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Isn't it well known that you have to be extremely skinny to be competitive in long distance running at the highest level?

• mraudiobook_com 7y ago
  Apparently not but the "fastest girl in the world".
• braythwayt 7y ago
  Same with cycling the Grand Tours, so much so that team members get fined for not meeting weight targets from the time they arrive at training camp at the beginning of the season, and then for the rest of the season.
• bo1024 7y ago
  This is more or less true but you have to draw the causal diagram carefully. Everyone has an optimal weight for them (oversimplifying). The best in the world tend to be very effective at very low weights. E.g. say 114 lbs at 5’7 for the sake of argument. It does not follow that lowering a 5’7 runner’s weight to 114 will always cause improvement. MC is a counterexample. Yes, I’m saying Salazar fell to a basic misconception. He’s had success, but he’s obsessed with dumb things. When you have insanely talented and durable athletes who actually do run best at e.g. 114 you start thinking your system works for everybody.
  • spectramax 7y ago
    So then why this whole issue related to women? Mary's opinion is that more women on Alberto's team would have been good without any explanation to why. This is an issue with Coaches. In my opinion, if Alberto was a woman, she'd be equally be deluded by her past success, having trained world class athletes and having the prestige of the top program at Nike. Instead of focusing on the issue at hand, broad strokes across the women's movement do not help (in fact that masks the truth). The issue here is specific knowledge that the coach needs to train a woman. There are male gynecologists and urologists, so this is not an issue with Alberto's sexual orientation or his team mates. This was a good ol' boys club of high profile coaches and teams, when they're given large number of resources (Nike), they'll do anything and everything to be successful.
    • scott_s 7y ago
      Because women react differently to very low weights. When they're underweight for a prolonged time, they will stop having their period, which will cause a change in hormones. The hormonal change leads to weaker bones, which makes injury more likely. This happened to Mary Cain, as she explains in her video.
      • spectramax 7y ago
        I agree with you. So, the root cause is the lack of knowledge on the coach's part. Mary in her video wishes that if there were more women on Alberto's team, that would have helped. I don't see how. This is purely an issue about Alberto's incompetence, which you've just highlighted and I agree with that.
        • scott_s 7y ago
          Based on the abuse she suffered, I think it's more than "lack of knowledge" and incompetence. But to the point of more women, it's easier to ignore the basic needs of one young girl, but much harder to ignore the basic needs of (say) half of your team. And if a large portion of the coaching staff are women, it's also more likely they will be aware of those basic needs.
          • spectramax 7y ago
            This is best observed and proven in medicine. There are men and women as gynecologists who fundamentally understand women's health. So, I don't see why this is a special case in Sports except for just the lack of competence and perhaps they were deluded, malicious or just fogged by their egos. This can happen to a womens team of coaches as well. I can totally see a group of competent, well educated and professional men teaching a young girl how to be the best at any sport.
            • scott_s 7y ago
              It's not a question of is it possible. It's question of what scenario makes it most likely.