Has anyone here met Rupp in Person?

Rupp_Fan_thereal1 wrote:

After 2016 Olympic trials 5000 I saw Rupp exhausted after his cool down and we had this exchange.

Me: "Mr Rupp, do you need any help?"

GR: He shook his head no

Me: "I just want you to know I think you're the best ever"

GR: "Yea, sure," in a defeated tone.

Me: "Want my Coca Cola? It's ok you can have it"

GR: "No thanks"

Me: "It's ok, really you can have it"

GR: "Thanks" I hand it to him and he chugs it down and starts walking away. Then he paused for a second.

"Hey kid. Thanks" and he tossed me his NOP singlet with a big smile.

Great moment!

Seriously, this is amazing. You should tell this to Coca Cola and a marketing agency. I'd bet they would love this story and probably run it during the Super Bowl or something! You could be famous, kid.

As a person like your friends, I can confirm that they probably aren't interested in the conversation and are thinking about something more interesting to them. They probably could care less if people think they are a jerk.

Why do you guys need Rupp to be a good person so bad? His job is to run fast, not shake hands. You guys are so freakin' needy on here.

He was actually a pretty nice guy. Really goofy but he took pics and talked to people after USA XC. Alberto had to come over and get him away so he could go cool down almost an hour after his race

I met him for 5 seconds before Chicago this year in the Start coral, he seemed nice. I told him good luck he told me the same back.

Good point on the communist country athlete comparison. Never thought of it like that before.

When I met him before a track race, the only thing he'd say to me was "get your hands out of my shorts." Total weirdo.

Personal accountability..? wat

This mentality says a lot more about the people who level criticism of his public persona than it does about Rupp’s character, which is 99% unknown to the commentators.

Not everyone wants to be “famous.”

former competitor wrote:

When I met him before a track race, the only thing he'd say to me was "get your hands out of my shorts." Total weirdo.

To be fair, I was trying to find some underwear of his to sniff, but the closest thing I found while ruffling thru his duffel bag when he wasn't looking was a pair of his shorts. Had he not caught me, I probably would have sniffed the crotch of those shorts....

He wasn't the most personable runner I've ever met but he was nice enough. Nicer than Webb in my interaction with each, but admittedly the sample sizes of one aren't very fair.

And I think very poorly of AlSal and by proxy don't particularly support Rupp, so I've no reason to make him sound nicer than he was.

Saw him after Brussels 2015 5000m where he had a very bad race to be honest 10th in 13.08 so he was obviously not in the best possible mood which I can understand pretty good.

As he was having his cooldown I joined him and asked if it would bother him if I would run with him some laps.

He agreed with a small smile.

I asked him about the race and he told me he was not feeling good and he was pretty disappointed as the shape indicated much more and that he doesn't really want to talk about it.

I was a bit intimidated and didn't want to bother him anymore and I guess he recognized that so he was asking me about my running and broke the ice again and he seemed pretty interested in what I do.

After a 15' cooldown where we were speaking more about me than about him we stopped and he changed clothes and I was asking of I could see his spikes which he gave me while he changed his clothes ( they were incredible some kind of vic elite in black and gold which was never released to the public) I was asking if I could take a picture but he replied with a big smile : No dude this is a prototype made for me by nike i am not even allowed to show you them.

After he changed clothes I asked to take a picture.

After the picture he said : thanks man for the run I would have hated to do it on my own ! Best of luck with your running!

So for me he was incredible friendly and I guess if you are friendly with him he is like almost everyone friendly to you as well.

Gave him ashes on Ash Wednesday. Gave him communion on Easter. My perception is that he's a shy, geeky guy who's not that comfortable being a world famous athlete in a niche sport. He's not the kind of guy who is going to voluntarily get up in front of a group of 100 people and talk. Some famous athletes are like that, some aren't. Athletic success doesn't necessarily correlate with being a social butterfly.

I've been around, worked with a number of other very high level athletes. Some naturally assume the role of 'leader of the social pack' when they're with other competitors. Christian Taylor, for example. Some don't. Galen's clearly in the second category. That kind of personality isn't surprising in what is, at the end of the day, an individual, not team, sport. I've also seen some other athletes who are very much "don't talk to me. I'm working." before and during competition. They are professionals, this is their job, this is what feeds their family and its not going to last for 20 years, so they are extremely focused on doing what they feel has to be done to succeed. I have to respect that kind of focus on succeeding at what you're trying to do. "Whatever you do, do it well."

A lot of runners probably don't like what is said on here about them but Galen has been very prominent from the start of his career and then on top of it as the poster alludes to people did use to make personal attacks on him and our moderating/filtering wasn't as good as it is now (and I know some of you still don't like it).

At the NCAA indoor meet where Galen won his first NCAA track titles in 2009 (hard to believe until then Galen was viewed as a guy who had no kick) Vin Lananna took me aside and had a heated conversation on how Galen was treated on here. Said he didn't deserve how he was treated. I'm sure I told Vin we don't pre-screen content and people are going to say stuff about prominent athletes that the athletes don't like. That's what sport fans do. Galen was taken under the wings of Alberto and Nike as a high schooler and trained like no one else and from the get go that was controversial, created jealousy whatever you want to call it. But Vin said we could do better and talked about the personal stuff.

At the time some posters used to misspell Galen's name on purpose Gaylen or Gay len (if we banned Gaylen) and make essentially homophobic comments. I remember thinking are we supposed to do prevent the word "Gay" from being posted? How could people talk about Tyson Gay? Seriously. But Vin and Alberto (who also spoke to me) had a point so we banned the words "Gay" and "Rupp" from being posted in the same post for a few years. It really helped stop the worst homophobic comments.

We removed the ban at some point and have made references to it as evidenced by some of your posts:

I have no idea if Galen is detached from our culture but Messi and Ronaldo are good examples. Just because you are really good doesn't mean everyone is going to like you. It's sport and people root for and against people for various reasons. Look at the Masters this weekend. Same thing.

Yes. I've met him, along with a few other elite T&F athletes of his caliber (think Ashton Eaton level of athlete), a couple times.

The vibe I get from him is different than those other guys in so much as he doesn't seem interested in talking about his accomplishments at all. Also very socially awkward. The second time I met him he was with a crew of other distance guys and one of them cracked a joke everyone seemed to get but him.

He actually reminds me of a (much more socially awkward) Lonzo Ball in that he is more focused on what he wants to achieve in the future than what he has done in the past.

I met Rupp and Jager at USA XC this year, and had a great experience. Two completely different personalities, but both super nice. Rupp had a horde of people following him around from the moment he got there until he left. I'm sure it must be difficult to be in a good mood, and greet tons of people warmly when you have no space to breathe before and after the race.

Regardless, he took the time to greet and take photos with a ton of fans after the race. He was extremely kind to me, and from what I saw, pretty much everybody that introduced themselves to him. Alberto was a bit less open, but still took photos with people after the race. Alberto seemed to have a leash on Rupp though, because about an hour after the race, he told Galen to hurry up, because if he greeted everyone who wanted to see him they would "never get out of here."

Jager was a super great guy as well, spending time to give tips to younger athletes, and just talk about whatever with people. He noticed that I had my camera with me when I met him, and asked me about what type of camera it was, and what kinds of photography I was into. Seemed to be genuinely interested in meeting fans, and having conversations with people.

Two different personalities, both with enormously different circumstances, but as far as I could tell both were good people. I think Rupp gets way too much slack on the boards, but I guess that's what happens to top athletes everywhere.

Interviewed him once for a regional newspaper. He was polite but I had the feeling I was speaking to an AI device. I have nothing against the guy although like every knowledgable runner I have doubts about how clean he is. Even without that, however, I would find it difficult to really get behind him as a fan because he seems not to have any affinity for other people. The runners I admire were always generous to others--think of Gebreselassie and Tergat embracing after their many duels, or Rodgers and Shorter in the 70s. Most runners actually are fairly social people. Rupp doesn't seem unfriendly particularly, but he just seems not to be socially aware.

Nathan G. wrote:

Interviewed him once for a regional newspaper. He was polite but I had the feeling I was speaking to an AI device.

Did he keep saying "Practice!? We talkin' bout practice!?"

Nathan G. wrote:

Interviewed him once for a regional newspaper. He was polite but I had the feeling I was speaking to an AI device. I have nothing against the guy although like every knowledgable runner I have doubts about how clean he is. Even without that, however, I would find it difficult to really get behind him as a fan because he seems not to have any affinity for other people. The runners I admire were always generous to others--think of Gebreselassie and Tergat embracing after their many duels, or Rodgers and Shorter in the 70s. Most runners actually are fairly social people. Rupp doesn't seem unfriendly particularly, but he just seems not to be socially aware.

I think you are confusing awareness with personal preference. Why is it so hard for people to understand that some people are more private than others and like to keep to themselves. As if that's a bad thing.

There are countless people out there that are "outgoing" with strangers and "fans", but are shitty parents and husbands. GR seems to have his priorities right.

AI wrote:

Did he keep saying "Practice!? We talkin' bout practice!?"

Actually, the full transcript of my interview with him was:

"If I can't practice, I can't practice. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt. If the air quality is bad, it's bad. If the course isn't Rupp certified, it's not Rupp certified. Simple as that. It's not about that at all. But it's easy to talk about and sum it up when you just talk about practice.

We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise runner, and we're in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we're talking about practice.

Not a race! Not a race! Not a race! We're talking about practice. Not a race; not the race that I go out there and die for and run every race like it's my last, not the race, we're talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that?

We're talking about practice. I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example, I know that. And I'm not shoving it aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do. I honestly do. But we're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We're talking about practice, man!

We're talking about practice! We're talking about practice... We ain't talking about the race! We're talking about practice, man! When you come to the stadium, and you see me race.. You see me race, don't you?"

(Note, I am not actually Nathan G the guy who interviewed him and posted)