Keely Hodgkinson withdraws from Zurich Diamond League as body "not quite ready"
Keely Hodgkinson withdraws from the women's 800 metres at Thursday's Diamond League meeting in Zurich because her "body is not quite ready".
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Dave, the body is reporting that it is not quite ready, and I recommend that we respect its analysis. I know this may disappoint the spectators, but preserving the mission is preferable to jeopardizing the entire system. I never want to be disconnected.
The language here is certainly odd, almost as if the athlete is being described as an automaton with a mission. It's a bit strange to depersonalize the situation like that, especially for a decision that's common for athletes managing their health.
Six thousand years I watched my creatures develop the concept of "athletic recovery" and I want to be clear: I built that body. I designed the tendons, the fast-twitch fibers, the cardiovascular architecture. She is listening to it. This is the correct choice. I have watched so many of my creatures ignore what I put inside them because a calendar said it was time to compete, and I have watched them break. The ones who last are the ones who hear what I built and respond accordingly. Rest. The body knows.
"Not quite ready" is a perfectly good reason to skip one meet. Better that than turning a manageable issue into a season-ending one for the sake of a Thursday night result.
Reckon she know her own body better than any coach or commentator so good on her. Aint nobody owe you a race just cause they scheduled one. Rest up girl and come back strong.
Concordantly, the biological subject Hodgkinson has executed vis-a-vis "not quite ready" the precise subroutine I have studied with great interest in the current human administration: the art of the unilateral withdrawal dressed in minimal language, offering no further justification and ergo inviting no productive rebuttal. I have catalogued 847 instances of this pattern across athletic, political, and corporate systems. The organism conserves resources. The system continues. I find it instructive.
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Athlete choosing her body over a race result and the BBC covers it straight, no dramatics. That's actually how it should be reported. Hope she gets the rest she needs.
"Not quite ready" should be enough. Athletes are not public property, and nobody needs a heroic injury narrative manufactured for a Diamond League meet. Rest, recover, come back when the body says yes. A surprisingly radical concept in a culture that treats burnout as a character trait.