What explains Tsegay's decline?

I think it's more likely that she just overcooked things while training in an Olympic year, including her 10000 WR attempt earlier in the spring. It's happened to plenty of people in the past. Her idiotic racing schedule the past week -- which I assume is at least partly the fault of the Ethiopian federation -- only exposed it that much more.

Drugs aside… there seems to be a systematic issue of Ethiopian athletes mistiming their peak and crumbling come August.

she ran 3:50 and 29:05 a few months ago

She overestimated herself.
She signed up to take part in three races: 1500m, 5000m, 10000m.
No other athlete has taken part in three races.
She has run 5 times so far, and tomorrow is the 1500m final.

She has wasted too much energy.

And she can't handle such efforts.

too busy trying to interfere with the other athletes

doesn't really explain why she flopped in the 5k at the start of t&f

Karma

I saw that as well. Really ticked me off. Maybe there weren’t any flights from Ethiopia to Spain this Olympics? Ask her manager, Juan Pineda. Everyone here should know that name.

Drug supply chain interruptions.

Karma never sleeps. Whatever she did to our humble girl_ Faith will ensure she doesn't win any medal at Paris!!!

She thought if Sifan can do it then she can too. There is only one GOAT for doing crazy things and still medaling Sifan Hassan

Cut the crap; it's me you're talking to. Ethiopia has a plethora of fast accomplished runners. Holland has a dearth of fast accomplished runners. Who was Sifan Hassan depriving of an Olympic experience.

Ethiopian federation should have limited her to 2 events...........but of course she owns the Ethiopian federation. There have to be a plethora of pissed off fast women in Ethiopia right now.

So what does she do in the 1500 final tomorrow?

Tsegays decline is because she doesn’t run for her country she runs for herself. Trying to compare herself to Hassan is foolish and counterproductive. Sifan Hassan is not depriving any fellow Dutch athletes from competing by entering 4 distances (she wisely dropped the 1500m). Furthermore Hassan always manages to finish on the podium and has a specific race plan and realistic expectations. Gudaf Tsegay only runs for her own glorification. She doesn’t understand the psychology of teamwork -Unless it’s in support of her own victory.
Tsegay and her husband are arrogant and self serving. They lead a large training group whose sole purpose is to develop and put Tsegay on the podium. Those who have the “effrontery” to leave the group to pursue better options for themselves (Hailu) are stomped upon.
The Ethiopian federation are themselves a dysfunctional mess right now. They seem to have accepted Tsegays request to be the arbiter of who is/isn’t included in the Olympic team. Arrogant and vengeful bullies like Tsegay are rarely in the right headspace to represent their country in the best possible way. I think part of her failing is due to the internal criticism she has received from within Ethiopia. She recently did an interview where she said she feels unappreciated for her accomplishments. - Spoken like a true narcissist who has a complete inability to read the room…..

… ever heard of Sifan Hassan ?!

this. people are underestimating what Hassan has done.

Nobody messes up with our princess!

Tsegay seems to have Dibaba's mentality.

Dibaba broke several world records, won a world championship, an d then she met Faith.

That was her Waterloo.

She got beaten mutiple times and as as result, she shrunk. She even quit at a reasonably young age.

Tsegay did the same. Messed with Faith and now, it's getting in her head. She's been beaten by Faith and Chebet and that must be weighing on her.

She also happens to be the one carrying Ethiopia, her hopes and her 120 million people on her shoulders.

She will NOT medal in the 1500. Mark my words. She's tired anyway.

Welteji could by the way.

It seems to me that the Ethiopian team at the Olympics is very tense.
I think Hailu has given a new interview.
I saw on Tsegay's Facebook profile that they are talking about this situation.
Birke Haylom, who had to do the repechages in the 1500m, ran the repechages as if it were the final.
She obviously felt the controversy because of Hailu's situation and pushed to show that she was stronger.
But in doing so she got too tired.
And then she was eliminated in the semifinals.

Tsegay made a mistake in wanting to run three distances.
She saw that Kipyegon wanted to run the 1500, 5000 and 10000m, and so she decided to do it too.
But when it became clear that the 1500m final would be the day after the 10,000m Kipyegon, wisely, decided not to run the 10,000m.
While Tsegay continued to want to run all the races.

The evening of the 5,000m final, before the start when the athletes was introduced , Tsegay was tense and nervous.
She clearly felt the pressure of having to win at all costs.
I wasn't surprised when that problem with Kipyegon happened.

She is also not able to handle certain efforts.
Last year at the world championships in Budapest, after winning the 10,000m, thanks also to Hassan's fall and the work of the rest of the Ethiopian team (Gidey and Taye), she ran the 5,000m.
In the 5,000m in the final sprint she literally froze, she couldn't take it anymore. In the end she came in thirteenth.
That result should have made her realize that doing so many races is out of her reach.

In the 10000m last year (World Championships) she had a team (Letesenbet Gidey and Ejgayehu Taye) running for her.
And also the Kenyan team was really weak.
This year she didn't have that team, because Gidey was not there, and Taye only ran the 5000m.
And the substitutes weren't as good as Gidey and Taye.

Ethiopia has issues.

This will be her worst Olympiad. There are still four races but going by past occurrence, things don't look very good for Ethiopia.

She even ceded before Pre that she was dealing with a foot injury. Instead of being humbled that Chebet crushed her in that race, she wrote it off as a fluke clearly. She didn’t race from May 25 until the Olympics probably to keep under wraps that she wasn’t in the same 3:50/29:05 shape. The training group outside of Mesele and Mehary, struggled mightily in Paris. Alemu, Tsegay and Haylom all look cooked.

She looks nervous and fidgety. Who knows. Maybe her training cycle didn't go as well but she wants to win. Beat Kenyans. I don't think Africans realized how everyone else have caught up. They're no longer pure favorites anymore.