Jonathan Gault's new story makes Alberto Salazar look totally cringe

I know what I wrote jackhole. Rupp’s overall consistency, range, and discipline has allowed himself to compete at championships at the high school, collegiate, national, and international level. The same cannot be said about Solinsky. When I think of Rupp, I think of the championship mentality. Rupp is a little over a year younger than Solinsky and is one of the best marathoners in the world. Solinsky has been retired for 5 years. That’s the difference. Rupp has been remarkably consistent over his career. He came back from an injury and still dominated the US trials. The amount of hate for Galen Rupp on this site and in general is revolting. He is the best American distance runner of all time. This site and its posters have done a full character assassination on Rupp, while sycophantically praising Solinsky for being the first non-African under 27. Do you know that the WR at the time was 42 seconds faster that what he ran? Rupp is still top 15 all time at the 10k. I’m done with this crap.

kmaclam wrote:

Gallant Pig Stool wrote:

Absolutely moronic post of the year, by a mile!

i.e.. until yours came along.

Good comeback bro you’re so cool

This is old news.

Bummer Rupp didn’t take the opportunity to be quoted in this article. He could have easily said it stung a bit to be beat in this race, but it fueled his fire to break the record the next year. He could have added something diplomatic about how it is a shame Solinsky didn’t stay healthy and then he could have updated everyone on how his training has gone since he made his 4th Olympic team. Instead he remains the best runner that Americans barely know while we are reminded that we’d love to have a beer with Solinsky.

A coach wanted his athlete to win and run fast? Interesting.

A coach didn't want a guy he paid to pace his athlete to beat him? Interesting.

If Salazar did this, I don't really see a problem with it. He's shady but in this case, not really.

Now if Salazar gave Schumacher or Solinsky sh*t for Solinsky winning, then Salazar was wrong.

Oh and if you're over 12 years old don't say "butthurt". Come on. Grow up, dude.

it's a good story. Doesn't have to be an issue. Don't wanna speak for everyone on this board, but I find the nuances of these stories very interesting.

murican fails to beat 1993 time?

He would have come 8th in the 2017 WC?

Is this right?

Great story Jonathan, some of the best track writing I've come across.

I feel for Chris, but he seems at peace, and I suppose that's all one can hope for.

zxcvzcxv wrote:

Championship mentality? Solinsky won Footlocker, which Rupp lost, by 21 seconds. He won 5 individual NCAA titles. He was the first non-African to break 27 and three times ran 12:55-56.

What he lacked was health. When he tore his hamstrings, he was never close to the same runner again.

Solinsky won a weaker Footlocker, Rupp lost by 2s not 21s, probably the greatest Footlocker ever.

Rupp had the better NCAA career by far, including trashing Solinsky, Rupp was making World/Olympic teams consistently since he was a Sophmore, while Solinsky maybe made one his whole career. In fact, when Solisnky suddenly drops from years of 13:22ish to sub-13/27 looks a lot like getting on the dope and being unable to handle the new stress on the body and getting injured, if you look at it skeptically.

I have zero problem with hiring a pacer to dropout -- that's kind of the whole point there. AlSal set-up a race for Rupp to win & get the AR & hired a pacer to take him a good chunk of the way.

The other stuff intrigues me. I can see Salazar being salty & coaches not being truthful about the shape their athletes are in. But why does that matter? It's a race. Line up & run. It's on Salazar/Nike to really put together a watered down field or make it a true time trial if they want to control everything. They seemed to move in that direction at the Pre Distance nights.

I don't see a problem with any of this. We know Salazar is sleazy. We know the doping allegations against NOP. It's not surprising at all that Salazar, or any coach for that matter, is upset when their athlete loses a race they thought they were going to win.

“Cringe” is not an adjective.

The issue isn't that Salazar hired a pacer for Rupp and instructed him to drop out at the conclusion of his pacing duties. That's well within Salazar's rights. The issue is that Salazar felt entitled to control the pacer that Schumacher had already hired for HIS athletes. Because Schumacher's pacer sought to attain the Commonwealth Games standard, he had agreed to rabbit Schumacher's athletes on the condition that he could finish the race without any restrictions on his finishing place. Moreover, this arrangement was established well before Salazar entered Rupp in the race. Salazar had no reason to believe that Rupp's presence in the race gave him the power to override Schumacher's agreement with his own pacer.

Whoa. Galen’s testosterone injections have him pretty angry... Lighten up, Francis.

Yeah. If Solinsky had that championship mentality like Rupp he wouldn't have tripped over his dog and ripped tendons off of his bones and would still be winning races.

anaconda, how the heck is it so difficult for people to grasp this? Apparently nobody has read the actual article? geez, don't think you could lay it out any clearer, for those that refuse to comprehend the facts...sheesh.

anacondarunner wrote:

The issue isn't that Salazar hired a pacer for Rupp and instructed him to drop out at the conclusion of his pacing duties. That's well within Salazar's rights. The issue is that Salazar felt entitled to control the pacer that Schumacher had already hired for HIS athletes. Because Schumacher's pacer sought to attain the Commonwealth Games standard, he had agreed to rabbit Schumacher's athletes on the condition that he could finish the race without any restrictions on his finishing place. Moreover, this arrangement was established well before Salazar entered Rupp in the race. Salazar had no reason to believe that Rupp's presence in the race gave him the power to override Schumacher's agreement with his own pacer.

How old is Salazar?

Ajax wrote:

A coach didn't want a guy he paid to pace his athlete to beat him? Interesting.

If Salazar did this, I don't really see a problem with it. He's shady but in this case, not really.

Salel was paid by Schumacher, not Salazar. Your opinion is based on incorrect assumptions. Reassess it.

Stoppit Smith wrote:

Wait wait wait..

I may be a fat pedestrian jogger by your standards, but what precisely is wrong in this case regarding Salel?

Do you forget that in 1956, Chris Brasher and Chris Chattaway rabbitted Roger Bannister to a sub-4 mile?

If salel was hired as a rabbit (see:hired..they make money), then scripting Salel was ok.

What is the issue?

JERRY hired the rabbit, not Salazar. When Jerry hired the rabbit, they had agreed that he could continue the race to get a qualifier for the commonwealth games. SALAZAR came in last minute to join the race and tried to tell Jerry that the rabbit JERRY hired had to drop out.

That was not part of the deal. That is the issue.

NERunner053 wrote:

I have zero problem with hiring a pacer to dropout -- that's kind of the whole point there. AlSal set-up a race for Rupp to win & get the AR & hired a pacer to take him a good chunk of the way.

Al Sal’s hired pacers did just that. The issue is that he tried to dictate that Schumacher’s pacer (Salel) drop out despite a pre-existing agreement to let him chase the Commonwealth Games standard.

Salazar and Rupp initially wanted to race at Eugene. They asked Schumacher’s group to race at Eugene, but they refused. The weather in Eugene wasn’t ideal, so Salazar swapped Rupp to Stanford. Then he tried to dictate how far Salel could go. A guest should know better than to make demands, particularly of someone else’s employee.