Gwen J.: The Saga Continues

dhey273hdjfh wrote:

M. Pantani wrote:

I feel like her social media presence is the driver behind this? If she was not all over YouTube with her husband shouting from the top of the hill how great they are this would all be moot.

I realize a lot of “kids these days” grew up on this stuff, but to me it is distracting of her ultimate goal and sets her up for mental let downs. I am all for if she has her stuff wired tight and they want to get some extra coin from views etc. but she is in a tailspin. Get offline, put the head down and get a quality block of training in. Don’t post the silly should I live here or there videos as they only come off as vain and honestly no one cares, nor should.

If she wants to be the best, she needs to live and train like the best (realistically better as she has ground to make up). That means solitude and grinding, you don’t hear from half of the altitude camps until they are done, and as I recall she did not “enjoy” these as it was time away from her family etc. I am certain there is a balance out there, but it may mean hanging up some of the goals and calling it what it is.

I agree. I don't want to see any athlete schilling on social media. Not runners, not F1 drivers, not EPL players.

Pit your head down, win, and the money will come. Does anyone think Lewis Hamilton, LeBron James, or Tom Brady would be poor if they didn't post garbage all over social media.

too far far wrote:

the beagle wrote:

There’s a small pocket of dullards that think marketing yourself is bad and that it’s somehow noble to train in anonymity. They are clueless.

Try not to revert to name calling, it’s a bad look on you.

It’s about owning up to having bad results. She projects herself as this social media person with videos that barley crack YouTube’s video formula. She probably makes cents on the dollar for 60k views

I’d expect of her like any of my athletes if I were a coach, own up to your faults. You have a bad race or say something stupid. Own it and move on. She’s had plenty of time to do it.

With that, she’s a bad role model for future runners. I much rather see the marathon who comes out of no where who also holds a full time job get some deserved press coverage than another article going towards an under performing that claims to be “elite”.

Free Britney wrote:

bigmig19 wrote:

How is she not a top athlete again? You mean at everything? If you win a gold medal in the swim bike run, I think that qualifies you to talk about diet and exercise and mindset or whatever sage canaday and every other you tuber is talking about. We only have a problem with her talking about it? Thats weird.

The difference between running social media influencers like Sage and Gwen these days is that Gwen continues to talk a big game, as someone else here mentioned, with absolutely unrealistic, narcissistic, out-of-touch, pie-in-the-sky aspirations and predictions for her own performance, which have fallen short nearly 100% of the time. People continue to reference her proclamation that she'd gold medal in the Olympic marathon for good reason--it was downright disrespectful and absurd, and her performances since then have not even come close to medaling in anything. Yet she continues to talk a big game without the evidence to back it up. Say what you will about Sage, but he hasn't produced much lately in terms of performance (understandably so given the not insignificant life events he's been through lately), but he doesn't talk himself up. His channel is 100% focused on discussing the sport of trail/mountain/ultra running, training philosophy, etc without the extraneous and unbacked self promotion and hype that Gwen produces. There's a lack of humility in Gwen that is off-putting. I get it that you medaled in the Olympic triathlon, and that is awesome, but it gives you no right to go galavanting around the sport of running, talking your mouth off, without actually producing. Contrast this to a triathlete like Morgan Pearson who has run some impressive events lately (USATF Half Marathon Championships) who does not do this--just keeps his head down and works hard, and produces results.

Also, someone mentioned that they don't understand how she is not a top athlete in the sport of running, given that she holds some of the fastest 5k and 10k splits off the bike from her triathlon days. A couple of thoughts: 1) (as already mentioned here) perhaps she responded better to the stimulus of high volume triathlon training with lots of nonimpact bike/swim base; and 2) the occam's razor explanation: she's getting older. She's 35 now, and medaled in Rio 5 years ago.

I agree that she left a potential triathlon dynasty on the table, which is a shame for her sporting legacy--but she made the choice she did to explore her potential as a pure runner +/- have more family time. At age 35, she could still be crushing it in long course tri, but we'll never know what could have been possible with her in that regard.