Love it - Sinead Diver slams running influencers.

right, but it's spelled "badass" NOT "bad-ass"

You think Syd is an interesting personality? She literally never talks and just does what the men in her life tell her to do - whether that's bobby or her husband.

Diver is way more intersting for the average mom that runs. She knows about balancing parenting with a job and running. She cherishes her runs. Syd seems to hate the sport.

But sponsors don't think the same way. And that's more important than the random posters here.

Unfortunately the reality of running is that it is a very popular hobby with only a devout few who respect it as a sport.

Sha’Carri and Lyles see the future. To be relevant in the sport you need a media following.

I would bet more people know Nick Bare than Galen Rupp.

Please show me one quotation to demonstrate this "continually cited" excuse.

Oh, you can't?

Liar.

I see lots of marathoners getting press and sponsorships, simply by making the slightest of effort to welcome fans into their world. I am talking about a basic and genuine Instagram or even Twitter presence, nothing deeply image-crafted. Hell, I see race walkers with sponsorships.

Think you should have fame and money for running times only aficionados care about? Well guess what, the third cello at your city orchestra is damn good and gets paid sh!t, too, unless they bring some added value.

Sponsorships go to those who bring value to the sponsors, duh

Matt Choi and Kofuzi disagree. That is the crux of the new world. You can like it or not like it. Mediocre nobodies giving training advice. This is mostly distance running problem because it's not really a sports like baseball or football. Those who suck in those sports get no attention on social media.

wouldn't call syd's personality all that interesting honestly. she just happens to be beautiful, racially ambiguous, thus extraordinarily marketable

Just adding to those achievements: I like the story of using a younger Aussie athlete as ‘pacemaker’ in a world champs 10000 to achieve an o/40 world best. Classic

Agree. Personally interested in some runners social medias' when I hear about them only to go on and see the last post was a couple months ago and there is no updates on training or future plans or anything that makes them worthy of a follow. If they don't promote the sport online just existing and being good won't sell products.

Makes you wonder what they do all day besides run.

Why would she get any press? Influencers like you hate women and only post about them when it’s negative.

She hasn’t posted on Instagram in 2023. She has 20k followers. She’s complaining about influencers but she’s not helping herself look even the least bit marketable social media wise. If she gets a deal how is a brand gonna promote someone who can’t be bothered to engage when they need to the most

When it comes to press and sponsorship, for whatever reason, you've either got it or you ain't. No disrespect to her, but just like me, she ain't.

Such is life, she ain't the first and she won't be the last.

What she's achieved, and continues to achieve is legendary. Go Sinead!

I mean we have Kofuzi opening packages on a live stream, the Believe in the Run crew rambling on about the latest shoes, Ben is Running showing videos of himself eating, and Nick Symmonds chowing down on a McChicken which has baked in the sun for four days. What's not to love about the running influencer model?

What's most interesting about this is they don't really cash in on this. They could attend a USATF or RRCA coaching training for a weekend, hang a virtual shingle, and get lots of people to pay them for training programs. Some of the other YouTube influencers do that, but not many. I think there's a good $500-$1000 a month to be made in that for even medium sized channels.

I am a hobbyjogger that likes to run and watch pro running, and I probably watch more pro running than 90% of all hobby joggers since I am an SC member.

I follow Jakob, Cheptegei, Kipchoge, Kipyegon, Hassan (top 1% of pros)

I follow the Coffee Club folks (good pros with social media content)

I follow running influencers and shoetubers like Kofuzi (content applicable to hobby joggers)

I don’t follow any other category in the sport that I don’t know in real life. Unfortunately she doesn’t fit in any of these. The average hobbyjogger who knows less about pro running would be even more disconnected than I am.

This is ignorant. She only started running in her 30s after moving to Australia because she was raised strict Irish catholic where girls weren’t allowed to run etc. She has spoken about this in interview.