Maybe she should have tried placing higher than 4th at the trials?
What’s the point of naming an alternate and telling them to stay fit enough for months to run at an elite level on the biggest stage if an athlete’s allowed to hobble for 100m and call it a day?
They didn't ask her to do anything in training. They even flew her out for free. McClain is fine. She knew the drill. Should have finished top 3. If this was giving a spot up for Sara Hall I could see the heart strings tugging but for someone like McClain who had a "surprising" improvement this year I'd say I'm not worried about it.
The least Fiona could do is handle this with grace, instead she’s fighting with people in the comments. By all accounts she knew exactly what was going on with her body days before the drop deadline! This all feels very dishonest.
Where do you see this happening? I don’t see any recent IG posts about the marathon.
Sheesh, people. She runs a few steps and drops out and is ostracized. If she didn't run, she wouldn't be an "Olympian" in some of your eyes, not dissimilar to the Nuguse situation in Tokyo. She wasn't going to win in the LR court of small opinion either way.
She replied to someone that stated “you should have given up your spot” with “if I could time travel and know exactly how I was going to feel this morning I would have. Unfortunately haven’t figured out that trick yet.”
She has since deleted this comment because she knows it makes her look like a brat. Can’t even stand by her own words!
I'd like to know when was the official deadline for the decision to start.
It sounds like one can't just wake up feeling like absolute crap and have a replacement come in. I wonder when that Meeting took place.
The latest a Late Athlete Replacement may occur and must complete is no later than the first Team Manager's Meeting/Technical Meeting for the respective sport/discipline.
Slandering someone for doing well rather than disliking the person who did poorly. Feels like you have a direct motive. Are you a South African running coach by chance?
What’s the point of naming an alternate and telling them to stay fit enough for months to run at an elite level on the biggest stage if an athlete’s allowed to hobble for 100m and call it a day?
They didn't ask her to do anything in training. They even flew her out for free. McClain is fine. She knew the drill. Should have finished top 3. If this was giving a spot up for Sara Hall I could see the heart strings tugging but for someone like McClain who had a "surprising" improvement this year I'd say I'm not worried about it.
1. Naming her the official alternate means that if someone can’t run, she should be ready to run for Team USA.
2. So you think Sara Hall should have kicked harder to be the alternate so she could have been the one standing by while Fiona limped down the road?
3. Her improvement isn’t surprising if you’ve followed her journey and seen the work she’s put in. Learning to trust herself and her body instead of listening to harmful, self-serving coaches and agents who are interested in short term paydays and don’t care if their athletes eat enough to make it to the third km of a marathon.
Puma should not be the target of your ire or a boycott. The issue is an athlete that needs help and the coaches/agents that have not done their duty to protect their athlete. If you want to do something about this, then:
1. Contact USATF and demand that the Long Distance Committee draft new rules at the convention in December regarding injured athletes at international championships. USATF should have the ultimate GO/NO GO decision when a fit alternate is available.
2. Request that Puma step in and either insist that O'Keefe is either put into a treatment program or that they pull funding from The Craggs (not the athletes) for enabling/encouraging dangerous behaviors with a Puma athlete.
3. Whether via World Athletics or USATF, asking for new rules that limit financial incentives for athletes that encourage the choices seen here. For example, an athlete should get bonuses for making a national team and for defined performance at major championships. No bonus should be paid for merely suiting up, taking the field, or starting an event.
4. This is a personal thing for fans. We need to change the culture and the definition of "Olympian". There are Olympians on teams and in relay pools that don't perform a moment of competition during The Games yet, should still be considered Olympians by virtue of earning their spot. At some point, we decided that you needed to line up or take the field to earn that honor. That is what leads to poor decisions like the one made by O'Keefe. If she had to log a DNS, I would still consider her an Olympian and would feel some sympathy for her. The third string keeper on the USWNT is an Olympian despite never stepping on the pitch in Paris. Why not a runner that couldn't go due to injury/illness? Calling yourself "Olympian" is not a huge deal in reality much like a uniformed paper shuffler at The Pentagon and a SEAL Team 6 member are both "military" despite one facing much more danger.
She made a decision so she can be called an Olympian. It appears she was 100% injured with zero chance of being able to run. Not happy about this at all but it was her call.
She replied to an Instagram comment about how she should have dropped out "if I could time travel and know exactly how I was going to feel this morning I would have." Seems a little suspicious since she was limping from the start, no?
I know this opinion will be extremely unpopular, as this place can be extremely unkind even in not knowing anything close to all the details of what went on, but after a look at the rules, it sounds like she was relatively good to go right until the replacement deadline, but tweaked something catastrophically afterwards. I can't imagine how terribly she feels physically and emotionally, and then compounded by extremely unempathetic responses.
At first, I was disappointed, especially after what Lemma did for Tola, but Lemma already had the experience of running an Olympic Marathon, dropping out relatively early in Japan.
When Sisay Lemma, the Boston Marathon champ who trains as part of Tola’s group under coach Gemedu Dedefo, developed a hamstring injury that left him unable to race in Paris, Tola was ready to step in. “Sisay told me that it was better for him to drop out and for me to compete,” Tola said. “He said, ‘You can do better than me in my condition.’ It is thanks to him, this victory also belongs to him for giving me this opportunity.””
Looking at the pics she doesn't look as thin as trials, not even close. Guessing she's been injured for awhile. Didn't she pull out of the 10,000 trials? She can go back to being a climate warrior with that Stanford education.
I'd like to know when was the official deadline for the decision to start.
It sounds like one can't just wake up feeling like absolute crap and have a replacement come in. I wonder when that Meeting took place.
The latest a Late Athlete Replacement may occur and must complete is no later than the first Team Manager's Meeting/Technical Meeting for the respective sport/discipline.
Could the men's and women's technical meeting have taken place at the same time, so the replacement deadline may have been a few days ago?
McClain has a much better perspective on this:
But since she arrived, McClain has learned she likely won’t be needed. It’s been a roller coaster. And McClain’s primary concern is for whomever is scheduled to run who is uncertain. “I have had a pit in my stomach for four days,” she said. “I can’t imagine. It sucks. It’s a crappy situation. I feel so bad for whoever it is.”
She replied to someone that stated “you should have given up your spot” with “if I could time travel and know exactly how I was going to feel this morning I would have. Unfortunately haven’t figured out that trick yet.”
She has since deleted this comment because she knows it makes her look like a brat. Can’t even stand by her own words!
Dear Carrie Tollefson and all marathon athletes (and anyone else who believed earning a spot at usa trials means you keep it):
Kawai Leonard was sent home by team usa basketball for not being 100 percent. Emily sisson and molly seidel each had to drop out of usa trials for marathon even though were both deserving.
You are representing Team USA at the olympics (or worlds)...not yourself. You need to change your contract that you qualify for olympics - not participate in olympics if that is the real issue.
Yes, many athletes are amazing and should have the shot to compete at olympics if you won the right especially from usa where it is so tough to qualify. What about sara hall? She is an amazing person and done so much for usa in her running career yet is not and likely never will be an olympian. Does that take anything away from her? No.
I guarantee you if more of these athletes had a strong connection to God and usa that they would give up their spot. It is the moral thing to do. Everyone knows this.
I do not want to speak specifically about this athlete who is rightly wronged no what what. The athletes 100 percent deserve to be there. It is an insult to the sport to still compete.
For true big time sports - MLB, NFL, and NBA, you don't play if not physically able to do so. You stand on side line and support your team. Otherwise l, stop saying you are proud to represent team usa.
In conclusion, I love our top level marathoners. I especially love Des linden. It is shocking to me that there was complete ignorance from commentators that Fiona could not run and actually saying she "may" be injured when it was obvious 100 meters in. Carrie tuf_luck_son (tollefson - love her commentating too other than today) even made the case that she deserved to run making ZERO REFERENCE to back up usa runner who had been in Paris for a week. Where is the sports journalism?
Just because track and field and marathon are B level sports does not mean you cannot give critical analysis when dumb decisions are made.
In conclusion, would team usa soccer start a goal keeper who was injured? No way!!! That is why the team has 2 extra. The same should be done for track and field. Bring extra athletes for events with likely potential issues like marathon!!!
Peace. I love our top distance runners. They need to look at this as "tough luck" than worst disaster ever, and accept not compete at olympics if injury bug hits.
She doesn't look healthy and you and I know why so it doesn't matter what her coach does she's going to end up injured.
Yeah, I just want to up this. I’m not defending her coaches, but she looks extremely unwell. Even thinner than she did at trials. It’s going to be an uphill battle.
I guarantee you if more of these athletes had a strong connection to God and usa that they would give up their spot.
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Got it. So, you don't believe someone religious like sara hall deserved to run for team usa?
Would you not melt if I did not include that reference to god?
Again, if this is TEAM USA, then it is not about yourself. The Ethiopian who won the men marathon said the win was for his teammate who got hurt weeks before olympics.
Why is it so unpatriotic to give up a spot and let someone else run if injured?
Also, just because someone is USA first does not mean you also do not love all humans and want their lives to be better.
This is just an athletics competition. Love in God and country (and family) is much more important.
My point is decisions to compete when hurt is 100 percent selfish. Period.
If you want to debate it, then make a point instead of vomiting on someone who loves their country and God.
I also love our athletes. I want them to be at peace to sacrifice their individual dreams for their country when the time is right.
Bitter people in here calling for Fiona’s downfall are truly despicable for calling out a massive, split decision of this young woman that belonged to her and to her only. Guess what. It’s not your call, bitches.
Jess McClain did not deserve to take her spot. She obviously wasn’t Olympic material or she would’ve placed top 3 in Orlando. She wouldn’t have placed in the top 30 in this race, so who really even cares? Fiona had a chance. She proved it by owning everyone in the Olympic Trials.
Piling on with your “insider knowledge” that she has an eating disorder and talk of boycotting Puma is just loser talk from a bunch of American Karens. Are you trying to send O’Keefe down a spiral of depression and anxiety, because that’s what could happen here.
She is an Olympian forever, a national champion, while most of you have achieved nothing in life but pathetically attempt to bring others better than you down.
They know they aren't Olympians if they don't start the race. Selfish? yeah, but everybody on this Board would have done the same thing.
It's not that they "know" they aren't Olympians. If they don't line up, they cannot say they were Olympians on their athletic resume. I've heard their photos are removed from all media and it's like they did not exist.
Obviously the bonuses are the immediate push to show up, but the title of "Olympian" or medal winner has real and true value to the athletes long term for their entire career.
She finished like 13 secs behind Dakota at trials, was an alternate in the 10K, beat Dakota and sisson in a race this summer - think she’s got the talent.
this is a simple situation and it’s about character - of which Fiona is lacking.
