There are other stars who would run this - and various events like World Indoors - if their national federations had no qualifying criteria other than their agents saying they want to do it. How few Olympic and World events would she have run the last few years if she had to get top-3 at their nationals in every one?
Many of you will down-vote and say she is the greatest runner of all time. Be that as it may, nobody, regardless of resume, is going to represent USA at this without running USATF XC first. None are going to Paris in USA uniform without showing up at USATF's Trials. She IS great. She also has an easier path to international events because of the favoritism her federation shows her.
There are other stars who would run this - and various events like World Indoors - if their national federations had no qualifying criteria other than their agents saying they want to do it. How few Olympic and World events would she have run the last few years if she had to get top-3 at their nationals in every one?
Many of you will down-vote and say she is the greatest runner of all time. Be that as it may, nobody, regardless of resume, is going to represent USA at this without running USATF XC first. None are going to Paris in USA uniform without showing up at USATF's Trials. She IS great. She also has an easier path to international events because of the favoritism her federation shows her.
Who are these stars? I agree not having nationals is an advantage, but for World XC not so sure who’s missing (except by choice and not cuz of Trials).
There are other stars who would run this - and various events like World Indoors - if their national federations had no qualifying criteria other than their agents saying they want to do it. How few Olympic and World events would she have run the last few years if she had to get top-3 at their nationals in every one?
Many of you will down-vote and say she is the greatest runner of all time. Be that as it may, nobody, regardless of resume, is going to represent USA at this without running USATF XC first. None are going to Paris in USA uniform without showing up at USATF's Trials. She IS great. She also has an easier path to international events because of the favoritism her federation shows her.
How challenged do you reasonably suspect she would be vs other Netherlands athletes? The trials would be a jog or a glorified training session and would have almost no effect on what she has and will do at the international level.
Predictions ? Going against the Kenyan Women is brave no?
I love it!
Predicting something between 4th and 5th place. She finishes Tokyo on March 3rd. Assuming she took only one week off (which is conservative) she will race this 10k on just a couple weeks of 10k training - does she even have time to taper? I doubt they will taper because of how little time they have to train - so she'll basically run this race in the beginning of track training, tired, and fasting from Ramadan. If she can pull out 3rd place, it would be amazing tbh
There are other stars who would run this - and various events like World Indoors - if their national federations had no qualifying criteria other than their agents saying they want to do it. How few Olympic and World events would she have run the last few years if she had to get top-3 at their nationals in every one?
Many of you will down-vote and say she is the greatest runner of all time. Be that as it may, nobody, regardless of resume, is going to represent USA at this without running USATF XC first. None are going to Paris in USA uniform without showing up at USATF's Trials. She IS great. She also has an easier path to international events because of the favoritism her federation shows her.
How challenged do you reasonably suspect she would be vs other Netherlands athletes? The trials would be a jog or a glorified training session and would have almost no effect on what she has and will do at the international level.
Could she easily win 1500, 5k, 10k at their trials and win their XC event? I think we all know the answer. I don't disgree with any of you about that. If she were to pick a particular event, she's on the team. Thing is, it still is 1 more event she has to put on the calendar. Quite a few races including prelims at their outdoor track nationals if she needs to be qualified for every track event she'd consider.
Packs the calendar all the more for someone who fits as much in as possible. It would add as many as a dozen races throughout the year if she were to run their indoors too. Sure, she wins them all, but it also means she doesn't run something else. Does the recent marathon fall by the wayside if she has to run the national XC meet? What Diamond League events does she skip if the outdoor nationals are a week with 6 races (3×1500, 2×5k, 2×10k)?
Being able to easily win is not the same as not having to show up knowing you're guaranteed a spot in any event ever. It makes it all the harder to fit the schedule together.
There are other stars who would run this - and various events like World Indoors - if their national federations had no qualifying criteria other than their agents saying they want to do it. How few Olympic and World events would she have run the last few years if she had to get top-3 at their nationals in every one?
Many of you will down-vote and say she is the greatest runner of all time. Be that as it may, nobody, regardless of resume, is going to represent USA at this without running USATF XC first. None are going to Paris in USA uniform without showing up at USATF's Trials. She IS great. She also has an easier path to international events because of the favoritism her federation shows her.
How challenged do you reasonably suspect she would be vs other Netherlands athletes? The trials would be a jog or a glorified training session and would have almost no effect on what she has and will do at the international level.
But that's the point. If she had to qualify in the Ethiopia trials she would need to peak. And even then qaulifying in three events would not be a given.
How challenged do you reasonably suspect she would be vs other Netherlands athletes? The trials would be a jog or a glorified training session and would have almost no effect on what she has and will do at the international level.
But that's the point. If she had to qualify in the Ethiopia trials she would need to peak. And even then qaulifying in three events would not be a given.
Agree 100% with posts suggesting her situation is much easier than it is for most. Her peers (Tsegay, Gidey, Kipyegon) all have to qualify. Their federations don't just remove one of their 3 spots and tell everyone else only 2 are up for grabs. So she not only moved to a softer country - I think we all agree Team Ethiopia is tougher to make in 1500 through marathon than Team Nederland - but some lady got bumped just now when her agent called the national federation and said Hassan's running World XC.
Now in the marathon, her peers (Assefa, Kosgei, quite a few others) just get selected from recent performances in most countries. So nobody who was under the impression she was on the team gets a call a week before the Games saying she's out.
If US had the same system Ned has (favorite athlete gets spots based only on whim), and you were 3rd at the Trials, you'd be furious if you lost your spot. It would be on the LRC front page. Rojo would rant for an hour on the pod. Your main sponsor would hit the ceiling too.
Precedent exists for this in other countries. Some of you may know that the UK federation gave Coe and Ovett each a 1500 spot long ago. I don't remember if they each had to run for an 800 spot or if that was a gift too (someone here remembers this better than I).
Funny thing is that American commentators at the time praised this. Runners World wrote about the arbitrary nature of selection races when there were 2 clear Gold medal favorites from the same country. Why make them run a national meet? Why not just give them a spot? One of those very writers recently pitched the idea again. Somehow Burf' thought it was only a good idea for the marathon now. Many federations agree as far as the 'thon. Few agree for shorter events.
And you, the readers and posters, disagreed with Burf'. The Trials is important, you think. Yet most of you have no problem with the Dutch federation doing something - kicking someone off the team who legitimately raced for it - that you'd freak out about if USATF did it.
There isn’t much of a cross country tradition in the Netherlands.
Lornah Kiplagat, Hilde Kibet and Sifan Hassan are the best ever.
Diane van Es or Maureen Koster wouldn’t pose a problem for Hassan.
Yeah it would be a joke against those two. And from an earlier post Hassan would also with a Dutch 800 right now. You would have to drop all the way down to 400 to where she wouldn't have a chance at top 2.
The Dutch skaters and cyclists have to worry about qualifying for the team, not the track athletes where only the final relay spots are annually a bit of a question mark.
Last summer she ran a 29:37 10000 and a 3:58 1500 on consecutive days at Hengelo in early June, six weeks after winning the London marathon, so I'm with those who think that winning a place on the Belgium team in multiple events woudl not be a heavy lift for her -- AND that she will be running to win in Belgrade. But most of all I'm just impressed by her willingness to try ANYTHING.
There isn’t much of a cross country tradition in the Netherlands.
Lornah Kiplagat, Hilde Kibet and Sifan Hassan are the best ever.
Diane van Es or Maureen Koster wouldn’t pose a problem for Hassan.
Yeah it would be a joke against those two. And from an earlier post Hassan would also with a Dutch 800 right now. You would have to drop all the way down to 400 to where she wouldn't have a chance at top 2.
The Dutch skaters and cyclists have to worry about qualifying for the team, not the track athletes where only the final relay spots are annually a bit of a question mark.
But you're not really arguing against a point anybody's making. No poster has said, "She wouldn't be able to get a spot for any event if she had to try out. She wouldn't have been top-10 at Dutch XC if she had run it."
None of us are saying that. Nevertheless, she would have had to attend and compete at national championships if their federation had the policy that USATF has. Could she win every event she wants to run at the WA events? If she was representing the USA, she wouldn't win any without travelling to and running them - which she'd have to do. It adds a lot of races to the schedule.
USATF Champs is often held over just 4 days. I've actually bought the 4-day pass and watched every session. To win, or even get top-3 in, everything longer than 400 would require:
3- 800 races.
3 (often)-1500 races
1 (usually)- 5000
1- 10000
In 4 days. Absolutely no other racing would happen during the week prior or after. No lucrative appearance fees at European Invitationals would be realistic for a multi-week period if she were to avoid getting into a hole that requires months to recover from. She would need to stay fresh for the more competitive WA event she's qualifying for.
That's what her mid-summer looks like if she had to play by USATF rules. How many BTC athletes would have run WA Indoors or WA XC back when they had a big roster but peaked only for Outdoor Worlds and Games?
Would Shelby, Grant, and the whole "We don't race unless absolutely necassary" crowd have run WA XC a few years back when their team was going strong? If USATF had told Jerry he could take as many WA XC spots as he needed from those who ran USATF XC wouldn't they have taken the offer? I mean, wouldn't Grant and Shelby have won Nationals anyway? If the National qualifier is just a formality for the favorites, should they be allowed to skip it?
Even Wightman said the downside to doing WA Indoor was not the he had to add one more race to the schedule. It was actually 4 more. 2 rounds at UK, 2 more at WA. He literally said that. It would take up more than a month of the year's training and racing plan to train, taper, and peak for both meets. Then slack off for a while to recover from a hard month. That's why he said he might not go. And he didn't.
So, pointing out how much better she is than all the Dutch just makes a great rebuttal to an argument nobody's forwarding. It's not that she loses those races and can't get on the team. It's that she free from scheduling, tapering for, recovering from, and worrying about training or peaking for - even traveling to and attending - any national federation events. She has it a lot easier than those she's competing against for international medals.
........she free from scheduling, tapering for, recovering from, and worrying about training or peaking for - even traveling to and attending - any national federation events. She has it a lot easier than those she's competing against for international medals.