Athletes Retirements Thread

[ChandlerMne 1,202]

Sorry to hear about Dafne. She was one of my heroes on track. So great up until 2016. Pitty that back problems are main factor of her decline last few year seasons.

Thanks for all.

[heywoodu 16,000]

2 hours ago, Noorderling29 said:

Former double 200 meter World Champion (Athletics) Dafne Schippers (NL). Not very surprising as she’s been suffering from back trouble for years.

So no more throwing with shoes, bitching against teammates and so on  

 

Honestly I thought she had retired already. Hopefully she'll at least get her physical problems under control. The best thing for Dutch athletics is that she kind of put it back on the map here, which more or less paved the way for the current successes. When separating her (public, at least) character from her sports performances, she is one of the most valuable Dutch athletes of the past 10 years for sure.

Edited September 26, 2023 by heywoodu

[Grassmarket 4,028]

23 hours ago, heywoodu said:

So no more throwing with shoes, bitching against teammates and so on  

 

Honestly I thought she had retired already. Hopefully she'll at least get her physical problems under control. The best thing for Dutch athletics is that she kind of put it back on the map here, which more or less paved the way for the current successes. When separating her (public, at least) character from her sports performances, she is one of the most valuable Dutch athletes of the past 10 years for sure.

A world class sprinter will always improve all the other sprinters in the national squad, because all the slightly-above-average sprinters know that they’ve suddenly got a chance of a good medal if they work at their event.  Kim Gevaert is the classic example.

[heywoodu 16,000]

1 minute ago, Grassmarket said:

A world class sprinter will always improve all the other sprinters in the national squad, because all the slightly-above-average sprinters know that they’ve suddenly got a chance of a good medal if they work at their event.  Kim Gevaert is the classic example.

Not really talking about sprinters though, since Dutch sprinting didn't really improve or undergo any significant change since Schippers' successes. Dutch athletics has improved more in a sort of broad sense.

Edited September 27, 2023 by heywoodu

[mpjmcevoy 375]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Not really talking about sprinters though, since Dutch sprinting didn't really improve or undergo any significant change since Schippers' successes. Dutch athletics has improved more in a sort of broad sense.

At European level at least, I distinctly remember an improvement in your women's 4 x 100 team - and suspect your current strength in women's 400 and 400 hurdles has similar roots.

[Noorderling29 187]

IIRC our 4 x 100 metres squad won two medals at European Championships with Schippers in the team. Not really a regular ocurrence without her. 

 

More generally, before Schippers there was a general feeling that we’re not very good at athletics and never gonna be, with sporadic successes. She proved that a Dutch athlete can be world class, and the level has been raised across the board, with success in youth competions as well. 10 years ago an athlete making it to a semi final at Worlds would be one of the stars of the team, now athletes like Peeters, Jiya and Seedo are bit players.

 

Before Tokyo 2020 I would have considered anyone who predicted that in Athletics the Dutch team could win 7/8 medals at World level as certifiable.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Noorderling29

[heywoodu 16,000]

14 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

At European level at least, I distinctly remember an improvement in your women's 4 x 100 team - and suspect your current strength in women's 400 and 400 hurdles has similar roots.

Right, if you're counting the 400 meters as well, sure. Although those are definitely separate entities here, and they're also not really considered sprints here as they are in the US (since all-out sprinting for 40+ seconds is simply not physically possible).

 

I do agree, like said before, that she paved the way for a broader sense of improvement across the board. Whether that is because she was a fantastic standout or because the program was starting to work and she was the first real success to come out of it, who knows.

[AsensioWillemsen 174]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Right, if you're counting the 400 meters as well, sure. Although those are definitely separate entities here, and they're also not really considered sprints here as they are in the US (since all-out sprinting for 40+ seconds is simply not physically possible).

 

I do agree, like said before, that she paved the way for a broader sense of improvement across the board. Whether that is because she was a fantastic standout or because the program was starting to work and she was the first real success to come out of it, who knows.

Quite a few of the 400 core come from sprint distance, but there has been a general professionalization really since the day she ran 22.35 at the Hypo Meeting.

 

General level in heptathlon is basically something that really infused the level of athletics back here. That precedes 2014 really, I think that's something from maybe 2008-9 (not entirely sure though), to decide heptathlon is fruitful for wide development. It really spiked success with three athletes medaling at worlds/Olympics. And one at indoors too, Nadine is much better at the 60 anyway and didn't really keep up with the increase in pace of recent years however.

 

Sad that with the success of Schippers also came poor sportsmanship: She never could replicate the wonder year of 2015 and it started to grow on her by the year.

[Noorderling29 187]

I think the judgements of Schippers rather harsh. But evenso, sport is not a popularity contest She was not a very good loser, but that’s not unlike the majority of athletes. At least she was honest about it.

[heywoodu 16,000]

2 hours ago, AsensioWillemsen said:

Quite a few of the 400 core come from sprint distance, but there has been a general professionalization really since the day she ran 22.35 at the Hypo Meeting.

 

General level in heptathlon is basically something that really infused the level of athletics back here. That precedes 2014 really, I think that's something from maybe 2008-9 (not entirely sure though), to decide heptathlon is fruitful for wide development. It really spiked success with three athletes medaling at worlds/Olympics. And one at indoors too, Nadine is much better at the 60 anyway and didn't really keep up with the increase in pace of recent years however.

 

Sad that with the success of Schippers also came poor sportsmanship: She never could replicate the wonder year of 2015 and it started to grow on her by the year.

Yeah, the heptathlon was sort of the base indeed. It's too bad Schippers went from heptathlon to sprint, really. Heptathlete Schippers was a lot easier to cheer for than sprint Schippers  (where being easy to cheer for is obviously not her job, so no problem there, everyone can of course choose who they cheer for)

Edited September 28, 2023 by heywoodu