I don't know if this has garnered any public attention yet, but McMillian Elite will be losing Adidas sponsorship after Christmas. I assume this will greatly effect their elite training group.
This was news to me so I thought I'd share, it might have been leaked/announced already though.
Thoughts?
Source: close elite friend in AZ
sorry to hear that. I'd sponsor them myself but I'm broke.
Any training center that is 100% dependent on a shoe company is guaranteed to fail. It is just a matter of time. Remember Reebok Enclave?
Well, not any, as the Nike Oregon Project will be fine and in existence as long as Salazar is around.
No loss for the running world.
Your title is a little misleading. You don't know if they will shut down.. And it's "affect" . . .
You don't know if it's going to "effect" their elite training group, either.
Word police wrote:
Your title is a little misleading. You don't know if they will shut down.. And it's "affect" . . .
Eclo wrote:
Well, not any, as the Nike Oregon Project will be fine and in existence as long as Phil Knight is around.
fixed
i was always confused..Mcmillian elite and Team USA arizona (on paper not the same, but kind of...just not all the adidas support for Team arizona). will Team arizona just absorb McMillian elite ?
There would be NOP without Salazar. Notice that Phil Knight has always been there leading Nike, but NOP has only been around with Salazar. Learn the sport.
Eclo wrote:
There would be NOP without Salazar. Notice that Phil Knight has always been there leading Nike, but NOP has only been around with Salazar. Learn the sport.
Notice that Phil Knight has sponsored various track clubs over the years, starting with Athletics West.
NOP is just the latest incarnation.
Without Phil, Salazar is still coaching Central Catholic High School.
Will be interesting to see if any other elite/sub-elite groups gain/absorb new members.
Who currently trains under the McMillian system (elites)?
sxsw wrote:
Will be interesting to see if any other elite/sub-elite groups gain/absorb new members.
Who currently trains under the McMillian system (elites)?
Aaron Braun, and that's about it.
I'm sure he can find a new group to train with if he wants.
How right you are. Take a look at their group and see who has run a pb in the last 12 months. That is who is capable of landing a position with another training group. Most Groups are not interested in bringing in anyone elses no longer developing attitudes.
who is Gotcher being coached by now days?
Sad if true, but perhaps not totally unexpected as adidas seems to be reducing their support for professional running except for sprints. Reebok Enclave, Fila Discovery team, etc. went through the same thing.
Losing any training group for distance running is unfortunate for US running because so much of it is a numbers game - the more post-collegiates able to train at a high level, the better the odds of identifying talent that can compete at a world level. Just trying to develop the few top college runners every year - many of whom may be close to their potential already - will never get the US to the same level as the East Africans.
Aaron Braun had already left the group and moved to CO and has a different coach in CO
Just looked at website. Very few athletes listed.
McMillian was a joke of a coach,I knew more than one runner coached by him that said he was awful.
What's going to happen in Flagstaff now? Seems like a great spot for anyone to train. Would be cool to see a good coach form a new group there.