Why is mainstream media latching on to “first-time marathoner” Molly Seidel?

You all should be happy the race is getting positive press.

There were a lot of failures in this race and she was a first timer.

Its a great story. Enjoy it

Its tough to make you hobby joggers happy. You see a young lady who is making the sacrifices and you want to bring in the BLM, Me Too, Bernie and every other manufactured outrage.

deseret wrote:

You know why

White American female

ilonggo wrote:

Because it's a great story. There's no hidden agenda here. A total unknown worked hard and beat a LOT of great runners on a tough course and now she's going to the Olympics.

She wasn't an unknown to the distance running community and certainly wasn't unknown to her competitors.

sillyman wrote:

Its tough to make you hobby joggers happy. You see a young lady who is making the sacrifices and you want to bring in the BLM, Me Too, Bernie and every other manufactured outrage.

Excuse me sir this is an Arby’s.

Karl Hungus wrote:

...Plus that weird Notre Dame/NBC incestuous relationship.

... NBC sucks at all sports so they don’t have the endurance to fully relay her story. They want simple things.

Well said.

jecht wrote:

Most of the legacy media members are white women/men from privileged backgrounds. Went to Syracuse or Northwestern on full rides.

For every wealthy white media member, there are tons slaving away at tiny stations and papers trying to catch a break.

Sort of describes the Oly trials women's field. Lots of affluent white women, trying to catch an even bigger break by qualifying for the Olympics.

Also this storyline: good innocent white Wisconsin girl who went to nice Catholic University is down on her luck/falls on hard times (with afflictions of rich white girl affluence: depression, eating disorder, injuries due to overapplication of work ethic). But she somehow she fixes her life and miraculously her lifelong dream comes true (on the very first try)

Its gonna be a Disney, or at least made for TV, movie.

she's personable, smart, cute. Easy to make a good TV story out of.

do you guys not pay attention to the world?

The rest of the story wrote:

I was going to write something snotty about whether the non-mainstream media such as Fox or Breitbart did a better job. After checking, I have to say their stories were more balanced and sympathetic than many I've seen. Both have the standard headline about "First Time." But both were about her past successes and the mental and physical struggles those brought. After reading them, it was hard to see this as anything but a story about perserverance and grit.

Fox News is the most watched network therefore is mainstream.

not joe lemay wrote:

NBC is especially excited because they have a new human interest story they can tell during the first 15 minutes of the Olympic Marathon instead of showing the actual race..

Not a chance. They'll save it for when the winning break is about to go.

First of all, you don't have a TV show. It has never been filmed or edited nor - most importantly - shown on any media outlet.

Second, the eating disorder referred to in Molly stories as well as those of other famous runners invoke eating TOO LITTLE and weighing LESS than is ideal for their health.

The media loves the eating disorder story.

I saw one web headline (I think from NBC) that said something like"Woman with 32 siblings and another recovering from an eating order go 1-2 in Trials Marathon."

Coffee shop worker, 25, running her first ever marathon qualifies for the US Olympic team after finishing second at trials in Atlanta

Molly Seidel, 25, scored second place at the trials finishing in 2hrs 27mins 31sec

Seidel has a trainer but has never run professionally before and spends her days in Boston babysitting and working in a local coffee shop

She qualified for the Olympic trials after running a half marathon in December

Her parents and sister were there to hi-five her as she ran past them in Atlanta

She earns $65,000 for second place finish and will compete in Tokyo in August

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8064023/Coffee-shop-worker-Molly-Seidel-25-runs-marathon-qualifies-Olympic-team.html

called stuff and then called it wrote:

she's personable, smart, cute. Easy to make a good TV story out of.

do you guys not pay attention to the world?

Exactly. Also... NBC is broadcasting the Olympics. This is the kind of story that they can use to build interest and advertising revenue. They cover and pay a lot of money for Notre Dame football. Yet another connection reason. It is all about the bucks folks.

I just saw three posts in a row about her on this board in the top 15.

You're asking why others are doing what you're doing.

Thank you for understanding me.

As an Asian male it's a challenge sometimes fitting in America.

I'm for equal rights for women, honestly, but that is a trend I've noticed--a lot of marathoners/half-marathoners are wealthy women (mostly white, but not all) from the suburbs. Not many minority women at all.

A lot of the women are in finance/marketing/healthcare/STEM. Some have kids but most are young and single or young and married.

So that said it makes sense now why Boston standards are drastically different--before I started really knowing this I figured the men's standards were 3 hours and women's were 3:15.

semi_pro wrote:

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Just curious - who was the top first timer on the men's side, this time? I can't imagine it was Walmsley in 22nd or whatever he finished.

.

I think it was Colin Bennie, 2:12:14 for 9th place in his debut marathon. I believe that 8 in front of him have all completed a marathon previously.