lidfdhj wrote:
Rupp has not announced a new coach or hinted at the possibility of seeking out a new one. It feels like the logical decision would be to just have Pete Julian coach him.
My question is this... Alberto is banned -- can't show up at meets or hold practices with athletes etc...
But Alberto and Galen are presumably very close and are basically neighbors. Who's to stop Alberto from continuing to write all of Galen's workouts? They wouldn't even need to be over text or email. Couldn't Galen just go over to Alberto's house for dinner and a beer a couple times a month and Alberto writes out a two-week segment on a legal pad? How can you really prevent this from happening / enforce this ban if you can't actually ban two people from being social friends with one another?
Rupp isn't a public person, so it doesn't surprise me that he hasn't said anything publicly about his coaching search/lack thereof. He doesn't use social media, so he'd either have to reach out to a reporter to announce it or have a reporter reach out to him (at some point closer to the Trials, I will ask his agent Ricky Simms for an update).
The theory you present is one that multiple people in the running world suggested to me after the ban was announced. The ban is impossible to enforce -- even if they got Rupp's phone records and saw that he was calling Salazar, they could just say that they were talking as friends (and who's to say they weren't). But I am fascinated to see what Rupp decides going into an Olympic year. Does he coach himself? Does he go to Julian? Does he go elsewhere? Does Alberto stay on secretly? I'd love to know.