USA Track Might Have A Tonya Harding Situation On Their Hands After Athing Mu Was Tripped Up In The 800m Olympic Trials
Patrick Smith. Getty Images.Athing Mu broke out at the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics. She was 19-years-old and won the gold medal in the women's 800m. The next summer she went and won the World Championship in the women's 800m. She was the youngest woman to ever have both the Olympic and World title in a single event. She set an American record and ran the 14th fastest 800m ever this past September, running a 1:54:97.
Basically all of this is to say that she's an absolute dog. A weapon of mass destruction for USA Track to send over to Paris next month. The only issue with that is that she won't be going to Paris this summer.
Now some people are saying this was Athing Mu's fault for not running more races throughout the season. That she wasn't prepared to deal with being bunched up like that in the middle of the race, and couldn't get herself out of a tough situation. I think that's a perfectly valid take, HOWEVA…
Nia Akins won the Olympic qualifying finals with a 1:57:36. That's 2.5 seconds slower than Athing Mu's best. 2.5 seconds in track might as well be an hour. All the other runners in that race had to know they didn't have a chance in hell of beating Athing Mu. Unless, of course, someone took her out. Follow the money. There has to be a paper trail out there somewhere. Check those Venmo transactions over the next few days.
And if somehow this was just a mishap and a case of bad fortune, there needs to be a way for someone like Athing Mu to be able to get some redemption. Maybe if you go down because of getting tripped up by another runner, you should be allowed to challenge the winner to a 1v1 or something like that. It's just crazy that getting tripped up by someone else could make the past 4 years of training become worthless.
Sidenote: Athing Mu not making the team did make way for Philly girl Allie Wilson to go to Paris next month. Can't wait for another parade down Broad Street. City of Champions, baby.