Craig Engels fires back at Simpson: "Jenny is just brutal... when she gets in front of a camera she gets on a high horse."

Great interview, Engels is awesome and I love that he's not afraid to stick his neck out to defend Julian and NOP. Hope you continue to do so, Craig.

Hoping he can sneak a bronze, or at least beat the Ingebritsens.

She needs to put a lid on it wrote:

LeBron is very accomplished as well, but he says a lot of dumb things

Yeah but no one tells LeBron to puT a LiD on It when he says dumb sh*t.

People are just mad because Jenny is a woman with an opinion.

This is what I’m talking about!!!

So tired of this pc culture. Our sport is a joke. This wouldn’t be an issue in any other sport. It’s a damn amino acid given to an assistant coach. Let that sink in. Too much of An amino acid was given to an assistant coach so the Worlds top coach has been kicked out.

F Jenny. Thanks Craig!!!!

ahhhhh wrote:

When these NOP athletes say that it happened long ago and their coaches assured them it was okay, someone should asked them if they feel comfortable having an admitted doper (Salazar admitted to testosterone use as an athlete) who also had a previous athlete test positive (Slaney) and ran experiments using testosterone, coach them.

It's easy to dismiss things that happened years ago. But if Salazar was willing to dope then, then I'm not sure why all these people magically think Salazar, Julian, and the rest of them are moral compasses now.

Salazar used testosterone when it was legal back in the late eighties/early nineties. The point is he would never break the rules, but try to be as much on the cutting edge as possible.

It reminds me of speeding up to try to beat a yellow light, when it turns to red just before you hit the intersection and you get pulled over. You broke the law, but had no intention of breaking of the law.

The problem with Simpson and every other person bashing them is that they don't like NOP for other reasons (e.g. they beat them) and they use this as an excuse to get back at the athletes. There is a reason only Salazar was banned and not his athletes - because his athletes never did anything against the rules.

LetsRun.com wrote:

Craig Engels just came through mixed zone and it was the most raw / entertaining interview of the Championships.

Worth listening to the whole video below as he likes Jenny and says 'she's been a great role model. She just needs to chill in front of the camera.' Engels clearly didn't like that they had breakfast together and she was nice to him and then blasted the group on camra. "Jesus Christ jenny what do you have against me?" he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB-AXOQpqH8

Wow Craig is a straight shooter and entertaining guy! So much more to it than just the Jenny stuff it really highlights the clickbait headlines world we live in.

falconrunner22 wrote:

Wow,

Americans making a great show in the mid-distance events, 3 finalists in all four events. After the two decade drought, I never thought I would see this again.

Come on bro, you're smarter than this.

Couple thoughts:

1. I think you have to respect Craig for answering a lot of questions about the Salazar situation and not just blowing through the media zone like a lot of athletes would.

2. I don't think it's fair to burn him too badly over his word choice in describing Jenny Simpson. Written down it looks kinda bad and borderline misogynistic, but we should keep it in the context that he just ran a race. As someone who's been interviewed right after racing like that, it's hard to collect your thoughts in a coherent way and it can definitely scramble up your word choice a bit.

3. I was a big fan of Craig when he was in college, and I thought it was disappointing when he joined NOP. He can talk about how the violations pre-date his arrival, but everyone in the running world knew the cloud hanging over that group. Why a supposedly clean athlete would associate with that is beyond me, but maybe that's the horrible power of Nike in the sport right now. I'd love to know what other offers he had and if he could have made the same money joining the Brooks Beasts or NJNYTC groups.

4. I'd love to know exactly what the relationship was between Julian's group and Salazar's group. It sure seems like they were pretty cozy and in that respect Jenny was spot on in her criticisms.

Jenny > Craig

Love this wrote:

This is what I’m talking about!!!

So tired of this pc culture. Our sport is a joke. This wouldn’t be an issue in any other sport. It’s a damn amino acid given to an assistant coach. Let that sink in. Too much of An amino acid was given to an assistant coach so the Worlds top coach has been kicked out.

F Jenny. Thanks Craig!!!!

There's nothing PC about wanting cheaters out.

A testosterone cheat had his athletes take an infusion of amounts not documented because he had the doctor not list them and go back and falsify the documents later with amounts that would be under the limit.

It’s not hard to see where Craig is coming from. If Salazar can still appeal the ruling on his ban, the case isn’t really shut yet. The very fact that he can and did appeal means there is still a chance Salazar comes away innocent. A lot of people are acting like Salazar died with the papers detailing an illegal L-C infusion stapled to his shirt- the final verdict is still *technically* out. If you strongly believe in the concept of being innocent until proven guilty as Craig and many others seem to, then you could “reasonably” support Alberto and the NOP until the appeal fails (if that’s what ends up happening.)

It’s also worth remembering that Craig is an Oregon Project and Nike athlete. He can’t pop off like Jenny Simpson, Steph Bruce, and Nick Willis can.

If it was legal why did he try to get a TUE and get denied?

As an NOP runner, Engels is about as biased as someone can be on this topic. It only would have been surprising if he came down on Alberto. Therefore, anything he says is irrelevant and should be disregarded.

LetsRun.com wrote:

"Jesus Christ jenny what do you have against me?" he says.

Didn't Simpson already say what she had against NOP members already?

No villains in this spat. Jenny is right and Engels is justifiably offended.

FFF wrote:

Engels can shut the hell up, he's a cheater.

Source?

I think part of the reason Jenny says she wants a clean sport Is that she wants to have an advantage by cheating herself, so if the others were clean, she would.

I’ve been a Simpson fan since college but she is actually starting to get annoying. Loved the interview. Craig is awesome!! Keep it up!

webby wrote:

No villains in this spat. Jenny is right and Engels is justifiably offended.

He looked guilty! Got a little nervous during the interview. I liked the line about him supporting USADA decision if the appeal fails.

Huge respect for Craig. I'm really sick of all the self-righteous preaching coming from other professional athletes about this.

I can't wait for all the whining after Salazar wins his appeal.