2022 women's AOY

[gh]

on topic, please.

[Conor Dary]

Speaking of Athletes of the Year, Katie Ledecky just nosed out McLaughlin by the AP, tie vote, but the swimmer had more # 1 votes which broke the tie.

A wonderful skier too!

[Conor Dary]

Trying to compare athletes in different events is entertaining....but I wouldn't take it too seriously.

[gh]

fwiw, my top 10:

1. Rojas
2. McLaughlin
3. Fraser-Pryce
4. Jackson
5. Kipyegon
6. Amusan
7. Garcia
8. Gidey
9. Ealey
10. Jeruto

[CD203]

Literally the only way I can rationalize Mu's ranking is that she's an American Nike athlete who is considered a generational talent and that her reputation and the hype around her caused her good, but not outstanding, season to be ranked highly by an American publication. She competed in 4 meets over 800, for which her results were 2:02, 1:57.01, 1:57.16, and 1:56.30. Yes I know she had Covid which impacted her season but that doesn't change the fact that her season is just far less impressive than many of the athletes ranked behind her. And I say this as someone who has been a fan of her since that 600m AR in 2019.

Ruth Chepngetich ran the 2nd and 11th fastest marathons of all time (and the 11th fastest is also the second fastest women's only).
Gudaf Tsegay got a gold and a silver at the WC, had 3 sub 3:55 1500s indoor and outdoor, had a sub 14:30, and is world indoor champ over 1500.
Chase Ealey had 7!! meets over 20m, was undefeated outdoors, and is the World and DL champ, as well as indoor silver.
Kimberly Garcia is the only person, male or female, this year to be WC in two individual events and set an area record over 35k.
Letesenbet Gidey is a world champ, ran 2 sub 14:30s over 5k, ran the fastest debut over marathon to become 6th fastest ever over the distance, and her 10k winning time is the 25th AT performance. For reference, Mu's world lead of 1:56.30 doesn't even crack the top 100.

Even when compared to other athletes who also competed relatively sparingly, Mu's season also doesn't hold up. Faith Kipyegon also only had 4 meets but she ran the 2nd, 10th, and 11th AT performances over 1500m, AND became DL champ. Yulimar Rojas only had 4 outdoor meets but she jumped the 5th, 15th, and 19th farthest outdoor jumps, in addition to her outright world record indoors to become indoor champion, as well as retaining her DL title. I don't think I can say anything about SML that hasn't already been said. Even Norah Jeruto, who's season probably stands closest to Mu's in terms of similarity and quality, had a clearly better season. She was WC and had the 3rd, 13th, and 30th best AT performances.

There is just such a huge gap between the quality of the seasons of all these other athletes and Mu. Even though I like her and I think she's one of the brightest stars in the sport right now, I just can't take her ranking by T&FN this year at all seriously. It makes absolutely zero sense to have her above all the other athletes I mentioned, as well as some others (Bol, Yehualaw, etc.)

[dukehjsteve]

Speaking of Athletes of the Year, Katie Ledecky just nosed out McLaughlin by the AP, tie vote, but the swimmer had more # 1 votes which broke the tie.

[Steele]

All good points.

New idea: portable ring and landing area that can be rolled out in five minutes to the 75m-100m mark of the finishing straight. Hold the shot right on the finish line! Granted, it shuts down all the running events, but...

[Trickstat]

1. No brit at the top

Ironically Ealey has a British coach.

I will say that, unless it is in a part of the stadium near where you are sitting, the shot is the field event where there is the biggest danger of it passing you by. It occupies a relatively small portion of the infield, it is difficult to see whether a throw is particularly big or not and they can get through the rounds fairly quickly so it is difficult to keep tabs on a specific thrower while following another event more closely.

[TN1965]

Adams was a generational freak.

Ealey's season was probably the best since Schwanitz in 2015. Carter had a longer throw in 2016, but that was her only 20m+ throw in 2016.

[DET59]

Despite a really prehensile mind, I am unable to wrap my brain around that. Five over 20m seems pretty competitive to me.

1 20.51 Chase EALEY
2 20.39 Lijiao GONG
3 20.38 Jiayang SONG
4 20.33 Sarah MITTON
5 20.24 Jessica SCHILDER

Meanwhile the men are much less competitive . . .

1 23.23 Joe KOVACS
2 23.12 Ryan CROUSER
3 22.31 Tom WALSH
4 22.29 Josh AWOTUNDE
5 21.99 Zane WEIR

or or you being duped by the 1980's wSP distances?

Good points, but the best women's mark of 2022 is still 850th on the all-time list and the top marks are all 2.5 to 3.5 feet shy of what Adams was throwing 10-15 years ago. If a male was dominating the shot all year throwing around 72' he wouldn't be anywhere near the top 10. Ealey has a great season, but the marks just aren't at AOY level.

[Steele]

Despite a really prehensile mind, I am unable to wrap my brain around that. Five over 20m seems pretty competitive to me.
or or you being duped by the 1980's wSP distances?

1. No brit at the top
2. Not a personal friend of any of their parents, so...
3. Not interested.

[ATK]

Another thing that I find insanely strange is that Shericka Jackson has a vote for #10. I know each panel member gets their own individual vote, but I find it impossible to make an unbiased argument for 9 women ahead of Jackson this year.

[Atticus]

Despite a really prehensile mind, I am unable to wrap my brain around that. Five over 20m seems pretty competitive to me.

1 20.51 Chase EALEY
2 20.39 Lijiao GONG
3 20.38 Jiayang SONG
4 20.33 Sarah MITTON
5 20.24 Jessica SCHILDER

Meanwhile the men are much less competitive . . .

1 23.23 Joe KOVACS
2 23.12 Ryan CROUSER
3 22.31 Tom WALSH
4 22.29 Josh AWOTUNDE
5 21.99 Zane WEIR

or or you being duped by the 1980's wSP distances?

[Merner521]

Women's shot put is just not that competitive.

I had to Google her name to remember what she did. And I was there at Hayward.

Weird flex, but OK.

[NotDutra5]

There were six undefeated world champions on the ballot. Mu deserved strong consideration.

For top 10 yes. Top 4 I don't agree with at all.

signed...apparently...a troll.