800 dude wrote:
But what makes it unwise? It just seems like there's this knee-jerk reaction sometime to avoid any kind of danger. Anyway, I certainly wouldn't call it violence, as it was her choice to continue. And what's the cost? A couple months off is not the end of the world. On the other side of the ledger, this puts her on the map big time. In Japan, this kind of stuff is legendary. The fans care more about displays of guts than they do about fast times. She's also a professional athlete, even though she's young, so she does have a responsibility to put her body on the line to some degree.
At some point you have to ask yourself, what are you saving your body for? Should Kerri Strug not have vaulted in '96 because she was young and she was risking further injury?
She chose to continue maybe because she's internalized to do so and gave in to public pressure . Just take a look at how those people cheered her on, it's just hard to give up at that point, so in a sense it wasn't her choice.
Anyway, I am not bashing her, but I think the organizers should have stopped her. In fact her head coach already told the organizers he wanted her to stop but the organizers just did nothing.
Yes, Japan has a sick culture for things like that. There's a reason many Japanese runners have a relatively short career as said by Canova. (actually it rings true for baseball as well)
While as a professional athlete, it's your job to push your body to the limit, but that doesn't mean you should push through an injury. Running is just a sporting event, not a war. If you're injured, just stop it, it's that simple, just like when you're sick at work, you should take time off, instead of staying at the office
I am saving the body for races where I can show what I've got. She really shouldn't, even though the outcome turned out to be positive.