Running for Bowerman Track Club used to be cool now its embarrassing

Bowerman would be succeeding right now now if Jerry was just dealing with BTC. You can’t coach a P5 school full time and a pro group full time. BTC was successful because they put their energy into the group full time. It’s really that simple. We all saw this coming when Jerry took the Oregon job. 🪦 BTC

Is starvation an elegant death?

Nike is probably earning more money by sponsoring less track athletes.

These replies from this account read like Shelby’s mom’s posts on social media

If you think about it, it was never cool.

That’s definitely not true. When Jager was known as “The American” and legit respected by the Africans…that breakthrough 5000m on the Nike track at night…that indoor Silver in Portland by Hill…4 guys (5?) from different countries going to Tokyo in the 10…

Those were electric times.

Now they have a part time coach and half the team quit the group

Why are you taking your frustrations out on the disabled?

Not really. OK. Poor choice of words. This way it's less obvious that they shutdown BTC because of the doping scandal; they clearly failed hiding that in case of NOP.

I guess that's the real question right? NOBODY would doubt Nike as the king of running (evil, yes, but def the king) and home to many many smart people. How can Bowerman not be the premier place to be? I get a drug controversy dragging on you every 10-20 yrs but Bowerman should have the best of everything. They should know runners inside and out and be the place to be. Unlimited money in a sport where everyone could use a few dollars. So weird.

Hey believe me I'm all for bashing letsrun because there are plenty of times where the boards are a complete cesspool but in this case you're not looking good here, coming across as fanatical and unhinged. I'm not a BTC hater or anything, in fact I was a big fan in the past when there were good reasons to be, but I think even the most minimally reasonable people could acknowledge that the state of things for that group is at a minimum not looking spectacular right now compared to the past and I'm putting it lightly.

I don't think BTC is doing a good job, but to say they haven't acquired top talent since Schweizer is false. They've got Charles Hicks, NCAA XC champion and standout throughout college, and Justyn Knight, one of the most talented 5k guys to graduate in the past five years (with no recent results to demonstrate it, but talent doesn't go away).

Outside of BTC, Nike picked up NCAA and US steeple champion Kenneth Rooks, likely Olympian Abdihamid Nur, the future of American marathoning Conner Mantz; outside the US, they've got phenoms Cam Meyers and Nils Laros.

Grant Fisher left.

He is a very intelligent guy with a moral compass and great disposition.

His leaving says it all about Jerry, Shalane, the move, the past and Nike in my opinion.

I agree. If bowerman ever asks me to join im definitely turning them down. I just ran a 4:46 mile this past weekend so I should be expecting a call from them here shortly

Correct, I do not consider Duncan Hamilton and Kaylee Mitchell to be elites. Charles Hicks is the exception here, I think he joined BTC because it's a familiar option for him as a Stanford guy. Justyn Knight is also elite, but you have to think about his baseline standard for a group before BTC to make sense of it. He was running for Reebok, with a great coach but definitely not as much support as most other pro groups. So he is probably drawn to having a ton of resources for the first time in his career. But overall these are kinda niche reasons for joining. I think in general if you are a truly elite athlete changing groups or coming out of college, there are far less reasons to join BTC than there used to be. I just hope Valby with her Nike NIL deal, doesn't get funneled into BTC when she turns pro. Jerry would ruin her.

A lot of people working out there insecurities on this thread.

I don’t even know what nandrolone is!

I think it depends on what you expect from a group.

Do you think there should be one overwhelmingly best group in America? If so, which one is it? Should every group be "embarrassed" since none of them are dominant?

The move to Eugene has created problems for some pros, that is obvious, but clearly Jerry and Nike are okay with the program not being the one-and-only premier team in the country. If that were their priority, they would not have made the move.

It sounds to me, like they are okay with it. I don't think Jerry is the kind of person who is worried about his popularity on Letsrun...

And none of this leads me to think it is "embarrassing" to run for Bowerman. If you were a pro, it would be one of your top options. The fact that it isn't the only option isn't embarrassing.