Is Gwen Jorgensen just trying too hard to be popular?

I'm not sure why this goes over the head of Letsrun posters, but a professional athletes job is not to win races or set records. A professional athletes job is to make money for the person/organization paying their salary. They do this by providing positive exposure for the sponsor's brand, and thereby increasing either the number of buyers for the brands wares, the price buyers are willing to pay for those wares, or both.

Now, winning races and setting records are two, very good way of creating this positive exposure. However, they are neither necessary or sufficient in most cases. Case in point - Maria Sharipova. Another case in point - all the nameless sub-2:06 East African marathoners who no one except hard core running fans can name.

If you've ever known even a single professional endurance or action sports athlete you'd know that there 40 work week consists of maybe 12 hours of training and/or competition, and 28 hours of managing their social media presence, making appearances, doing interviews, etc. That's how they create an ROI on their salary for their sponsor. If you're not willing to actively and aggressively sell yourself, your personal brand, and your sponsors brand... ... then you better darn well be a generational talent in your chosen sport. Even then, you might not keep you and your family fed for long once you pass your peak competitive years.

Monday Post - "I don't get why running isn't more popular?!!! Does anyone in the sport care to promote themselves and the sport?!!! It's like the sport doesn't care about the fans and wants to FAIL!"

Wednesday Post - "Why do some elite runners have to be such attention hoes?!!! Where is their dignity? I don't get why they have to be on social media all of the time showing how hard they train and how they are also approachable people?"

John Utah wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

I'm sure she will appreciate your psychological advice and take it into consideration.

Can you show me where I offered her advice? Are you confusing the word advice with the word opinion?

Everything doesn't have to be a battle, broseph.

4:10 online, 5:40 on the track wrote:

Everything is Stanley. I get it that these athletes now have family. Cool. But We do not follow them because they have the ability to make children... any and every white trash goon can make kids. News flash: we follow you because you are great athletes, not because you can fuse a sperm and egg, which takes zero skill, training, or ability..

This is a common problem of athletes who become parents. they get lame AF. I unfollowed all Gwen's social media. Michael Phelps too. same problem. Just go away and be with your family. We are not interested..

Well you basically described all parents. All parents become lame AF post kids.

i'd hit her

This is bad. This is really bad.

My thread regarding Gwen was focused on her running only. A person’s private life is just that, private, even if it is out in the open.

Let’s focus on the running. That’s it.

Compared to Kara Goucher who constantly paraded her son around as well and at times used him as an excuse for not running well (reasonable or not - you decide), I find Gwen much much much more likeable and relatable. I'm a woman and I'd buy stuff from Gwen much sooner that I would Kara.

Exactly. Thank you.

Stanley wrote:

Forget about the crazy "olympic gold" goal, or her awkwardness in interviews. My question is: why does she always post picture of her son Stanley to get the big likes on instagram? After all, her son hasn't certainly chosen to become an instagram super star. And they're not just family pictures, she's playing a lot the "mum card" to get attention and justify her average performance.

Simple. Marketing 101, and it worked.

vivalarepublica wrote:

John Utah wrote:

Can you show me where I offered her advice? Are you confusing the word advice with the word opinion?

Everything doesn't have to be a battle, broseph.

I couldn’t agree more. So why did you direct that snarky post at me, bro?

xliclciclic wrote:

Compared to Kara Goucher who constantly paraded her son around as well and at times used him as an excuse for not running well (reasonable or not - you decide), I find Gwen much much much more likeable and relatable. I'm a woman and I'd buy stuff from Gwen much sooner that I would Kara.

Gwen is seemingly a very down to earth person and is very likeable. Goucher, not so much.

What Gwen is doing is what Dean Karnazes did and what Anton Krupicka has been doing. Only difference is that Gwen is a legit runner.

I like her and think she's an amazing athlete, but she is really ... weird looking, no? I can't quite figure it out what it is (the eyebrows?!) but she's kinda strange looking to me. This is not at all important to running obv but, just saying.

xliclciclic wrote:

Compared to Kara Goucher who constantly paraded her son around as well and at times used him as an excuse for not running well (reasonable or not - you decide), I find Gwen much much much more likeable and relatable. I'm a woman and I'd buy stuff from Gwen much sooner that I would Kara.

Back in the day, Kara had it all and the fans loved her. I didn’t know anybody that had anything bad to say about her when she was at her peak.

As for Gwen she’s doing it the right way and it’s being documented- I love her YouTube channel. We’ll see how she does in races as she tries to qualify for the 2020 team and what happens in Tokyo 2020.

Will she win? Highly unlikely but we get go on this amazing ride with her.

old and new wrote:

What Gwen is doing is what Dean Karnazes did and what Anton Krupicka has been doing. Only difference is that Gwen is a legit runner.

True. And also perhaps the GOAT female triathlete. There’s that as well.

AK is a bit more of a mountain sports hippy “dirtbag” lifestyle dude. Run, skimo, climb, etc.

It's a pretty dumb thread, but, it's not dumber than the troll who started the thread claiming London isn't a real marathon.

Tyrs wrote:

i'd hit her

With a brick?

wow

Now she’s dressing Stanley in Nike for subliminal advertising, so maybe you’re onto something.