Shocked we have only had an announcement from Courtney Wayment, Julia Heymach and Hannah Steelman, is that it for this year? Is no one else going pro this year from the womens side? Seems like very few usually many more announcements
On-Running paying ridiculous amounts of cash for very average talent. The legacy companies have smartened up, refusing to overpay, and are mostly sitting out of the recruiting game, at least until this nursing shoe company fad fades. For the most part, legacy brands are realizing that they get zero benefit from signing an athlete that will never amount to much and being stuck with that contract for 4-6 years. On-Running is going to be in a world of financial hurt in 2-3 years and they will end up shuttering their programs, leaving the athletes on their own.
So you either sign with On or you go get a running store job. Unless your last name is Steiner, Nur, Hall, etc. the game is over for most.
The big teams like BTC, UAC etc are no longer willing to waste resources and time on developmental athletes. They’re content to wait it out for a few years and assess the potential of athletes and get them a few years later. If you’re a woman not capable of going under 1:58/3:58/14:30 or for men 1:44/3:31/13:00 the the days of developmental funding are over. The sport is just too fast these days. Social media presence and personality only goes so far when you’re running Sound Running meets because you can’t qualify for World Championships.
Call me a Coffee Club homer, but in what universe is Ollie Hoare just kinda average talent?
And Morgan McDonald was probably considered an even bigger talent coming out of college. ON has consistently been signing the best athletes, Joe Klecker is the only male without an NCAA title and id say he has done pretty well.
Could they be waiting until after the WC to announce ?
Makes sense. A lot will happen with current teams right after WC. Some big names will retire, some will be dropped, some will collect huge bonuses and renegotiate, some new international star from-outta-nowhere will reset their event's expectation field for the next year and be signed by Nike. All those factors effect budgets (excepts Nikes, that can pay through the nose) and it will take a few weeks/months to sort out the old situation for everyone else.
yeah everyone is waiting until after the attention goes away to announce the money they're throwing into the wind. track is such a charity companies are sneaking athletes money and dont want attention for it.