Rupp...Certified by VFL9

Every track fan has an open choice of who to root for or against. You aren't wed into supporting any guy or group of guys, and you aren't forced into overlooking the faults of whoever you support because he's your "guy".
This is because are no teams in track, and of course no natural rivalries like Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Giants or even Bears-Packers. We don't exactly get to see the Bay Area Track Club take on the Oregon Track Club in a raucous arena with partisanship split based on regional ties.

In the place of this lack of local regionalism is a general support for every runner competing for your country. The Olympics and World Championships draw on this and bolster this concept by having athletes be both representatives of their countries (wearing their nation's colors) and subject to the selection processes of them too. Speaking for almost everyone I know who is a track fan, we universally buy into it and enthusiastically root for the Bob Kennedys of the world to beat the Kenyans and the Ethiopians primarily because of the USA vest.

With all of that being said, the topic of this post is the rare exception to what is almost unwavering and unrequited fandom for dome>tic athletes. Rupp indeed reveals the limits of that fandom for some.

If you haven't heard, this past weekend Galen Rupp set a new American record indoors at the 5,000 meter distance. His time of 13:11.44 is a stellar time for indoors, and it's telling that Rupp was on the heels of a double European Champion and sub 13 man, Mo Farah, who won the race and set a British record as well.

On the surface, Rupp should be lauded and universally admired for yet another accomplishment in a young, but distinguished career. After all, Rupp is American-born and raised. He is fast- having run just over 13 minutes and 27 minutes for 5,000 and 10,000, respectively. He is a big-time winner, having won many senior domestic titles and college titles including an incredible senior campaign at the University of Oregon (Rupp won 6 NCAA titles in less than a year). He is probably the most consistent performer in American distance running the last four years and has improved in some way every year. Yet, Rupp probably is as polarizing a figure as the running community has.

Most remarkably, it's been like this ever since his high school days.
Having heard basically every criticism imaginable of an athlete as successful as he has been, it's pretty clear where the Rupp criticism comes from and what it boils down to. Rupp quite simply is not "blue collar" enough for many runners who fashion themselves to possess all of the blue collar characteristics in abundance while lacking some of Rupp's talent and access to resources.

The line of thinking is that Rupp has had a personal coach in Alberto Salazar since his high school days. He's had access to Nike's world-class facilities and cutting-edge technology since then, too. In high school, he was dubbed "the rich kid with an altitude tent". His accomplishments including an incredible 13:37 5000 HS Record were downplayed. He was not a winner as he couldn't win the biggest title of them all (FootLockers), and his 5,000 record was more reflective of Rupp's privileged situation (he set it in a pro race in Europe) than anything else.

While at college, the "can't win the big one/pure time trialer" reputation gained steam as he came up short even while racking up All-American certificates and excellent time trials in the 3,000-10,000 that would have been celebrated had they come from say Matt Withrow, for example.

The criticism of his "privileged" situation continued as people openly called him a glorified professional competing in college, and wondered how a college student competing in Europe so frequently could possibly afford to do so. He continued to be coached separately by Salazar away from the rest of the Oregon team. He continued to use underwater treadmills, the Alter-G treadmill, altitude tents and the like to try and enhance his performance and stay healthy. This provided the "blue-collar" folks with ammunition for whenever Rupp failed on the big stage, dropped out, or skipped a race. Never mind that Rupp was doing grueling workouts like 12x1000 with Salazar and starting to exceed Pre's number of completed laps in the famed 30-40 workout(30 second 200s followed by a 40 second 200 and repeated) Eventually, the "time trialer who can't win" criticism evaporated as Rupp destroyed college competition in his last year at Oregon.

Still, because of some pretty juvenile and shallow assessments- I would be remiss to not note that Rupp has a high pitched voice, some goofy mannerisms, nose strips that he wears at races, and is very tall and skinny- Rupp still carries the not "blue collar" label into his professional career and will always carry it. The title of this post even plays on this. In his pro career, Rupp has been known to pull out of races because of things like breathing troubles due to his asthma, and dangerous or questionable footing. This led to the tounge-in-cheek designation of courses/races as being "Rupp Certified" or not. It, of course has been shown like most Rupp theories to be mostly bunk as evidenced by Rupp's solid performance on a snow-covered Edinburgh Cross Country course in January and his success in non-ideal conditions like those of the 2008 Olympics 10,000.

Now, get ready for the editorial:

This "blue-collar" aesthetic discussion is a subject for another post, but my quick take on it is that the whole notion of it is dumb and fictitious. All successful runners at the top-level work hard. All of them use whatever resources they can. "Blue-Collar" Dathan Ritzenheim pounds out plenty of miles on Alter-G treadmills even though he's a hard-working son of the midwest. If elite athletes don't use all the resources at their disposal, they're being stubborn and foolish. High mileage grinder Chris Solinsky didn't toughen up by running in those Wisconsin winters as a professional. He just got hurt slipping in the snow and limited some of his potential until he made the sensible relocation to Portland, OR. Africans don't have the same resources, but their training environment is basically everything Nike and others try to replicate in the US (the altitude and soft surfaces) with science and technology. You might note that Africans also have physiological geniuses like Renato Canova designing their training plans and applying the newest scientific research to their training sessions instead of just mindlessly running miles and 400m repeats.

As for Rupp, ever since he was in high school he has done everything he can to be a great runner. Has he had advantages and a unique support system and set of resources? Yes, of course.

Is it wrong that he took advantage of the great opportunities that being a very talented and promising young runner in Nike's backyard afforded him? No, of course not unless you really think Rupp should have been more concerned with being the same as every other high school student than being the best runner he could be. Does anyone tell a promising young tennis player to turn down an opportunity to go to the Bolitierri Tennis Academy because that's not what the non-pampered "blue-collar" tennis player would do? Not likely. It's true that running is simple and anyone can get somewhat close to their potential just with a pair of shoes and a track. That doesn't mean that anyone who strives to do more than just scrape the surface is wrong to do so.

Did his use of Alter-G treadmills and similar things that I had no access to in high school and college bother me? Absolutely not because the goal is to be a fast runner and not to be a mediocre runner like me and many others.

Is he soft, and unwilling to mix it up against all comers in all conditions? No, he wins as much or more than he should and competes well in all conditions. Rupp, in fact, is probably at the top of the "blue collar" standings in terms of taking on all comers and not being afraid to race the Africans. There are more things to like about Rupp including his commitment to trying new things and attacking his own weaknesses. When his finishing kick was a problem, he made it a strength and so on. He's been level-headed and consistent throughout his career, which can't be said about some of the more enigmatic figures that have been at the top of American running recently.

For all of the criticism and cynicism of Rupp's methods and his use of Nike's resources, as I stated in the last paragraph the overarching truth is that Rupp has always done whatever he could do to become a great runner and the best in America. And many years later from the start of the Nike-Rupp relationship, he has become a great runner and has distanced himself from nearly every one of his more "blue-collar" peers. That's enough to make Rupp VFL9-certified.