GreenPlease wrote:
I think you nailed it: being an ITU athlete is tough. Being an ITU athlete while raising a child is probably impossible if not borderline irresponsible. Gwen loves running and running lets her stay home with Stanley (her newborn). To Gwen, the path was probably rather obvious.
It seems we have a parallel between Talansky and Gwen as he is leaving cycling to do long course tri to have more time at home with his family, and Gwen appears to be doing similar. I'm not going to make any judgments about whether an ITU athlete, or a pro cyclist, is being "irresponsible" to their kid(s) other than to say that military guys/girls go on 6 to 18 month deployments routinely, with equal time at home between deployments if they are lucky. Given that most military kids I've ever met are outstanding kids, I'd say Mom and/or Dad being gone so much did not hurt their development per se. Just guessing here but I think Gwen and Andrew are simply making totally personal choices in that they want to be home with the kid more. The only other comment I'd make is that Gwen should talk to Mark Allen about how his Oly mary quest turned out. IIRC, he never even qualified for the Trials. she's a great runner but now she's going to be up against lots of great pure runners.
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."