Ajee Wilson OUT of Worlds 800 - Molly Ludlow to replace

This is a big loss for the team, as healthy and without too many men in the field, she would be a lock for a medal, and while rojo thinks that Eunice Sum would necessarily have beaten her both times in the DL this year, if she were healthy, I don't think Sum, listed as 27, is a lock. It's not as if she is running 1:54/55. Her pr is 1:56.99 and she ran 1:57.38 to win world's. She has won a world gold in 2013, along with the DL, and commonwealth gold in 2014, while Wilson won World Youth then World Junior, then ran 1:58.21 to finish under a second back from Sum in World's in 2013, when Wilson was just 19. She's 21 with a pr of 1:57.67 from last year and if she were healthy this year, you'd think she could run 1:56. With a typical progression and her early championship success, you'd have to give her a fighting chance each time out against Sum, with the latter still the favorite this year.

jjjjjj wrote:

This is a big loss for the team, as healthy and without too many men in the field, she would be a lock for a medal,.

Actually, there are NO men in the field.

. It's my understanding that appearance fees are pretty much non-existent for someone like Wilson. Care to elaborate Rojo?

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6680530#ixzz3iSY2eZ4j

Any Which Way But Loose wrote:

jjjjjj wrote:

This is a big loss for the team, as healthy and without too many men in the field, she would be a lock for a medal,.

Actually, there are NO men in the field.

I guess that depends on how you view internal testes.

Old Man Winter wrote:

Could you please disclose some of this information as to some of those athletes earning a decade ago?

Obviously I am not going to discuss any particular athletes; however, I will make some brief statements so as not to get too far off the thread topic. Btw, I am somewhat out of the loop these days, but sometimes I do read or hear about what a particular athlete got for a meet. This is generally because it was a lot or very little. Track & field's most kelp secret is that there a few athletes making lots of money and there are a lot of athletes making almost no money. The half dozen or so at the top of the pyramid in terms of performance and marketability, use to make close to half million dollars a year (total compensation). It was not uncommon for a meet to spend half of their appearance fee budget on 3 or 4 athletes. This disparity is the main reason why you never know what certain athletes got for an appearance fee. Also, these athletes get paid for everything they do, as in, it would cost you a grand plus expenses to have them show up at your event, speak for a few minutes and sign autographs. I am sure they are paid more nowadays. I think I read some where that Ryan Hall made a close a million dollars in just (appearance fees) in a 3 year period. If you have a good agent, remain at or near the top for 2 Olympics cycles, you can retire a multimillionaire. With that said, these athletes have high expenses, they are charged for everything and at the end of the day, only walk away with about half of their earnings.

Back on topic. The athletes I am talking about above are in their own class. The next class, I am I calling tier one. This is the class I assume Ajee Wilson is in; global championship medal contenders and it helps to come from the USA. I won't guess what her total comp is, but if she has her own apartment in nice neighborhood, drives a nice late model car and takes Caribbean vacations, you can assume a certain minimum. Btw, I just happen to know Ajee and her parents, albeit I have not spoke to them in years, I know her coach even better. An absolutely fact, if she had successfully done the DL circuit this year, she would have earned way more than $30K as has been suggested.

Unfortunately, the other dirty secret is that those tier 2 athletes who are very good nationally, and get invited to some DL meets, net of expenses, finish the year with close to welfare. I've known T2 athletes who were broke after financing their own European circuit season.

That really sucks...so basically the best male and female 800m runners aren't gonna be at worlds. Luckily, Ludlow is really good too and ran 1:58 in Paris. If Martinez can get back on her game, I'd hope to see her go for another medal...but she hasn't looked that great this year compared to the last couple years. Montano has been inconsistent...given that she won USA's but then got outkicked at Pan Ams. But we shall see.

An obvious doper trying to avoid testing. Good riddance.

Precious Roy wrote:

I guess it might be time to start kicking around the issue of the US selection process and whether US champs are too hard on our athletes. There have been a lot of weak performances by US runners this summer. Symmonds is not running well. Centro and Leo have had some awful performances. Emma Coburn has not been very competitive post-US champs. And now Ajee is injured.

Nationals should be held close to the championships, like they do in Kenya. The problem with Team USA has always been having to peak in June and then again in late August. Very difficult.

ijenns318 wrote:

Montano has been inconsistent...given that she won USA's but then got outkicked at Pan Ams. But we shall see.

Fairly stupid post. Still wearing hernia tape from pregnancy, she dominated nationals from the front and was barely beaten at Pan-Ams after frontrunning 795 meters. Hardly inconsistent.

ps You don't "outkick" in a fast 800. That's an illusion to spectators who don't understand the event.

what races are you watching? wrote:

ijenns318 wrote:

Montano has been inconsistent...given that she won USA's but then got outkicked at Pan Ams. But we shall see.

Fairly stupid post. Still wearing hernia tape from pregnancy, she dominated nationals from the front and was barely beaten at Pan-Ams after frontrunning 795 meters. Hardly inconsistent.

ps You don't "outkick" in a fast 800. That's an illusion to spectators who don't understand the event.

Your post was also fairly stupid.

Although I agree she hasn't been inconsistent, it should be pointed out that:

A. She only won Nationals because Ajee lost a shoe

B. She did not "front run" at Pan Ams at ALL. She only took the lead with 200m to go. Rose Mary Almanza led for the first 500-600 meters. You would know this if you watched the race.

Also, she may not have been " outkicked" in a technical sense, but she was beaten, in a race that really wasn't all that quick. 1:59 is nothing to get excited about.