Typical of a loud mouth that deep down they are massively insecure and try to mask it with being overt.

Also didn't he openly admit to not respecting anyone when he started and spoke about racing T O, going past him and taking the piss only to be overtaken by T O a few miles later

Why didn't he just take the piss out of Sam L's horrific back tattoo or something 🤣

That was hilarious. Lionel took it all in good humor. Long not so much.

I think Sophie Watts, Jackie Herring, Sam Long, and Rudy VB all have above a 15% chance of winning.
I'd guess the over/under on US wins is 1.5.

 

Typical of a loud mouth that deep down they are massively insecure and try to mask it with being overt.

100% this. It felt to me like he now thinks he is one of the big guns who should be respected, forgetting he is a loud mouth who hasn't really lived up to the talk!

It will be rather funny when Lionel buries him on mid bike and then Laidlow flames out on the run with Sam to pick up the bodies and take second.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I don’t know why because I think the strategy ultimately won’t matter….but I’ll be curious how Kanute races the swim and first part of bike.

Again I think he’ll likely rather easily get out classed on the run so does he try and save more for the run or will he just go off the front w/ solo TT for as long as he can.

I like Ben a lot since he came through the usat DL juniors, I almost feel like his S and B has been rather neutralized lately and his run well has always been his weakness.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Sam Long is being an absolute baby there I'm afraid. Laidlow is so easy to slap down that he should have just laughed at him. For someone who has been taking potshots at people like Frodo, like he was pre-Roth, to appear to be so thin-skinned and rant about "respect" isn't a good look.

If I was Sam I'd just have said that based on results Laidlow isn't even in the conversation, and then just start talking to Lionel over his head.

I'm a Brit and think Long will win, Lionel second. Long seems like he is one who can channel anger, but this race here will be a real acid test of his temperament. If he has a poor race after that reaction then he has basically shown everyone how to get in his head and beat him before the start line. Popcorn time.

I think spending a long Summer in Europe will likely help him since he's never done that and only done short trips for races and generally struggled doing that.

Whereas Lionel can deal with the adjustment.

When I was 20, I studied in France and it just fucked me up for like two weeks. Crazy how hard it was to adjust then. I know a lot more things now to get ready to adjust to timezones.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

It's maybe a harsh statement from me, but Sam is a big personality and even celebrity in the sport and there is some responsibility that comes with that, whether he wants it or not, or asked for it or not.

I get that things can be tough, but I'm sure he'll regret his reaction when the dust settles, and I would imagine/hope the scenarios with how he could have dealt with it are flying through his mind now. Laidlow is nowhere near their level in my opinion and Sanders showed how he should have been dealt with; just laugh.

I have no issue whatsoever with Laidlow either, I just don't think he is at their level, nor in the position to say these things. We'll see though, I might end up with egg on my face.

I couldn't care less who wins this race and I think a case could be made for all 3. I only know a little bit about Laidlow but an athlete who has a lot of self-belief about their race is A okay in my mind. I enjoy the banter even if Sam Long didn't appreciate this instance.

Waaay back in the day (I don’t even think I was born yet) there was this “feud” in wrestling between Jerry Lawler and the comedian Andy Kaufman…it even made it on David Letterman’s Late night show.

Lawler “bitch slapped” Kauffman during the tv show and Letterman was freaking out. Security was coming in breaking it up and Kaufman was cursing in the telecast.

Turns out like 10 years later it was all fake. Everyone was thinking it was real etc etc.


That 3 person sit down kinda had that vibe for me, although Ls seemed kinda bored by it. Laidlow didn’t seem to be any affect of playing the heel there.

I’m waiting for Talbot’s behind the scene video of the 3 all laughing 6 mins after that interview.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

 For Sam Long's sake I hope that was staged.... Imagine getting that triggered by some mild trash talk from Sam Laidlow of all people.

PTO, Jerry Spring edition.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Surely he isn't dumb enough to agree to doing that if it was staged though?? he came out of that looking really stupid.

I hadn't heard the Laidlow rap before, but he is bordering on really not cool territory with the Wong/ping pong line!

Ugh, I hate this kind of stuff so much. Unless Laidlow is just that dumb, there is no way he actually thinks he would easily win the race without the swim. And Long actually gets upset that he said that? It was obviously blown out of proportion for views. Why can't we just have some natural humor and talk. Is Lionel and Long not entertaining enough as themselves without all the other crap? Gustav is a great personality too without any fake drama.

So ridiculously fake but the best part is the people saying Long is right and Laidlow should be paying more respect.

If this were real, those people should scroll back a few years to when Long entered the scene and was spewing the same stuff as he went around proclaiming to be the strongest legs in triathlon half a year into his first season.

In my opinion, the fake fighting actually takes away from the event. I much pretty prefer the actual friendly rubbing that the Norwegians give each other and others or the genuine slagging the triathlon mockery engages in. This WWF/E crap is just tedious.

If you listen or read to the Ceo of PTO this is par for the course in how you draw in viewers.

You go all in on…..the athletes

So whether it was fake outrage or even real outrage is irrelevant. That interview will no doubt get more views than any other PTO content. I’ll put $100 on that.


PTO mentioned UFC often in how to build your brand. This shit talking is par for the course for every fight. It’s all part of drumming up interest cus guess what

S-B-R is boring as fuck most especially non draft long course. Adding some drama makes it bearable especially to the non hardcore tri people. “We” will tune in whether they are choir boys or whether they WWE style it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

ProTriNews podcast just out discussing matches and picks. Recommended.
https://podcasts.apple.com/...1865?i=1000576589600

Well, to be fair to Sam Long, that was during the pandemic and he was putting up dumb numbers going up Mt Lemmon and it was just him and Lionel blowing chunks off each other. And his smack talk isn't the greatest. Like if Laidlow actually had a resume to back that up it would have made it true, and possibly funny. Whereas he doesn't and makes it both untrue and spiteful. I've probably said more than a handful of times I didn't like Wurf's brand of smack talk...but it's grown on me. This wasn't even smack talk, it was just idiotic. Now Sam, he overreacted for sure. He should have snorted into a laugh.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

yeah, i think that's important. last year (and this year again) we have the salthouse/lawrence beef, which i never thought was much of anything, being pushed as drama. it's not really to my taste, but on the other hand, what's a good angle for bringing new eyeballs and ginning up interest? i used to hate the saccharine human interest stories during the NBC kona broadcasts, so i'm glad we're not doing that.

a few other thoughts:
-assuming that video was not staged, long comes off looking really foolish to me - he can dish it out but he can't take it. as mentioned, he's the one who famously proclaimed himself to have the "strongest legs in triathlon" and just 24 hours ago was tring to razz the norwegians while photobombing their track workout.
-the canadian in me (who hates confrontation) was feeling all of lionel's agony. in his shoes, i would also have just say there and smiled painfully.
-americans like to think they can talk trash, but as someone who lived/worked in the UK, i assure you that british banter is on another level. laidlow was just doing a regular friday night pisstake and it broke long in half.

otherwise: some potentially interesting matchups, but some that i'll likely skip. seeing the draws now, though, i think it's far from being a rout for team europe.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

And that’s why the example I brought up is so brilliant. People thought for years that duel was real.

We’ve had how many posts on the psycho analysis of Sam Long’s psyche now in the last page.


Like it’s f’ing brilliant, whether it’s real or not. That’s the brilliance of it. We are going to psycho analyze it now and pull for “our” guy to beat the “bad” guy. No one loses that’s the beauty in it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Oh wow, did not realize how thin-skinned he was. He really got under his skin quite easily. It will make for an exciting match. Laidlow will drill the swim and the bike while the other two will be chasing hard.

Real or fake (I believe it's real)... this is exactly what triathlon needs. This draws in views which leads to more sponsors.

It doesn't matter who is right or wrong in what they said, this is good for the sport. We need more of it. Athletes need to speak their mind more and not hold back. And media needs to ask the tough questions to get a rise out of the athletes.

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Long looks like a thin-skinned imbecile. He has the loudest mouth in Triathlon and when someone rags on him he gets offended. He has a lot of growing up to do, but the best cure is for Sam and Lionel to obliterate him.

I feel the same way. Is he bipolar or something? I know two people close to me have bipolar and Sam Long acted just like them. He got fired up for nothing. I've noticed he's more talk and less show lately on his social media too. I will watch out for this match for sure. I want to see if he can deliver. On the other hand, LS stayed classy in that awkward situation.