We prefer to have 1 thread per subject matter and have merged three threads into 1. The 2nd thread was entitled, "Why does Jakob talk so much trash?" The third thread was titled, "New Jakob Interview: Olympics should be “a walk in the park”, calls some competitors “a**holes and idiots”:
One Olympic gold in the 1500m, two World 1500m silvers, two World 5000m golds, world records at 2000m, 4:43, two miles, 7:54, 5000m in 12:48, 3000m close in 7:21, 1500m in 3:27.14, mile in 3:43.76, already a legendary career and he's 23.
Uhhhh, tell me you're like 17 without telling me you're 17.
That last statement is fundamentally contradictory - if he wasn't "affected by the attacks" he wouldn't need to assure anyone - let alone himself, that he wasn't. He just wouldn't be and would go Michael Jordan mode and just laugh them off.
Are you kidding me? Yeah when he is asked about his rivals he is supposed to just laugh and not say anything. What a very logical line of reasoning you have there. Everyone on some way or another is going to be affected by something someone says, it’s human nature. Jakob is just one to speak truthfully whats on his mind, been like that since he started as a teenager. He thinks they are “a$sholes” for talking behind a camera about him. In reality, he beats them “98 times out of 100” and knows the fine line between arrogance and his own confidence. He knows that Kerr does not know this line based on his reaction. I can also argue that Michael Jordan on some level, has no “emotional intelligence” or has been living an “insular experience” because all he can do is laugh. It’s very obvious you went so overboard with your assessment that it just became nonsensical word salad. The difference is that Kerr won once and believes he can call the guy he was beat by all year and every year before that, someone with a high “ego” and someone “surrounded by yes-man”. In reality, Josh Kerr is the one looking for validation on his win and found it as a opportunity to stomp on his own competitors confidence. Jakob himself knows this and addressed it. Jakob, with his lack of “emotional intelligence”, won the 5000m at worlds against probably the toughest field ever, after losing with a virus on one of the most important days of the year a few days ago. Pretty level-headed and focused to me, despite what happened. He then broke the 2000m record, and ran 3:43 and 7:23 on back to back days against some of the most loaded fields ever. All while in a personal family conflict against his own father, and recovering from a virus he had at worlds.
Josh Kerr: Loses to Nuguse in a 3:30 race, ditches the competition in the diamond league final, is paced by fisher for 90% of a race for what was a weaker time than Jakob’s, and wins an indoor championship in what was a slower race that was going to favor him regardless.
So really, his words in this interview show that he is ready to take on everybody this summer in a dominant fashion, despite all the personal attacks he’s gotten. Kerr realized this and has thus tamed his interviews the last few months by not addressing this conflict anymore. At the end of the day, it’s about what they do on the track that speaks the most. It’s disingenuous to say that somebody is living an insular existence based on the above, it’s sports, competition, rivalries are going to happen. Jakob probably has many friends, family and even a wife in Norway. It is not as lonely as you think. Despite all this, he is able to deliver almost always consistently despite all of his personal family issues/conflicts, and for that I have a deep respect for. To overcome these problems, and focus on improving himself in his one job he has done almost all his life, running.
One Olympic gold in the 1500m, two World 1500m silvers, two World 5000m golds, world records at 2000m, 4:43, two miles, 7:54, 5000m in 12:48, 3000m close in 7:21, 1500m in 3:27.14, mile in 3:43.76, already a legendary career and he's 23.
Exactly, this guy is on his way to have many golds and potentially 6 world records from the 1500 to the 5k. Too many losers on this site trying to discredit him.
Jakob's first baby is due in June. A man's testosterone drops significantly after his child is born. How demanding will Elisabeth be regarding his baby duties? Will it disrupt his training and/or sleep cycle? They've been together a long time, so presumably she gets the drill and isn't a whiney, selfish princess to the detriment of her Olympian husband.
To be fair in 2022, he didn't claim to be either sick or injured. He just said he ran poorly tactically and others did too, fending off unnecessary surges by Kipsang and Tim.
Correct. There were no excuses in Eugene. And in the following race he was mostly bored in the 5000, sipping tea on the perimeter while looking for friends in the audience as he drew clear of guys he had no reason to know by name.
That performance is best evidence that Jakob was indeed sick for the indoor final and last year in Budapest. In both races I was wondering what the heck he was doing, from the midsection of the race long before it got to the kick. Jakob has been high profile for a half dozen years. It's easy to look at his form and body language to distinguish whether he's right or not. Only the two defeats and the Budapest 5000 didn't resemble normalcy. He wins that 5000 for fun if he's healthy. Instead he had to stay back and make every perfect decision, to barely eek out a win.
The 5000 crowd is severely overrated around here. That's why nobody is willing to concede that Jakob having trouble with them was Exhibit A that something was badly wrong.
I don't care about two narrow defeats or tactics. As a sports bettor you quickly realize that details are overrated. That's what Jakob understands. On the biggest stage all that matters is how good are you. Prodigies in their prime seldom fail.
Starting at 10:00 he says defending his Olympic title should be a walk in the park if he doesn’t get sick or injured, and appears to take a shot at certain competitors again. Thoughts?
And, as usual, if he loses he will say he was sick or injured.
One Olympic gold in the 1500m, two World 1500m silvers, two World 5000m golds, world records at 2000m, 4:43, two miles, 7:54, 5000m in 12:48, 3000m close in 7:21, 1500m in 3:27.14, mile in 3:43.76, already a legendary career and he's 23.
There is no legend here. He was simply lucky because of the change caused by the COVID era. East African were not able to train and take part to meetings and championships during 2 years (2020 and 2021).
Add to that 3 or 4 majeurs championships for each year:
Also his comment on his win being a “walk in the park” was obviously a joke. He literally started laughing after saying that because obviously he knows it is not easy.
Nice cope, bro. Did you even listen to the interview? He doesn’t laugh at all after saying that. He was dead serious. See 13:24 :
Disappointing to watch Jakob's personality shift in recent years. At one time, he had the perfect amount of confidence and self-belief, but he's now gone off the deep end and is absurdly arrogant.
Starting at 10:00 he says defending his Olympic title should be a walk in the park if he doesn’t get sick or injured, and appears to take a shot at certain competitors again. Thoughts?
I listened to the podcast; and I believe he was referring to the European Championships, not the Olympics.
I've said this before and got downvoted to hell by the Jakob fans (of which I am one) but when you're sick for two global champs and very nearly sick for the Olympics (he was sick at Monaco not long before it) it suggests that you are not managing the training load/sharpening period effectively. Being a world class athlete means keeping yourself in prime condition for the big moments so overtraining in the run up to these champs is evidently making him more susceptible to illness. He needs to get on top of this. Once is unlucky, three times is a pattern.
The fact he even needs to mention the possibility of being sick should be a red flag. How many times have you heard Kerr or Nuguse offer a "so long as I'm not sick" disclaimer before a big race?
This post was edited 15 minutes after it was posted.