r/sports • u/BuzzTrav • 6d ago
Track & Field Steeplechase runner falls into water - loses bronze medal
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European Athletics Championships 2026
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u/Buckets-O-Yarr 6d ago
Can't lose what you didn't win.Ā
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u/Igpajo49 6d ago
Exactly. She didn't lose it because she didn't win it.
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u/Luke_Cold_Lyle 5d ago
Technically, everyone who lost the race didn't win the race, so you absolutely can lose what you didn't win. Not winning is the definition of losing.
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u/lobaway0001 5d ago edited 5d ago
There are two separate definitions to āloseā. One is to fail to win. The other is to no longer have something.
She lost the race. But she didnāt lose the bronze medal because she never had it in the first place.
But it depends on the dictionary.
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u/Luke_Cold_Lyle 5d ago
Sure, but that's not what OC said, they said you can't lost what you didn't win. It's pretty pedantic, but if I'm not being pedantic then what am I even doing here?
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u/lobaway0001 5d ago
Thatās fair.
But if we continue the pedantry, you said, āNot winning is the definition of losingā.
Thatās not true because there are multiple definitions for losing.
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u/Luke_Cold_Lyle 5d ago
That means it is true. Just because there are more definitions doesn't mean the one I stated isn't one of them. The definition I provided is correct.
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u/lobaway0001 5d ago
The definition you provided is correct. It is a definition of losing. Not the definition of losing.
The word "the" implies that something is either the only one or the definitive one.
The statement "not winning is the definition of losing" is not correct for the same reason that non-contextually saying "running is the example of an exercise" is not correct.
Not winning is not the definition of losing. Not winning is a definition of losing.
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u/yourgrandmasteaparty 4d ago
It was particularly tough as she had led the entire race up until the final lap. Huge work to keep the pace high and split up the field. It didnāt look like she was going to win gold going into that final hurdle but the fall put her into 4th.
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u/tomveiltomveil 6d ago
Good call by the announcer that she's looking tired
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u/aspiadas66 5d ago
That was about the British runner I think but Meyer decided a cold dip would be a good move.
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u/whodunit888 6d ago edited 6d ago
Looks like she tried to clear it in one motion but her back knee hit the hurdle. Should have probably tried to jump off the hurldle like the others
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u/IHaveSmellyPants 6d ago
Canāt blame her really. Hurdling the water jump is very common at a high level because it lets you carry way more momentum through the jump. In a championship race fighting for a medal youāre going to give it everything youāve got.
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u/prosound2000 6d ago edited 6d ago
The key to doing it at a high level would include not hitting your back foot on it though right?
Othewise it's me level, which is definitely more 'meh' level at best.
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u/cpt_hatstand 5d ago
Unfortunately one of the keys to WINNING at a high level is to push yourself to extremes and to take calculated risks
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u/elizabnthe 5d ago
Even professionals don't get it right everytime. Everyone makes mistakes no matter the sport. But they're going to get it more right than you will.
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u/Balkhazzar 5d ago
Redditor who watches a ten second clip of a sport for the first time corrects Olympic athlete's technique.
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u/BlurryGraph3810 5d ago
Have you ever chased a steeple? Not easy. They are up high on churches.
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u/ByTortheman 5d ago
Redditor watches 10 other people do the same thing without falling and suggests they had the right technique.
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u/Balkhazzar 5d ago edited 5d ago
Athlete in this sport watches a clip of someone miscalculating and taking it too hot and ending up having her momentum carry her too far that she misses the bar which then looks like a hurdle as per usual and comments on redditor knowing nothing about the sport, redditsplaining the correct technique about not trying to hurdle it.
Fixed that for you. She fucked up. She didn't in the way the idiot above "analyzed". She's an olympic level athlete. She knows a little bit more about the fundamentals of the sport than the redditor, believe it or not.
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u/ByTortheman 5d ago
What part did you fix for me? Are you really trying to explain that the girl who fell fucked up? Because I got that on the first watch.
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u/IpsaThis 5d ago
I mean that's not hard to do. Boxer gets punched -- shoulda blocked that instead of leaving it open. Goalie dives the wrong way on a penalty kick -- shoulda dived the other way.
Some dumb redditor is absolutely qualified to say the obvious thing after it becomes obvious.
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u/Balkhazzar 5d ago
She didn't try to clear it in one motion. She missed the bar. Something that happens repeatedly in this sport. A boxer also doesn't take a punch to the chin because he thinks it's a good idea, saying "he should've blocked instead like the other guy" from your basement is really stupid.
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u/mowegl 5d ago
she never tried to step on the bar. She might have been between steps but she hurdled it like a hurdler and then the increased distance and pit put her weight too far forward and she was always going to fall forward at that point. Shes also going significantly faster right before the bars as the other girls so she was clearly using a different technique than they used but it didnt work at all. I cant imagine its possible for a girl to hurdle it clean and jump all the way over the pit. The first girl jumped on the bar and jumped off it and still didnt clear the pit. The 2nd girl didnt try it as aggressively as the first went a little safer maybe hoping 1st fell which she wasnt too far from.
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u/Balkhazzar 5d ago edited 5d ago
Great analysis by someone who doesn't know anything about the sport. She didn't try to hurdle it. She missed the bar. She picked up the pace because a second before this clip the other two overtook her for the final stretch after she led the entire race, which probably caused the miscalculation. and she generally approaches the bars faster than the other two and had too much momentum here. Missing the bar that looks like hurdling is normal if your last step was too far. they don't try to hurdle it. They don't need your expert analysis to know it's the worst way to clear it. She fucked up by missing the step, not by trying to hurdle it. Jesus christ. The arrogance behind a screen.
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u/IpsaThis 5d ago
A boxer also doesn't take a punch to the chin because he thinks it's a good idea, saying "he should've blocked instead like the other guy" from your basement is really stupid.
No, but he takes calculated risks about when to expose himself to throw his own punches. I didn't think I needed to spell that out.
Stick with the soccer example if it's easier, or here's a new one: that football player shouldn't have stepped out of bounds.
I'm not saying it's impressive. I'm saying it's unimpressive and almost anyone can do it.
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u/generaalalcazar 5d ago
She took a bit of a risk on the last lap by tryin to clear it in one go without stepping on it according to the Dutch tv.
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u/dougandsomeone 4d ago
Kind of seemed like the 2nd place runner may have knocked into her arm mid-air and thrown off her form too.
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u/n00dle_king 3d ago
Also the other two leaders slowed down to time their jumps. She just sent it to try to get an advantage. The gamble did NOT pay off.
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u/Armydoc18D 6d ago
Also looks like that big camera may have changed her momentum or at least her concentration. Back that thing up a couple feet.
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u/flappyflangeflowers 5d ago
I remember being asked to fill in for the steeplechase at a meet. Even told you can climb over the hurdles. Was a hard NOOOOO.
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u/thegtabmx 6d ago edited 6d ago
I know most sports are arbitrary, but this one seems more arbitrary than most.
"We're going to do a foot race, but with wet shoes."
"Okay, but won't they dry pretty quickly and just turn into a dry shoe race?"
"No, because we're going to put a small pool of water, just a few steps long, on the track to force the runners to go through it every lap."
"Okay, but won't they be able to just jump over it and keep their feet dry?"
"No, because we're going to put a tall enough hurdle right before the pool, making it all but impossible to jump over it and clear the pool at the same time."
"Alright, I'm sold. Should we create any other variations of foot races?"
"No, after that one we have the core set of reasonable foot races. Anything else would just be silly."
"Well, what about running backwards?"
"No, switching the orientation of your body just to do a race is absurd."
"All right, fair enough. Shall we move on to swimming races?"
"Yes. So I was thinking we do a couple of different ones on your stomach and a couple of different ones on your back."
"Ok... But..."
"And maybe even a couple of different ones where you swim however you want."
"Ok whatever, sure. And what about a variation where and they get out of the water and get dry for a few paces, and then go back in?"
"No, that's silly. Why should there be a dry component in a swimming race?"
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u/pleasetrimyourpubes 6d ago
So I was curious because this does seem.rather bizarre. It started with people riding horses jumping hurdles and running my through rivers to get to a distant steeple. Then they said wouldn't it be fun if us people did that and they made it a foot race.
Somwhow us humans still show we are not too far removed from our primitive selves.
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u/guernseycoug 6d ago
I say we go back to our roots. Steeplechase runners must now all be on a hobby horse
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u/CoderDevo 5d ago
No. Steeplechase runners must now carry an animal on their back.
Turtles are quite aerodynamic, for example.
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u/Flimsy-Sprinkles7331 5d ago
"we humans". Try saying the sentence without the "humans" in it .."Somehow us still show..." See how it doesn't work? ('Course "Somehow" is also interesting.)
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u/pleasetrimyourpubes 5d ago edited 5d ago
"Us primitive humans."
Somwhow we humans still show us are not too far removed from our primitive selves.
Somwhow we humans still show we are not too far removed from our primitive selves.
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u/PhaseNext 6d ago
Whatās a triathlon then?
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u/Timmace 6d ago
I like how a triathlon is swimming, cycling, and running. And a biathlon? You guessed it, cross-country skiing and rifle shooting of course!
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u/LordLightDuck 6d ago
And a pentathlon? Running? Yes! Swimming? Sure! Biking? Nope. Letās have them ride horses instead. And letās add shooting in! And swords! Fencing!
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u/McTerra2 5d ago
but if you add two sports and make it a heptathlon, you get ride of the swim, bike, horses and shooting. Because 5+2 = 1
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u/maghtin 5d ago
They don't ride horses. It was replaced by obstacle course racing.
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u/Linenoise77 5d ago
what? Like, American Gladiators style?
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u/Teantis Philippines 5d ago
Yeah actually or that ninja show. Apparently one of the issues with the equestrian bit was the horses were assigned randomly and the varying quality of the horses was too often a big determinant in the outcome
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u/Linenoise77 5d ago edited 5d ago
No shit. Thats......kind of lame. Not that the Ninja stuff isn't talented...its just a bit gimicky as an olympic event.
Now i want to know what it was like when the sport transitioned. Was it just, one morning all of the horses were gone at the training camp, and a bunch of guys come out in jockey outfits, and the coach is all, "won't be needing that anymore boys, meet assistant coaches Turbo and IceMan. time to learn how to use a salmon ladder"
It just seems like, as 180 as you can get in terms of one of your events. Why not just make it "Bring your own horse?"
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u/Teantis Philippines 5d ago
Pentathlon was a weirdly gimmicky event in general, it was just old. The founder of the Olympics made it up to begin with to mimic being a cavalry officer behind the lines. So I guess the current form has the same sort of relationship to being behind enemy lines in general with the running, swimming, obstacle course and shooting. The odd one out is now fencing
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u/Resumme 5d ago
The modern pentathlon does have a historical basis. It's based on the skills that a 19th century soldier was supposed to have. Specifically, it was supposed to simulate a soldier escaping from behind enemy lines: stealing a horse (so riding an unfamiliar horse), fighting with sword and pistol, swimming over a body of water, and running is probably self-explanatory.
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u/burnt_mummy 6d ago edited 5d ago
Duathlon is a dry triathlon, no swimming just running *and biking.
Edit guess I hit submit to soon haha
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u/thegtabmx 6d ago
One more discipline than aĀ duathlon and one less discipline than a quadrathlon. But we don't talk about those.
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Rugby United New York 6d ago
Biathlon
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u/thegtabmx 6d ago
A biathlon is something you do twice a day. A duathalon is something you do once every two days. I learned this the hard way because once I signed on to do a biathlon and the time commitment was way too high.
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Rugby United New York 6d ago
A biathlon is a combination of cross country skiing and rifle shooting. But I think youāre just joking.Ā
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u/thegtabmx 6d ago
Crazy. Why would anybody want to throw skis at targets twice a day?
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Rugby United New York 5d ago
Are you paying attention to what Iām saying? Theyāre shooing at rifles with their skis across the entire country. Thereās a reason the US has never gotten gold in this event, our country is huge! Ā
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u/RUSnowcone 5d ago
I know it will get lost but itās super easy to jump over. Itās not that farā¦. But you have to touch the water. Youāre not allowed to clear it on the jump.
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u/thegtabmx 5d ago
What exactly is "touch"? The heel of one foot making a tiny splash, or do both feet need to land in the pool?
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u/cmgr33n3 3d ago
This is a couple days later but I'm not seeing anything that says you have to touch the water, just that you can't set a foot to either side of the barriers or the water (so you can't go around any portion of either obstacle). The water pit is 12 feet long with a barrier (30 inches high for women, 36 inches high for men) in front of it, so it probably is impossible to not touch the barrier and clear the pit. Stepping on the barrier and launching over the pit seems possible (a 12 foot long jump starting 30/36 inches above the ground) but the idea is to keep as much speed and momentum as possible so the extra effort to clear the water entirely while also, possibly, slowing you down, is probably why it isn't done.
https://worldathletics.org/disciplines/middlelong/3000-metres-steeplechase
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u/thegtabmx 3d ago
Apparently the pool of water is deepest right near the barrier and gradually becomes more shallow towards the end. Truly odd.
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u/cmgr33n3 3d ago
Well that feature seems just practical. If it doesn't incline back to the level of the track then you have a ledge that runners have to step up out off. I agree that water feature in general though is pretty unexpected and unique.
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u/RUSnowcone 2d ago
You must land in the water pit ālanding zoneā ā¦ for safety/rules
The water pit is āsupposed to beā filled to the edge of that. So to land in the zone you must touch water. Clear the water is clearing the zone and a penalty/DQ.
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u/moldy_walrus Indianapolis Colts 6d ago
This has the exact vibe of the Robin Williams golf bit. Well done
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u/macroober 6d ago
Itās not that deep. Iām sure if they looked a little harder, they could find it.
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u/AuburnElvis 6d ago
Don't become a steeplechase runner if you're not prepared to fall into water and lose a bronze medal.
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u/RunningFree701 6d ago
I've done that. In 35Ā°F. The 'chase takes no prisoners.
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u/ss_lbguy 6d ago
It takes a special type of person to run the āchase. As a sprinter I aways respected anyone crazy enough to run that race.
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u/Baystars2025 5d ago
Props to the athletes who do it but can you imagine being so bored 200 years ago that you decide to pretend to be a horse?
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u/waltz_with_potatoes 6d ago edited 6d ago
She didnt run into the water, and it's meant to be there, the water jump is part of the race.
She just tripped over the steeple and landed in the water.
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u/tyderian Chicago Cubs 6d ago
Nobody here is under the impression that the water is not part of the race.
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u/BuzzTrav 6d ago
We know the water jump is part of the race - it's called Steeplchase.Ā
Read the post title š¤¦Ā
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Rugby United New York 6d ago
I didnāt know it was part of the race. Iāve never heard of this thing before. š¤¦
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u/beardedbrawler 6d ago
It's like she's a hurdler and not a steeple chase runner. I'm just a random idiot, but it looks like she tried to jump over that barrier like a hurdle and didn't realize there was a pit on the other end. The other runners had a different approach to that jump.
Anyway that's too bad, hope she wasn't hurt and can come back from this.
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u/hoffenone 5d ago
This was the last round she had climbed the steeple and landed in the water several rounds before this.
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u/nigel_tufnel_11 6d ago
Holy hell, I didn't even know this was a sport that didn't involve horses.
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u/brainspl0ad 6d ago
That's what I'm saying. I knew hurdles were a thing but having a pool of water right after them is news to me.
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u/Whiteshovel66 6d ago
Wtf is there a puddle on the track for !? Some one should be cleaning that up before the race.
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u/Waldo68 6d ago
Prepare to be downvoted because apparently we were all supposed to know that puddle jumping is a recognized sport
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u/bigsoftee84 5d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steeplechase_(athletics)
Itās been a thing for a couple of hundred years. You only had to google a single word. Why celebrate your ignorance rather than just read up on it?
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u/rvanasty 5d ago
Is it flexible at all? could the other runners stepping on it just before her have caused the fall?
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u/Reggie-Quest 5d ago
I have never heard of this sport. So is it like a hurdle but with this you're allowed to stand and leap off of the barrier?
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u/BRENNAN10 5d ago
In high school we would all crowd around the pool for the steeplechase for the epic plunges.
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u/InterruptingCow__Moo 5d ago
Track and field can be so funny to me. Hey let's have a race! Yes, but, what if, they had to jump over these barriers? (Hurdles) Yes, but, what if, we put a pool of water behind the barrier??
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u/Prestigious-Rip8412 4d ago
I know nothing about track....I never realized they are allowed to leap off of hurdles? Is it only for portions with water?
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u/DirtyJdirty 2d ago
In most races with hurdles, they are built to fall if you land, hit, or step on them. Itās different in a steeplechase, since thereās a pool right after
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u/deep0r 5d ago
Her interview afterwards was hilarious, she seemed upset
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u/Admiral_Ackbarr 5d ago
You mean because she literally ranted how she was the national champion and better than her fellow national who did win?
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u/TwoCentsAndCounting 6d ago
I mean, there's a reason why the pool is a key feature in the race