Her decision to race is quite surprising to me. Nationals is all about the everyday athlete, coming together to compare their abilities. It’s not a platform to get your pro card ( if that is what she was doing). I don’t know her thought process in showing up and easily hammering the field. It’s not much different than my going out and crushing the neighborhood kids with my towering wiffle ball home runs. In my mind, Catherine Sterling is the true age group national champion. There…I said it.
Here, post on this thread:
So Susan is ~42 years old, and doesn’t have a pro card?
and so it isn’t cool for her to compete at age group nationals?
where would you like her to compete? please give us acceptable venues for the retired pro.
Are the kids playing wiffleball your age?
Styrrell
And how about that Janet Evans setting masters records. Bitch.
there is this bizarre attitude with women’s endurance sport, where you are not welcome if you are actually good at it.
it is total weak sauce.
Dude, you should totally get this carbon fiber wiffle ball bat:
.
For what it’s worth, I raced in Susan Williams’s wave yesterday (if you can call it “in,” given how far behind her I was!), and I’m totally psyched she was there. Someone else posted about a bunch of former pros who still race AG competition, and I agree that it’s not only kosher, it’s cool. My coach is a former pro who races AG (and would have been at Nationals had she not been injured), and I know that her life is in fact just like the lives of other AG athletes–she works, has a family and also trains for triathlons. I suspect the fact that former pros often dominate the AG competition has more to do with the genetic gifts and the hard work that got them to pro status in the first place, plus the racing experience they have, then it does with any kind of magical advantage from being a former pro. And looking at ALL the AG results, the combination of natural ability/hard work/experience is what any of us have going for us.
You’re kinda making the OP point. JE is aiming for the OG, not AG nationals. I don’t have any issues with ex Pros racing with amateurs, but at least keep on topic.
Styrrell
Did I really have to use pink.
Men bitch about it, maybe even more. I thin part of it come from if you start nin tri at a young age and do well as an AGer from ages 20-35 or so, you suddenly find your sefl getting beat by more people. Its not that those guys were around, its just that they were racing pro in tri or in one of the single sports. I typically would place higher in 20-25 than I would in 45-50, but its just that the best 20-25 yo are otherwise occupied.
Styrrell
Agree. I would have been totally pscyhed had I been there this year.
Edit: As for the question of why some people have an issue with ex-pros racing AG, I’m not entirely sure what that stems from. My best guess is that some folks might lump all pro’s into a category of people that have extraordinary advantages that the rest of us do not have, and it’s all good when they are in a different category, but not so good when those with this special designation jump into one’s own category. There you go. Amateur psychology at it’s best.
So, are former pro’s never allowed to compete in any sports again? You wouldn’t allow Michael Jordan on your softball team?
I love when retired(or soon to be) pro’s race in my age group (she’s a little younger than me). Being part of the race where they are hammering is a GOOD thing.
There is always someone faster than you. Always. If they meet the criteria to race (non pro status)- c’mon.
So in short you’re saying you got chicked.
If I knew who Susan Williams was I might actually care…
Nationals is all about the everyday athlete, coming together to compare their abilities.
. . . and Ironman founder John Collins, when he sold the rights, to the Ironman said that, “there should always be space on the starting line at IMH for everyday athletes”, - whatever the heck an everyday athlete is? FWIW - It’s that one line from John Collins, that keeps the lottery alive at IMH! How else to explain it?
If I knew who Susan Williams was I might actually care…
From Wikipedia:
She was the first U.S. triathlete to win an Olympic medal by taking the bronze in 2004 in Athens.
She earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in 1992. She earned a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994. She was working toward becoming an astronaut when her success at triathlon convinced her to give it a try.
What would be the correct time off after a Po career before someone is allowed to compete again? And what should they do in that time? Bake cookies?
If I knew who Susan Williams was I might actually care…
From Wikipedia:
She was the first U.S. triathlete to win an Olympic medal by taking the bronze in 2004 in Athens.
She earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in 1992. She earned a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994. She was working toward becoming an astronaut when her success at triathlon convinced her to give it a try.
I like smart chicks
…