I understand you posted on the other thread that people should email you because you have not had the time to read all the comments. Well to that I ask why you cant make the effort to read what the grand majority ( except 5 or 6) have already stated and taken alot of their own time to make their feelings heard? Are their voices not important (I know you would certainly think they are)? They already have spoken out. You should take the time to read and just sit down for a second and view the other side of the argument and see the irony of this post. Thank you for your time.

Alain De la Tejera

Riverside, California

I thought that it was strange he said he didn't "have time" either. What a telling staement by Wejo. It took me a whole 10 mins. to read through the entire thread.

There is nothing worse than someone who can't admit to any wrongdoing.

I absolutely agree you and the Letsrun article. I can't believe the uproar that has been going on over the article. The one positive I have seen is the overwhelming support for Alan Webb. If there is an athlete who possibly reads the message boards that are bashing him too much, it is him. It is nice to see the support for him instead of the usual derogatory remarks about him.

However, I still support Letsrun, the article, and what the Johnson brothers have done with their website. I find it honorable that they have stood by the article, which was written by Emory Mort. Weldon wasn't even at the meet, and he has stood by the article. I think thats honorable, and being a journalist is partly about writing what you believe is important, and they have the faith that their reporting was important. Was the article itself opinionated? Absolutely. That's why I read Letsrun, Bill Simmons, and other news articles. I want to read someone's thoughts about an event. And when Emory Mort and Tom Davis tell me that Alan Webb's behavior was completely out of the ordinary for a track meet, I believe them.

I'm not a regular Letsrun poster, just a reader. But if any Letsrun employee's are reading this post, please continue your reporting on track and field in the manner you see fit, I have always enjoyed reading your articles. I don't care if they are politically correct or show an athlete's darker side, I just want to know what happened and someone's opinion on it. Thank you Letsrun, I'm glad you stand by your employees and your reporting.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

You were at the 2008 Olympic Trials, right? Maybe you were not in the media tent at the time, but I was there after Webb didn't make the team. He was pissed. Right after his race, they walked through the mixed zone and I recall him throwing something and stomping off, obviously not talking to the media. But luckily for him, he could vent elsewhere, perhaps "throw a tantrum" away from us.

This behaviour goes way, way back.

I hate the idea that journalists shouldn't report on this sort of thing the same way we'd expected it reported on football players and any other REAL pro athletes. That's exactly how to keep running as the niche sport it is in the media, right behind darts and bowling.

For those of you who have no idea what we are talking about this is the article:

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/webbboston02062.php

I think johnny langenwanker does an excellent job of giving this some perspective. Not everything is absolute. All post-race reactions are not equivalent and all athletes getting upset after races are not equivalent. We felt this was so outside of the norm of what we had seen at a meet it should be reported. We're usually not out to chronicle the post-race reactions of athletes.

Txrunner, I'm glad you brought up the Olympic Trials. When Emory was telling Webb's outburst to me, I told Emory I wasn't completely 100% surprised as I've seen him have an overthetop reaction in the past. I wasn't sure when.

Again, however not everything is absolute. This one we felt rose to a completely different level, lasted longer (perhaps Webb in private vented much longer at the Trials we don't know, but part of any reaction is for the the people watching it) Langenwanker in his post implies that part of Webb's reaction is showing others how much he cares or what his excuse is. We all react differently when we know someone else is watching. Webb knew he was being watched and I think part of his reaction is for those watching.) and obviously the stakes involved (Olympic Trials vs first race of year) factor in to some extent. However, Olympic Trials or first race of the year, there is a standard of conduct that is expected and if you deviate too far from that it might get reported.

Setting up a show with Chris Lear has been difficult this week but if we get one we should try and get Alan on it. I bet he's say he's not proud of his reaction. Having said that it doesn't mean Alan's a bad person or I don't root for him to do well.

Alan is clearly frustrated with how things are going right now. 4:00 is not very good for him, but he did beat Rupp on Thanksgiving which was impressive. One of Webb's greatest talents is his belief he can beat anyone and his desire to do so. Many people on here believe he is the only American athlete who can win a gold.

Having said that, one of Webb's weaknesses is when he's not the best in the World he gets down on himself so much. He should always be assessing his situation and determining the proper course, but if he is too harsh on himself a bad race can be a step back instead of a bump in the road. He needs to keep moving forward and choosing the best path.

As for me saying I don't have time to read all the comments, that was just to state the fact if you really want to reach me email is the best way. Just because there is a thread with a few hundred posts and some people upset doesn't mean I'm going to retract the article. If every article we write makes everyone happy we're not doing our jobs. The feedback I'm getting is we could have conveyed our thoughts better as a lot of people are missing what we were trying to say, but I don't regret posting the article. We thought long and hard about it before we posted it.

As for Alan Webb, I eagerly anticipate what's next for him. One of the greatest things about him is despite his enormous talent and enormous drive is he is so human. You don't know if you'll get the 4:00 Alan, or the 3:46 Alan. I hope he is able to figure it out because as Rojo loves to say, talent doesn't go away over night. Alan's late fall campaign and Thanksgiving race had me hoping we'd see the 3:46 Alan in 2011. Now I'm not sure.

He puts a ton of pressure on himself, I think and feels a lot of outside pressure . I believe if he could handle a race like this better (without taking away his fire) he'll be a better athlete.