Recent Mentions
“For me, the most important thing is practicing winning and practicing trying to win. Because at the end of the day, PRs are awesome and running super fast is great, but people aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, well, 9:03 is the third fastest time.’ They’re going to say ‘Val won,’ right? And so for me, I just want to try to win. That’s all I care about. I don’t even care if we run slow because I just want to win.”
Valerie Constien was on the show about two months ago so if you haven’t heard that episode, I think it sets thighs up perfectly for more context on her comeback from a torn ACL last year. I enjoyed hearing from the listeners that they felt more invested in Val’s comeback and were overjoyed to see her running well at the Prefontaine Classic and at the Trials knowing more about her.
At the Trials, Val put together one of the best races of the entire 10 days. She won the women’s steeplechase in 9:03 – which moved her to No. 3 on the all-time list behind Courtney Frerichs and Emma Coburn. The whole race was epic and I’d encourage people to watch it on YouTube. Val qualified for her second U.S. Olympic team. She will be joined in Paris by Courtney Wayment and Marisa Howard.
In this episode, we unpack that U.S. Olympic Trials final and then look ahead toward Paris, where Val is thinking that she has a shot at a medal.
Host: Chris Chavez | @chris_j_chavez on Instagram
Guest: Val Constien | @valerieconstien on Instagram
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Show notes33m
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Topics:
- 00:00 Introduction and Weekly Highlights
- 02:13 Athletics Kenya Visa Drama
- 10:41 Olympic Marathon Universality Controversy
- 21:46 Courtney Frerichs' Injury Update
- 24:39 Ethiopia's Olympic Marathon Team Announcement
- 32:37 Doping Suspension: Rogers Quemoy
- 37:52 Kenya's Doping Scandal: A Deep Dive
- 39:42 Comparing Doping Cultures: Japan vs. Kenya
- 41:54 Night of 10K PBs: Event Highlights
- 49:40 LA Grand Prix: Men's 5K Recap
- 53:27 LA Grand Prix: Women's 5K and 1500m Insights
- 01:02:20 Pre Classic Preview: Anticipated Showdowns
- 01:07:37 Women's 10K World Record Attempt
- 01:10:43 Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Events
Show notes1h 11m
This is The Lap Count newsletter by Kyle Merber, as read by Chris Chavez.
Join more than 15,500 people who stay up-to-date with all the thrilling action and biggest stories in the world of track & field – delivered right to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Subscribe at http://thelapcount.com/
In this week's newsletter:
– Beatrice Chebet’s year goes out with a BANG 💥
– Copying tennis’s homework 📝👀
– Graham Blanks Signs with NB ✍️
– Personal Reflections on 2023 🥳
+ more rapid-fire highlights from the past week
You can read this week's newsletter here ➡️ https://www.thelapcount.com/p/solving-track
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Show notes18m