Times have changed: Joan B. Samuelson was punched by her college field hockey coach and says the coach did the "right thing"

A little off topic wrote:

Interesting article. I got together with some bowdoin cross country runners from the early 90s this mid winter, we were talking about Joanie. I wondered if she actually ran for Bowdoin on the D 3 level (I’ve never seen her on any D3 all time lists or all American rosters). One guy swore that she ran for Bowdoin. Seems from this article that while she attended for a time, she never did actually compete for the school as a NCAA athlete.

Different era. I have a friend that ran for Bowdoin, and yes she did run some meets.

Bobby Knight was a bully coach who lacked an expansive mindset to get through to his players in elevated ways. Sure he won a bunch and his former players love him. Krzyzewski is an improvement on Knight's manner, wins without humiliating or assaulting people.

​zoomzoomzoom wrote:

you don't think the dictation mistakenly changed "benched" to "punched" ?

This seems likely. If she actually got punched, I'd think she'd offer a little more explanation/elaboration than "[coach] pulled me off the field and punched me."

rojo wrote:

Eliana Miller wrote:Despite her Olympic-level athleticism, Samuelson was demoted to the Bowdoin junior varsity field hockey team after showing up exhausted to a field hockey game against Colby after winning a half marathon in Portland, where she beat the woman who was considered the best female distance runner in New England at the time.

“Back then you couldn’t substitute players except at half time and [my coach] Sally LaPointe pulled me off the field and punched me because I was so tired that I could hardly move off the line,” Samuelson said. “She did the right thing, and I learned a lot on that team, but then I realized that I should just follow my heart and pursue running."

https://bowdoinorient.com/2019/04/12/40-years-40-minutes-olympian-to-run-boston-marathon/

If that gym coach did that to any one in my family , she be floating in the jersey river.

A little off topic wrote:

Interesting article. I got together with some bowdoin cross country runners from the early 90s this mid winter, we were talking about Joanie. I wondered if she actually ran for Bowdoin on the D 3 level (I’ve never seen her on any D3 all time lists or all American rosters). One guy swore that she ran for Bowdoin. Seems from this article that while she attended for a time, she never did actually compete for the school as a NCAA athlete.

In the winter of 1977-78, I ran in an indoor dual meet at Bowdoin in which Joanie ran the mile. She wore a Bowdoin singlet (which she also wore in road races), so I guess she was running "for" Bowdoin, but all of the other competitors were men, and she didn't score any points. If there were any women's NCAA track and field competitions back then, I don't remember them, at least in New England. (I also remember watching Lynn Jennings run in a Massachusetts high school state cross country championship race at Franklin Park in Boston during the fall of 1976 or 1977. All of the other competitors were boys. I don't recall any girls races.)

I think that people are getting far too worked up about what Joanie's coach did or didn't do. And yes, Joanie was also a coach herself.

The claims about Joanie's purportedly low VO2 max are inaccurate and, worse, just perpetuate more useless pseudoscientific babble.

Yeah, I never heard anything about Joanie having a low VO2 Max. If anything, I heard quite the opposite.

it's sad that some people were conditioned to believe that that wasn't a problem when it happened. i think it's safe to say we've outgrown that mindset as a society & don't need LRC giving something like this any legs.

I'd just point out that Joanie did not stick on the team and obey, but rather took the punch as a message to say that she needed to quit the field hockey team and pursue her true sport with enough time to concentrate on it and excel. So, it is hardly a message that good coaching means punching athletes or that athletes punched by their coaches should stay on the team.

I should have fact checked myself. Looks like she ran a few meets her senior year, a few about a month after her Boston win. What a beast!

Key detail here is that she quit Field Hockey. Not running.

Good coaches understand their athletes well enough to keep them focused on the task at hand. This coach did not, which is why Joan went off and ran that half when she had a field hockey game the next day in the first place.

American running should be so grateful her field hockey coach sucked so bad.

Would have been AIAW at that time. Also remember she transferred to NC State for a scholarship so it's not as if Bowdoin was the spot where she was sufficiently or ultimately nurtured as a young runner, either.

A female athlete that I coach just raced terrible....punched her in the gut to toughen her up. If it worked for JB and she said it was what she needed I can't be wrong.

We are way too soft wrote:

I have 4 daughters that have all run D1. Not sure why that is relevant.

We are hearing from an Olympic Gold Medalist and she says it was right for her.

I have one daughter that I felt underachieved and that is because her College coach never got in her face.

I would much rather my kids ran for a Bobby Knight type coach than some pansy azz that wants to have a team meeting to discuss improvements.

I’m going to stick my neck out and say that you’ve never coached an Olympic Gold Medalist? I’m backing Joannie over you and your 25 years experience.

You sound like a psychopath, it's terrible that people like you are able to reproduce. I always tell my athletes the pursuit of winning is what matters and that winning itself is just a bonus. In that pursuit you should hold yourself to the highest moral standard. I personally don't give a sh** how fast someone runs if they are a jerk they are still a jerk.

What did she do wrong to warrant that corrective behavior action?

I read her biography many years ago, and while I don't remember the anecdote about field hockey, I seem to recall her early competitive focus was downhill skiing, in which she suffered a traumatic accident which altered the course of her athletic career in favor of running. I recall the accident as resulting in a fracture of her femur, which in turn affected her running style in later years (?). If someone has the book or recalls more maybe they can confirm or deny.

Well, when I Google "highest female VO2 max" Samuelson comes of at 78.6 so what are you talking about?

https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm

I feel like the lesson when I read stuff like this is to remember that great athletes are just great athletes. Away from sports, they are just random dumbasses like the rest of us until proven otherwise. A jock said something stupid? Shocking!

Spoil the child or spare the rod wrote:

1955 wrote:

The coach was wrong. It's never OK for a coach or a teacher to physically assault one of the people they are supposed to be helping. Nor should they mock or belittle them, and, of course, sexual assault is off the table.

Why do we expect less from coaches than we expect from other members of society when it comes to this kind of stuff?

Spoil the child or spare the rod. My dad told me growing up. The dentist would slap you if you didn't open up and the schools had paddles to discipline the students. People are soft today. But physical forms of punishment are needed. Or, else you'll end up with the current state America is in.

Didn't you just say the same thing?

Its spare the rod and spoil the child.

Your way you likely turned out to be a fatty crybaby