The Questions about weight - in light of the Mary Cain allegations - is there more to it?

gregmacd wrote:

I can see the point of having a BMI between 17 and 18.3 if you want to be a top marathon runner, since Amy Cragg has a 17.0 (5'4", 99 lbs), Shalane has a BMI of 17.6 (5'4", 116 lbs), and Desi has an 18.3 (5'1", 97 lbs).

However, middle distance runners have a higher BMI of between 19.1 and 19.9, such as Jennifer Simpson with a 19.8 (5'5", 115 lbs), Shannon Rowbury with a BMI of 19.1 (5'5", 115 lbs) and Amy Yoder Begley have a BMI of 19.9 (5'4", 116 lbs)

Al Sal wanted Mary Cain to weigh 114 lbs, even though she's 5'7" tall. That would have given her a BMI of 17.9, which is appropriate for a marathon runner, but too light for a middle distance runner. If Mary had a BMI of 19.1 to 19.9 like other middle distance runners, she'd weigh 122 lbs to 127 lbs. Thus, Al Sal's goal of wanting her to be 114 lbs is 8 lbs to 13 lbs is too light.

Al Sal was unreasonable in trying to have her reach a less than optimal weight for the distances she was running. Mary Cain is correct in stating that "Salazar created an “arbitrary weight” of 114 lbs."

dadsfadsfdasfdsafdas wrote:

gregmacd wrote:

I can see the point of having a BMI between 17 and 18.3 if you want to be a top marathon runner, since Amy Cragg has a 17.0 (5'4", 99 lbs), Shalane has a BMI of 17.6 (5'4", 116 lbs), and Desi has an 18.3 (5'1", 97 lbs).

However, middle distance runners have a higher BMI of between 19.1 and 19.9, such as Jennifer Simpson with a 19.8 (5'5", 115 lbs), Shannon Rowbury with a BMI of 19.1 (5'5", 115 lbs) and Amy Yoder Begley have a BMI of 19.9 (5'4", 116 lbs)

Al Sal wanted Mary Cain to weigh 114 lbs, even though she's 5'7" tall. That would have given her a BMI of 17.9, which is appropriate for a marathon runner, but too light for a middle distance runner. If Mary had a BMI of 19.1 to 19.9 like other middle distance runners, she'd weigh 122 lbs to 127 lbs. Thus, Al Sal's goal of wanting her to be 114 lbs is 8 lbs to 13 lbs is too light.

Al Sal was unreasonable in trying to have her reach a less than optimal weight for the distances she was running. Mary Cain is correct in stating that "Salazar created an “arbitrary weight” of 114 lbs."

According USTAF, Cain was 5'7/111lbs when she ran 4:04. Does that change your impression of what her ideal weight is? Obviously have no way of knowing if that page is right or not. For a given individual 5-10lb differences because of muscle mass, bone density, frame size,... is to be expected. And I place absolutely zero faith in any of the published weight numbers. It isn't like Simpson and the rest are stepping on the scale before the race. The filled out a form one day and that number has propagated through time. And what does 115 mean? Is that racing weight before the WC? Weight in the fall after taking 2 weeks off? Weight in the morning? Weight before starting training in the afternoon? And so on.

114 is definitely on the light end. But it isn't some absurd number (i.e. he isn't asking her to weight 105lbs). We would need a lot more info to know if it was 5lbs to light or about right.