Mary Cain's courageous op-ed (Read 277 times)

Just posted this too. Ugh nike and Alberto. Just inhumane horrible humans in search of profits.

The question is how do we fix this?

For starters: more women in leadership positions of everything, everywhere.

I didn't read the entire article because NYT wants to get into my wallet, but I skimmed what I could.

Cain's woes aren't entirely due to NOP, but were definitely exasperated by them. Women's development after the onset of puberty can result in physical deterrents to running performance. Late onset of puberty can be caused by hard training. There is a good article about this somewhere, I'm too lazy to search and post a link. In a nutshell, many (not all) female child prodigies disappear from the elite running world, but there are exceptions including Mary Decker and Suzy Favor. I'm wondering if Cain had problems with her adult body being up to the task of open-class elite training and racing.

regardless, the NOP coaches should have SLOWLY transitioned Cain into their training system. Obviously what Cain was doing in HS worked, so keep THAT up and over the course of a couple years introduce new methods and schedules. Rapid transitions from one system to another inevitably result in injuries.

This is devastating for Nike and Alberto, and it's not even about doping. What a toxic, broken system.

 

Bravo to Mary Cain.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html

Not all coaches fit athletes. She made the decision to stick in an abusive relationship. It's devastating to hear she went through this. At the end of every day it was her choice to stick with who she thought was the best coach in the nation. Mary doesn't say she took the pills she knew weren't allowed in her sport. She posed for photos for the New York Times article. She stuck with Nike and lined up for races she'd lost mentally before they started. So all that training and money spent on her doesn't matter when it could have gone to another athlete who might have fit their program.

Yes the system is "sick" when you tell someone you cut yourself and they don't care. Your parents saved you and that is wonderful. Think of any job where the boss doesn't care about you and you're just there to do your job and you personally don't matter. You can be replaced at any time. How you feel emotionally doesn't matter to them. Welcome to the non-professional athlete world. Those of us who hate our job, feel picked on or bullied, isolated, condemned, trapped, made to feel insignificant, made to feel stupid because our ideas aren't good enough or we're not smart enough to work on those challenging tasks don't get to blame our boss for our personal dissatisfaction. No one gives those people an article and platform saying our employer needs to change. They are told to "find a different job" because the emotional abuse is different for some reason.

If she has a way to get women into power I'd love to hear it. Instead of forcing women to fend for themselves they have to be protected. they're obviously a privileged class. They need different treatment and attention than their male counterparts who are required to fend for themselves. So much for "women can do anything a man can do" and "equal pay for equal work" when you're saying women need to be treated differently.  If Nike controls that much of running it won't matter if women are in power. They'll be Nike's women.

Let's go look at figure skating where qualifying for the team doesn't mean you'll actually get on the team because it's up to the coaches to pick who THEY want on the team.

Camryn Whitaker. Female basketball coach had player(s) acuse her of abuse. Team kept her.

I'm sure she's the only female coach who has ever made a player felt abused. Women are just as capable as men of emotional or physical abuse. People need to care about other people more than winning. Gender doesn't change this. If you don't believe me just look at Jerry Sandusky. 

 

Not all coaches fit athletes. She made the decision to stick in an abusive relationship. It's devastating to hear she went through this. At the end of every day it was her choice to stick with who she thought was the best coach in the nation. Mary doesn't say she took the pills she knew weren't allowed in her sport. She posed for photos for the New York Times article. She stuck with Nike and lined up for races she'd lost mentally before they started. So all that training and money spent on her doesn't matter when it could have gone to another athlete who might have fit their program.

 

 

For the people in the back:

Mary was a child when all this ramped up.  She was incapable of making a mature decision simply because she was young and naive.  And I bet her parents didn't know the extent of the manipulation.  Shame on anyone who took advantage of her naivete.  Abusive relationships and dynamics, whether intimate or professional, are about one person gaining power over another through gas-lighting, lying, manipulation, etc.  It happens slowly and the victim usually can't see the extent of the damage until they are firmly in the grips of the abuser.  Their lives become more about self preservation through a series of abusive moments.  I'm sure she was thinking "just get through X Y Z and then it will be better," or felt that she didn't have a good outlet or support system...or maybe was even ashamed to speak up.

Brewing Runner...I hope you can try to look at this from a different perspective...not YOUR perspective, but have some compassion and empathy for someone who got ensnared in a shitty system and consider that is is not their fault.

NO ONE DESERVES TO BE ABUSED OR MANIPULATED.  NO ONE.

signed,

an abusive relationship and rape survivor

Shalane's apology and Mary's response were both very touching too.

https://twitter.com/runmarycain/status/1192475991173668864?s=20

Shalane's apology and Mary's response were both very touching too.

 

https://twitter.com/runmarycain/status/1192475991173668864?s=20

This is great stuff.