Laura Muir's season has been a rocky one since she split from her longtime coach. Credit: Getty Images/Alex Livesey
Laura Muir will arrive in Budapest this week for the World Championships in Athletics not only as the new captain of Team GB but already feeling like a winner after the harrowing season of her long career.
Already the winner of 13 major championship medals, including silver at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, Muir and her training partner Gemma Rickey abruptly parted ways with longtime trainer Andy Young during a high-altitude camp in South Africa in March.< /p>
“I didn’t have a plan for the future, but I knew that any situation is better than the one in which I found myself,” says Muir. “I was just happy to be out of it. In the past six months, I have probably learned the most about myself in my entire life. It was a roller coaster. But now we are at the peak. I think it will be of great benefit to me in the future, not only in my running career, but in my life.”
Muir did not elaborate on the specific reasons behind the split from the coach, who has been with her since 2011 when she was 18, although Young himself suggested the controversy was due to concerns over his own well-being. «[They] felt like I wasn't taking care of myself properly,» he said. “Maybe I thought I was under pressure – I would say they put too much emphasis on it.”
It was also later revealed that Young was separately the subject of an ongoing investigation into a complaint by a former member of his study group. Muir says she hasn't had any contact with Young since March and, ahead of her first major championship without him, she believes she's reached both her physical and mental peak.
«I think I'm in the shape of my life, to be honest,» she says. “I'm not the type to say things in a straightforward way. I am very analytical, I rely on my statistics, I rely on my data. I've been running these sessions for 10 years now. Mentally, I'm also in a much better state. Happiness is the secret of everything I think.
“If you are a happy person, you will be a successful person. Sounds simple, but it's so important. To be honest, I think even before I get there, I feel like I've already won. Because I'm happy. Being in this place, I really do much better at the championships.
“I think about the championships [that] went before and how stressed and unhappy I was. And yet I was able to produce. No matter how these championships go, it will be a victory.”
Despite all the current positive vibes, Muir's performances this year fit the description of a roller coaster. Her indoor season finished with a fifth European gold ahead of the 3m 57.09m 1500m fast at the Florence Diamond League in June. She was second only in Italy to Kenyan Faith Kipigon, who set an incredible world record, but went on to finish sixth and fourth in the Stockholm and Monaco races respectively, before surprisingly losing to Katie Snowden at the UK Championship last month.
Laura Muir celebrates winning the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Turkey, May 2023. Photo: Getty Images/Anadolu Agency
Muir, who at the time was juggling self-training with the help of Steve Vernon (UK Athletics Endurance Manager), described the previous period as «very difficult» and in defeat referred to the fact that «a lot of things happened.»
Vernon and Muir subsequently decided to work together more formally, and last Saturday news from the UK waiting camp was about times during a «nasty» speed session that suggested the 30-year-old was potentially ready to run even faster than her Tokyo. peak two years ago. «I didn't want to jump right into anything [with a new coach] because it's a big decision … to be with [my] previous coach for 12 years,» she said. “So I wanted to make sure that this decision was the right one. I think that psychologically it affected several times. So just having this coach and his reassurance was very, very rewarding.
“Last year was very busy. The combination was basically an injury. The pandemic has also made matters worse. And it's just that the climate I used to be in wasn't necessarily a great place to always have the right space.
“I'm just really excited about the rest of my career. I think I have discovered many things that we can change to become much better and stronger. So I am very optimistic about the worlds and also about the years to come.”
However, Kipyegon's presence made the medal, rather than the first global gold, the realistic pinnacle of Muir's ambition. . Four athletes from Ethiopia this year also ran less than a second from her personal best of 3 minutes 54.50 seconds. «She [Kipyegon] is amazing — she just draws attention to our event and it's fantastic,» Muir said. “I hope I can be on that podium with her. A medal would mean so much considering how difficult this year has been.”
As a British captain, Muir will tell her 54 teammates in the coming days what she has learned in a truly inspiring decade. in which she pretty much combined running with training to become a veterinarian. “If ten years ago I could tell myself what I know now, I think it would have made this journey a little easier,” she said. “I am very proud to be in this position and it is a great honor for me.”
Six Britons who will take part in the World Championships in Budapest.
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