WTF KFC? Katie Compton - Banned for doping

UtahJoe said:
I agree, but then in the current model...how else can someone like KFC really earn a living?
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Isn't that why you get sponsored by someone like Trek, because they have the deep pockets? Sure, some of that comes along with your support crew and travel and such. I know it is common for pro's to have a "real" or part time job, but I would venture to say she is a full time pro, mainly since she lives in Europe for half of the year. I understand that there isnt a ton of money to be had, but you would think that the 15 year elite national champ would be the outlier. Not saying that she has the depth to cover legal fees, though.
 
UtahJoe said:
I agree, but then in the current model...how else can someone like KFC really earn a living? Just constantly be a SM presence....ill use the example if Kate Courtney....Personally I have never seen Kate Courtney race in person or on TV....But I see her on SM non stopped...assuming she is doing this since she has sponsors that she has to satisfy....I think its too much and as such, I dont enjoy following professional athletes, but I dont begrudge them trying to make a living...and this is just what they have to do. As opposed to "pick NFL player"...Saquon Barkley lets say....He has the giants and the NFL promoting him, he has people who handle his social media....quite frankly, I would think the NFL prefers that players stay the hell off social media and just let their PR people handle everything.......The NFL doesnt need players out there telling the public about themselves....Usually the public gets turned off bc players argue about absurd amounts of money....(which I think they have every right to) ...but just the difference between a sport that is just a wash with money from TV, and another that has pretty much no money.
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Agreed. I think there is a way to make a living playing sports and doing media without portraying purity, high minded ideals and morality. Dunk, jump off shit, etc. Don’t portray the “process” of training and competition as so pure because often it is not. That is the kick in the nuts for me.
 
UtahJoe said:
I agree, but then in the current model...how else can someone like KFC really earn a living? Just constantly be a SM presence....ill use the example if Kate Courtney....Personally I have never seen Kate Courtney race in person or on TV....But I see her on SM non stopped...assuming she is doing this since she has sponsors that she has to satisfy....I think its too much and as such, I dont enjoy following professional athletes, but I dont begrudge them trying to make a living...and this is just what they have to do. As opposed to "pick NFL player"...Saquon Barkley lets say....He has the giants and the NFL promoting him, he has people who handle his social media....quite frankly, I would think the NFL prefers that players stay the hell off social media and just let their PR people handle everything.......The NFL doesnt need players out there telling the public about themselves....Usually the public gets turned off bc players argue about absurd amounts of money....(which I think they have every right to) ...but just the difference between a sport that is just a wash with money from TV, and another that has pretty much no money.
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Oddly enough, KFC told me in 2019 you don't make money doing the social media when I was discussing her instagram with her. She mentioned you see cyclists on social media so that their image is out there so that they can get the contracts. So while it's expected to be doing SM, at the end of the day actual contracts care about race results more than anything else unless it's a product sponsor. Go look at KFC's instagram. It's basically "look at this neat sunset in Colorado" once every 6 months. Not these perfectly taken shots of her doing some drop with music.

Someone like Kate Courtney was for awhile in a part of her career where she needed to sell herself, and SM is a great way to do it. KFC was basically saying she's past that and what matters was her race finishes for her sponsors.

They do have in their contracts that you spend X # of days doing signings, or speaking engagements whatever with Trek. And you actually get $$ racing in Europe, even if it's less if you're female.
 
The whole anti-doping system seems fucked up to me. It's on the athlete to prove their innocence based on a failed test from who the hell knows when. Seriously - if any one of us got tested and failed after a good race result, what would you do? I would be like, "How the fuck is that possible? I'm way too cheap to buy PED. You people fucked up the test." But it would be on me to prove I didn't spend some stupid amount of money to improve my chances of winning a plastic medal. And amateurs do get tested from time to time. Nobody really wins. The athlete gets their reputation destroyed even if they didn't intentionally do anything wrong, cycling as a sport takes yet another negative hit and the only "winners" are the lawyers.

Social media activity seems to vary depending on the athlete. Some seem to enjoy it more than others. Tahnee Seagrave, for example, seems to enjoy doing it - she posts damn near every day and occasionally about some pretty personal stuff. Kate Courtney seems to enjoy posting as well. Others seem to post infrequently and as more of an obligation. As a team, we should post a lot more than we do. We all kind of suck at it and I can understand why some folks have SM coordinators. Then you just feed them some raw stuff and they clean it up and make regular posts to various platforms.
 
I’m not sure you can compare Kate Courtney’s and Katie Compton’s social media presence and strategies.
Kate Courtney has 540k followers
Katie Compton has 16k.

Kate Courtney is from the SM generation and is much better at growing a following. She’s doing visa commercials. While not exactly a household name, I think she’d be in a much better place if she was forced away from the sport. A degree from Stanford probably helps.
 
Ian F said:
Social media activity seems to vary depending on the athlete. Some seem to enjoy it more than others. Tahnee Seagrave, for example, seems to enjoy doing it - she posts damn near every day and occasionally about some pretty personal stuff. Kate Courtney seems to enjoy posting as well. Others seem to post infrequently and as more of an obligation. As a team, we should post a lot more than we do. We all kind of suck at it and I can understand why some folks have SM coordinators. Then you just feed them some raw stuff and they clean it up and make regular posts to various platforms.
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Off topic, I would venture to say Tahnee is one of the best IG follows for mtb...

KFC May also have negotiated the heavy social media stuff out of her contact (or recycled a contract where it wasn’t included) or maybe just signed away the rights to her sponsors to use her in their SM.

It is hard to imagine that SM isn’t in every single pro contact at this point and it obviously gets your name out there. I am way more likely to purchase a brand of someone I like to follow and they blasting them wearing /using whatever brand multiple times a day. Isn’t this the entire business Model for the ambassador level?
 
Ian F said:
The whole anti-doping system seems fucked up to me. It's on the athlete to prove their innocence based on a failed test from who the hell knows when. Seriously - if any one of us got tested and failed after a good race result, what would you do? I would be like, "How the fuck is that possible? I'm way too cheap to buy PED. You people fucked up the test." But it would be on me to prove I didn't spend some stupid amount of money to improve my chances of winning a plastic medal. And amateurs do get tested from time to time. Nobody really wins. The athlete gets their reputation destroyed even if they didn't intentionally do anything wrong, cycling as a sport takes yet another negative hit and the only "winners" are the lawyers.
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The testing protocol USADA uses is extremely thorough - she had the opportunity to request her "B" portion of that urine sample be tested if she really thought it was an error. And the test that nailed her very conclusively proves intake of artificial testosterone. Whether she took it unintentionally is another matter.

https://www.velonews.com/news/the-test-that-caught-tom-danielson/
 
Ian F said:
The whole anti-doping system seems fucked up to me. It's on the athlete to prove their innocence based on a failed test from who the hell knows when. Seriously - if any one of us got tested and failed after a good race result, what would you do? I would be like, "How the fuck is that possible? I'm way too cheap to buy PED. You people fucked up the test." But it would be on me to prove I didn't spend some stupid amount of money to improve my chances of winning a plastic medal. And amateurs do get tested from time to time. Nobody really wins. The athlete gets their reputation destroyed even if they didn't intentionally do anything wrong, cycling as a sport takes yet another negative hit and the only "winners" are the lawyers.

Social media activity seems to vary depending on the athlete. Some seem to enjoy it more than others. Tahnee Seagrave, for example, seems to enjoy doing it - she posts damn near every day and occasionally about some pretty personal stuff. Kate Courtney seems to enjoy posting as well. Others seem to post infrequently and as more of an obligation. As a team, we should post a lot more than we do. We all kind of suck at it and I can understand why some folks have SM coordinators. Then you just feed them some raw stuff and they clean it up and make regular posts to various platforms.
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One of the comments is always "They are athletes, they should watch what they eat." Which is kind of BS considering we're talking about the level where these athletes are just normal people. Tainted supplements is extremely common, or even concerns from tainted food.

A master's racer that bought creatine from GNC that was made in a contract manufacturer's tank in China after a batch of PEDs for another client will get busted just the same as an athlete actually taking PEDs. Nobody cares about the parts per billion sample in the blood.
 
jShort said:
I’m not sure you can compare Kate Courtney’s and Katie Compton’s social media presence and strategies.
Kate Courtney has 540k followers
Katie Compton has 16k.

Kate Courtney is from the SM generation and is much better at growing a following. She’s doing visa commercials. While not exactly a household name, I think she’d be in a much better place if she was forced away from the sport. A degree from Stanford probably helps.
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Plus Kate Courtney dad is a bazillionaire from venture capital money combined with a Stanford degree in Biology she probably will be set for life. An anomaly in cycling in many ways for sure.
 
serviceguy said:
I don't get why vegan can't simply eat fruits and vegetables. Aren't these fake burgers, chicken etc. highly processed in order to make them taste similar to meat? I do get not wanting to kill animals, which fully justifies being vegan in my opinion, but I'm dubious (not against) of these fake meats that are popping out everywhere.
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I'm Vegetarian 100% due to Ethical reasons so the Ingredient list isn't super important. However, just the Pesticide list to grow cows is a lot longer so if you think Meat is any less processed you'd be incorrect.
 
After a few self redacted attempts to voice my position, I’ll leave it as this….

I do not draw equivalence between amateur and professional athletics; moral or otherwise.
 
stb222 said:
Isn't that why you get sponsored by someone like Trek, because they have the deep pockets? Sure, some of that comes along with your support crew and travel and such. I know it is common for pro's to have a "real" or part time job, but I would venture to say she is a full time pro, mainly since she lives in Europe for half of the year. I understand that there isnt a ton of money to be had, but you would think that the 15 year elite national champ would be the outlier. Not saying that she has the depth to cover legal fees, though.
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Sure, I just dont know what a trek contract for her is worth in salary terms....$50k a year? 100k a year? 200? ...maybe 50K plus bikes and expenses covered? Really I have no clue. Like even the NFL practice squad players...which are players who pretty much have 0 chance of ever playing in a game unless like 6 other people get hurt....still get $9200 a week

Sad reality of sports that hit me as I saw fucking cornhole being played on espn....(with $180K to the winner)...nothing matters in terms of how hard your sport is, how talented you are, how hard you have to train for it...how many years of your life you dedicate to it....all meaningless in terms of salary....only 1 thing matters...will people pay to watch it? And buy pay...will enough people watch it that will allow ads to be sold. So many sports that I see where I go: "my god, that is so fucking amazing and hard to do" but it just doesnt make for good tv..or its tv production would be complicated and expensive.....therefore, 0 money in it......yet I sit in a restaurant 1 day and see that fat people throwing beanbags into a hole is now a money making profession. sigh
 
jimvreeland said:
I'm Vegetarian 100% due to Ethical reasons so the Ingredient list isn't super important. However, just the Pesticide list to grow cows is a lot longer so if you think Meat is any less processed you'd be incorrect.
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I'm not vegetarian but I don't eat meat and I would tend to agree with you on pesticides, even though there are exceptions but probably not in the US that I know of. That said, there's even worse than pesticides in the meat industry, remember the mad cow disease?
 
UtahJoe said:
Sure, I just dont know what a trek contract for her is worth in salary terms....$50k a year? 100k a year? 200? ...maybe 50K plus bikes and expenses covered? Really I have no clue. Like even the NFL practice squad players...which are players who pretty much have 0 chance of ever playing in a game unless like 6 other people get hurt....still get $9200 a week

Sad reality of sports that hit me as I saw fucking cornhole being played on espn....(with $180K to the winner)...nothing matters in terms of how hard your sport is, how talented you are, how hard you have to train for it...how many years of your life you dedicate to it....all meaningless in terms of salary....only 1 thing matters...will people pay to watch it? And buy pay...will enough people watch it that will allow ads to be sold. So many sports that I see where I go: "my god, that is so fucking amazing and hard to do" but it just doesnt make for good tv..or its tv production would be complicated and expensive.....therefore, 0 money in it......yet I sit in a restaurant 1 day and see that fat people throwing beanbags into a hole is now a money making profession. sigh
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Haha cornhole seems to be televised almost constantly - is it really that popular? They even had a celebrity event recently. What's next - pro tiddlywinks??
 
UtahJoe said:
he could be an asshole and still make a fortune every year off his accomplishments.
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Just like...
Ty Cobb, Ben Hogan, Tony Stewart - they were so great, and never realized that some day they weren't going to be that good.
Sure, you can be an ass when you are on top - but the pen is always mightier than the sword, and its wrath is that of one scorned.

I heard Tiger is a real jerk. Doesn't tip, doesn't talk to the volunteers that are assigned off-course.
But put the camera on him and there is a smile, usually some light humor, and game insight.
Going to be interesting if he comes back - I don't know if he'd play the senior tour.

I'll put some of it on asshole fans that think they can walk-up to a public figure at any time (like when they are eating)
and badger them. That has to get old.

Sosa - looks bad
Palmero - Stand up and lie in a congressional hearing - cancelled before we called it being cancelled.
McGwire - still loved in STL, accepts his role - at the hearing he didn't deny it, he wanted to move forward
A-Rod - remade. probably had something to do with J-Lo tho.
Who was the ass that blamed the fedex driver?
 
UtahJoe said:
Sure, I just dont know what a trek contract for her is worth in salary terms....$50k a year? 100k a year? 200? ...maybe 50K plus bikes and expenses covered? Really I have no clue. Like even the NFL practice squad players...which are players who pretty much have 0 chance of ever playing in a game unless like 6 other people get hurt....still get $9200 a week

Sad reality of sports that hit me as I saw fucking cornhole being played on espn....(with $180K to the winner)...nothing matters in terms of how hard your sport is, how talented you are, how hard you have to train for it...how many years of your life you dedicate to it....all meaningless in terms of salary....only 1 thing matters...will people pay to watch it? And buy pay...will enough people watch it that will allow ads to be sold. So many sports that I see where I go: "my god, that is so fucking amazing and hard to do" but it just doesnt make for good tv..or its tv production would be complicated and expensive.....therefore, 0 money in it......yet I sit in a restaurant 1 day and see that fat people throwing beanbags into a hole is now a money making profession. sigh
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There is definitely something wrong in the way athletes are rewarded. Part of it is that they are rewarded based on the revenue they generate for the teams, sponsors etc. which I wouldn't argue as wrong from a financial point of view, on the other hand it doesn't seem like the sacrifices made to compete are always part of the equation. The one that I really struggle to understand is baseball, I know I probably step on several toes here but while I get the 'party' side of attendance, the sport in itself...Anyway, not an easy one to figure out and come out with a fair deal for everybody me think.

Cornhole though...WTF ESPN!
 
serviceguy said:
I'm not vegetarian but I don't eat meat and I would tend to agree with you on pesticides, even though there are exceptions but probably not in the US that I know of. That said, there's even worse than pesticides in the meat industry, remember the mad cow disease?
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The most serious food poisoning pathogens (listeria and e. coli) are typically spread via fruits and vegetables. I eat everything!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/melani...food-borne-illnesses-and-how-to-prevent-them/
 
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