mary cain phenomena???

[doug5321]

mary cain has been running incredible for a junior no question about that.

but why does she get more attention in messageboards here and much more at letsrun, than
1. morgan uceny who was ranked by track and field news #1 in the world in the 1500.
2. jenny simpson was the world champion in the 1500 in 2011.

and yet mary cain who i am sure is hoping and dreaming of getting where uceny and simpson already have been world champion, #1 in the world etc. caingets more attention than both of them combined ever got.

there have been female high schoolers/juniors at about or possibly a higher level than cain examples angela williams, alyson felix, sanya richards, sherri and denean howard, kathy mcmillan etc., but none ever got the attention cain does, the only high schooler who comes close as being as big as far as getting messageboard posts is jordan hasay.

this has always puzzled me why do high schoolers get more attention than the athletes they look up to, and dream of emulating?

[26mi235]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

On LetsRun there are a lot of high school posters and posters whose interest arose there even though they are a little older. Here it is probably a function of two or three posters without whom the threads would be fewer with fewer and shorter posts.

[Blues]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

I eagerly await aaronk's reply as most of us probably do, but maybe the fact that Mary Cain has been running times in multiple events at age 16 and 17 that Uceny and Simpson generally weren't able to match or surpass until they were 25 or 26 has something to do with it... The phenomenon may be based on what people feel Cain's potential might be. The highly unusual Salazar thing definitely didn't hurt Cain's publicity either...

And last but definitely not least, there's Aaron, whose personal PR firm is being paid handsomely by the Cain family.... :wink:

[pickle47]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

What? A Mary Cain thread not started by aaronk??

[aaronk]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

I'm watching the West regional right now.
Just wandered over here (to the MB) to see what's up.
So I'll comment at length later.
But.....
I think the answer might be as simple as....
when most of the others mentioned (Felix, SRR, McMillan etc) were in HS...
the internet wasn't happening, or wasn't as active.

The internet rules the news now, whether it's world and national news (murders, disasters, politics, etc) or sports.

Cain just happens to be a "child of the times"......so to speak!!

Now back to the regionals!!

[Rothosen]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Having followed MC's every race since 7 May 2011 let me take a stab at this.

Potential. Same as Steve Prefontaine, Zola Budd, Alan Webb, and Molly Huddle. All of which I followed as soon as I heard about them.
I can pretty well guess what Morgan Uceny's top will be. Can you say that about MC?
Similarly in basketball with Elena Delle Donne. When I saw her high school accomplishments I knew I was seeing possibly a once in a generation athlete arriving on the scene.

[ExCoastRanger]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Throughout indoor and most of early outdoor, Cain has been extraordinary and a lot of the pros she's raced have been (typical for indoor/early season) ordinary at best. Uceny got a late start, debuted sub-par. Simpson is starting to get her due from good results. Martinez has had some good buzz. The rest of T&F is cranking up. But Cain is a good, fun story that hopefully won't go away soon. She seems like a neat kid and seems to have all that potential we love for our speculations.

[aaronk]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Here's some (but probably not all) of the factors that make Mary Cain more popular and/or more newsworthy than the Simpson's and Uceny's of the middle distance world (in no particular order):

1. She has World Class potential, and it's showing itself at the age of 16 and 17.

2. She broke SIX indoor HSR's in the space of less than 2 months, something that's rarely, if ever, been done! In fact, it's safe to say that no athlete, at ANY level, has done that!!

3. As someone already noted, with Salazar as her coach, and him saying she's "the greatest female distance talent I've ever seen", that makes people sit up and take notice!

4. Her age. Few in American T&F progress so fast....and so consistently.....at such a young age. Look at how many 8th grade or 9th grade or 10th grade phenoms, boy or girl, DON'T progress.....or at least not as fast as Cain has, or at such a young age.

5. America is youth-oriented! Everything's "for the children"! When a child becomes a prodigy, he/she gets more attention than if someone 5 or 10 years older accomplished the same thing. Cain is WAY ahead of her age group scale of greatness. That's why she isn't competing for Bronxville High!!

6. Most, if not all, of the others mentioned earlier competed for their HS till graduation. They rarely, if ever, had pro runners in their races.....and none the caliber of Dibaba or Simpson!! So there's a certain fascination to see a "kid" go up against the best there is....even if she's really not expected to compete evenly.

7. Mary Cain, the person. She admits to being "nerdy". She comes across in interviews as a typical teenager. She talks rapidly, says "you know" and "like" often, has almost a giddy smile, seems a bit shy or awkward, yet people say she gives great interviews, sounding much older than her age.

8. Her appearance. I have to be careful here. Don't want people saying her dad needs to be concerned!! :wink: But her body build does NOT appear (at first) to be super athletic! Her stooped shoulders come across as weak-appearing. She doesn't have the muscle mass of, say, an 18 year old Gerry Lindgren (her male equivalent), who, it was said, had MASSIVE calves!!
So she comes across, physically speaking, as David going up against Goliath. We cheer the loudest for that type of person!!

9. Finally (???), there's the internet thing I mentioned earlier. Look at Michelle Jenneke. Not great (yet!) in the 100H, and having Sally Pearson to compete against, she has one little video of her dance routine, and BOOM!!, she gets millions of online hits. How many does Pearson, Olympic winner, get??

[Brian]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Who's Mary Cain?
.

[LopenUupunut]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Yup, it's because she's young and has huge potential. Same reason we have tons of posts about Jacko Gill - even now that he's stagnating - same reason Jim Ryun isn't just your average WR-breaking Oly silver medalist.

As for why she's getting more attention than other talented high schoolers... I'd like to say it's because she's an even bigger talent than most of those named, which may even be true (at least on an American level), but a more accurate answer would probably be that the mile does that to Americans. Being able to double/triple/more doesn't hurt, either.

And yes, it's also because of aaronk :wink:

[lionelp1]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

We live in a world especially where exaggerated attention or hysteria about people and places has become the norm, especially in Sport; thus Mary Cain, with exceptionally precocious talent, is in the centre of an attention storm which I consider way over the top and will not last too many years.
I 've never quite understood why a few mature persons appear to wallow in such hyperbole about young athletes who very frequently blow up by the the time they are reaching mid twenties maturity.
I remain sceptical whether Cain , or the NZ shot putter, not to mention our lesser talented Twell, ,our young World Junior female sprint Champion, , Judd etc.

I am wondering whether Hasay will not go the same way as so many young precocious athletes?

[aaronk]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

We live in a world especially where exaggerated attention or hysteria about people and places has become the norm, especially in Sport; thus Mary Cain, with exceptionally precocious talent, is in the centre of an attention storm which I consider way over the top and will not last too many years.
I 've never quite understood why a few mature persons appear to wallow in such hyperbole about young athletes who very frequently blow up by the the time they are reaching mid twenties maturity.
I remain sceptical whether Cain , or the NZ shot putter, not to mention our lesser talented Twell, ,our young World Junior female sprint Champion, , Judd etc.

I am wondering whether Hasay will not go the same way as so many young precocious athletes?

We live in a world of instant celebrity.
And many times, that "celebrity" is for all the "wrong" reasons.

Michelle Jenneke is better known for her "dance" than for her hurdles potential.
Paris Hilton is a celebrity mainly because she "parties hearty"!
Lolo Jones had been a champion hurdler for years.
Then she admits to being a virgin at 29, and BOOM!, her "celebrity factor" shoots through the roof.

At least Mary Cain's "celebrity" is because of her accomplishments on the track, and her winning personality......so far!!

As to how long this celebrity will last, who knows?
If she continues to excel in track, it could grow to such proportions, it will become legendary.
Steve Prefontaine.....because of his athletic ability AND his personality.....became a legend in his own time.....and only grew (immensely!!) with his early death.

This is Cain's year.
She'll probably get a similar reaction in Eugene....as Jordan Hasay got when she ran her 4:14.50.
"Come to Or-e-gon!!"

Cain herself seems to be a crowd favorite.
During the interview at Oxy, when she said "And maybe I can run even faster!", you could hear the crowd erupt in loud cheers!
Cain smiled widely and waved to the crowd!
During her "victory lap" with Sheila Reid at Millrose, the crowd seemed to be cheering for Cain more than Reid!
And Mary kept smiling and waving, playing to the crowd!!

So maybe, besides her being a great athlete, she's a great personality too!!
And that kind of combination......Prefontaine, anyone??.....lends itself to "celebrity" status!!

[BCBaroo]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

If Simpson or Uceny dropper their 1500 PR's by 6 seconds, we'd probably be talking about them quite a bit more.

[TN1965]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Here are my two cents...

Many people are fascinated with the very young and sometimes the very old. The very young is fascinating because you don't know how good they will eventually become, and the very old is fascinating because you don't know how much longer they could sustain their excellence. Athletes in their prime are expected to perform well, and because of that, they look less extraordinary in comparison.

Remember Jennifer Capriati was a big phenom in tennis? Or Michelle Wie in golf? They got far more attention than their more accomplished peers. In one of the LPGA majors back in mid-2000s, Sorenstam, Webb and Pak were in the same group. Wie alone got more TV time than the three Hall of Famers combined. That almost made me puke.

[user4]

Re: mary cain phenomena???

Yea, why all this excitement about Cain ? goodness gracious, listening to these fanatics you would think that she just hacked 5 seconds off the US Junior record in the 1500m :shock: