I wouldn't rule him out of winning a 6th ITU World title though! I'd say that was well within his grasp.
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I would especially as most of the WTS events are now the sprint distance. If he's going to "cherry pick" his schedule he most assuredly aint going to score well enough while other guys likely will be able to "offset" scores. You don't win world champs by only racing the standard distance races, that's just not going to score you well enough, when it means he then cant have one off race.
And to the other comment about Gomez being a "contender". By default Gomez will be a contender. By simply being a top front pack swim/biker he's going to almost assuredly finish top 10 (I've said between 8-10th). I've said this almost exclusively because he's aging, Tokyo is likely to be a very non-technical course and the fact that the top 5 runners (I'm not even counting Brownlees in that list) are almost assuredly coming off the bike together, and so do I see Gomez outrunning Birtwhistle/Mola/Blum/Murray/Luis; no I dont. I'm going to even go as far as say someone from the U.S. is going to finish in that 8th-12th placing due to the top run nature of the event. But by default Gomez is a "contender", I just don't think he's odds on favorite to podium like he was in Beijing, London, Rio (before injury). To say he wouldn't have podiumed would have made no sense. IMO to now say he will podium for a 3rd olympics (likely 4th if had raced Rio) to me makes no sense. That's objective as I can be with it.
2 seasons ago when all the big boys were together at events he couldn't outrun them then, he's suddenly going to be able to now? How? But is he a "contender", sure he is. He's a front pack athlete that can still outrun most of the front pack. What I'm talking about though is the 1% of the 1%'ers. So that's simply where I see he's slipped, but as I said this isn't some contreversial statement, he's put aging athletes out to pasture, just like some of the new ones will do to him and AB.
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
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I would especially as most of the WTS events are now the sprint distance. If he's going to "cherry pick" his schedule he most assuredly aint going to score well enough while other guys likely will be able to "offset" scores. You don't win world champs by only racing the standard distance races, that's just not going to score you well enough, when it means he then cant have one off race.
And to the other comment about Gomez being a "contender". By default Gomez will be a contender. By simply being a top front pack swim/biker he's going to almost assuredly finish top 10 (I've said between 8-10th). I've said this almost exclusively because he's aging, Tokyo is likely to be a very non-technical course and the fact that the top 5 runners (I'm not even counting Brownlees in that list) are almost assuredly coming off the bike together, and so do I see Gomez outrunning Birtwhistle/Mola/Blum/Murray/Luis; no I dont. I'm going to even go as far as say someone from the U.S. is going to finish in that 8th-12th placing due to the top run nature of the event. But by default Gomez is a "contender", I just don't think he's odds on favorite to podium like he was in Beijing, London, Rio (before injury). To say he wouldn't have podiumed would have made no sense. IMO to now say he will podium for a 3rd olympics (likely 4th if had raced Rio) to me makes no sense. That's objective as I can be with it.
2 seasons ago when all the big boys were together at events he couldn't outrun them then, he's suddenly going to be able to now? How? But is he a "contender", sure he is. He's a front pack athlete that can still outrun most of the front pack. What I'm talking about though is the 1% of the 1%'ers. So that's simply where I see he's slipped, but as I said this isn't some contreversial statement, he's put aging athletes out to pasture, just like some of the new ones will do to him and AB.
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
Last edited by:
B_Doughtie: Jan 20, 19 13:03