Nobody has an issue with sickness. But we all know people in our lives who always make up excuses. If they are late for work, it is the fault of the slow driver. If they don't meet a deadline, it is the fault of somebody not getting them what they needed. If they lose a roadrace, they had a niggle or just decided to tempo it. Tuohy was fine at the press conference. She went to the well. Her coach didn't want the race to impact her upcoming contract so she made up the story for her. She didn't choke. There are women who are better than her.
No it isn’t. Choking would be the third ranked team trying to finish third but blowing up and finishing 14th. Choking isn’t the third ranked team laying it all on the line in an effort to beat the top two teams (who are historically good) and seeming to almost pull it off through 4k only to then blow up.
Yes, it's called choking. That a ok though
It’s a nuance someone who doesn’t understand the sport won’t grasp. That a ok though.
you're right, she was sick. Fair enough, I take back what I said about Upshaw. I wonder if Elise Stearns was sick too? she sat next to Tuohy, who was also sick, at that press conference.
Stearns IG post said she was coming off an injury indoors, 'no momentum' outdoors, and that her results didn't reflect her fitness. I wonder what happened. She did not mention being ill.
They didn't underperform that much relative to ranking but what's up with Gtown men? 30th and 31st the last 2 years. Seems like a team with that many sub-4 milers and their recruiting classes should be able to mix it up a little bit. Unless they are all in on track and XC is just checking the box for base-building
Nobody has an issue with sickness. But we all know people in our lives who always make up excuses. If they are late for work, it is the fault of the slow driver. If they don't meet a deadline, it is the fault of somebody not getting them what they needed. If they lose a roadrace, they had a niggle or just decided to tempo it. Tuohy was fine at the press conference. She went to the well. Her coach didn't want the race to impact her upcoming contract so she made up the story for her. She didn't choke. There are women who are better than her.
Tuohy would finish no better than 3rd even if healthy. Same thing can be said about Kipchoge at Boston. Those athletes are just not good enough.
I am sure Henes and her teammates and the journalists reporting on the race just invented it. LOL. Plus Tuohy has not made excuses in all these years, even when she has some very good ones. I appreciate your medical expertise that she could not have been sick before the race because she did not manifest obvious evidence of illness while sitting for 10 minutes at a press conference the morning before. Insightful. Also the idea that she was beat by runners that were just better than her would have held a lot more weight if she had not thoroughly defeated those same runners, inclusing this past season. But if you want to believe that reflects her level of fitness and that there are never any circumstances that can cause a tough race, sure.
It seems like there has been some debate about what it means to "choke". Choking occurs when an athlete (and / or team) finds themselves at a "big" event (or at a moment in a big event) in which the pressure of the occasion serves as a heavy weight to the participant(s). As a result, the participant simply does not perform up to the level that they normally could. Any participant could "choke". Even a team predicted to finish last could perform even more poorly than expected. Alternatively, a frontrunner who has been there many times can choke (though less common) if they are simply not in a great mental state and feel that expectations are heavy. It is also not always clear when a person chokes because many excuses that could often be typically valid (such as illness) can be used (because choking is more socially looked down upon as "failure"). It may be possible for an entire team to go to the front (like BYU women) and choke, but this is very unlikely. It is much more likely that they simply went out a pace that they could not sustain (ironically, almost the opposite of choking) and had a rough finish that was dictated more by physical limitations rather than mental.
BYU was the biggest choke. We all thought they would finish around 5th. They overestimated their own ability. Based on their overconfidence, they performed stupidly.
Choking is underperforming. You act like it has to be due to nervousness. Did you give a lie detector test to the runners to know what caused them to blow up? They choked. It doesn't matter what was in their heads. Major choke. And you made it worse by confirming that they made dumb decisions.
Nobody said they choked at nationals. Somebody said that Gtown should place higher due to all of their milers. The point was that a team like Washington couldn't even qualify with more milers so there is no reason to think Gtown should be able to place higher.