Olympian Molly Seidel Gets Her Sport Mansplained To Her By Dude Who Uses Her Own Training Plan

@ByGollyMolly12/Twitter

September 3, 2021, 6:05 am

At this point in the year 2021, it seems unlikely we will eradicate this “mansplaining” issue before the sea rises and washes us all away. At least the habit some men have of telling women how to do stuff they already know how to do occasionally leads to an amusing story, like this one shared by Olympian Molly Seidel on Twitter recently.

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Seidel is a long-distance runner who won the bronze medal this year in her event, so it’s safe to say she knows quite a bit about running fast and long. And yet, some random guy decided to give her some pointers—and she realized he was giving her her own pointers.

“On my flight was talking to a guy next to me & it came up that I run,” she tweeted. “He starts telling me how I need to train high mileage & pulls up an analysis he’d made of a pro runner’s training on his phone. The pro runner was me. It was my training. Didn’t have the heart to tell him.”

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On my flight was talking to a guy next to me & it came up that I run. He starts telling me how I need to train high mileage & pulls up an analysis he’d made of a pro runner’s training on his phone.
The pro runner was me. It was my training.
Didn’t have the heart to tell him.

— Molly Seidel (@ByGollyMolly12) August 28, 2021

Seidel’s training is probably on that guy’s phone because it’s been circulating a lot since her win. It was only her third marathon run when she won her medal in Tokyo, so she is definitely onto something. The tweet may have just been a funny story to Seidel, but it has become a litmus test for how people see conversations going between men and women.

Some guys are convinced the guy was just geeky, enthusiastic, and probably didn’t recognize Seidel because they were on a plane, where masks are mandatory:

Honey, I’ve had so-called progressive men mansplain feminist theory to me. Your second point doesn’t hold.

— Victoria Weinstein (@peacebang) August 28, 2021

I do really hate mansplainers, I’ve called guys out for it. But I don’t think he’s one. He took time 2 analyze her running AND is so impressed by her stats that he’s sorta bragging abt her. I honestly think he would’ve been honoured to find out it was her. (con’t)

— Sean M. Shimamoto (@ShimamotoSean) August 28, 2021

No, Mike, if he sat next to you he’d talk about his training, not assume a position of dominance in the conversation. How about you let women handle this one.

— Victoria Weinstein (@peacebang) August 28, 2021

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Who are you talking to? Molly wasn’t passing judgment .. I’m assuming you’re talking to commenters

— kristofer (@cantonrunner) August 28, 2021

Just saying if I’m on a plane and realize the guy next to me is a runner and is all jacked up about some awesome plan he read and wants to share it, I would be interested, not offended.

— miles (@milesmotherhood) August 28, 2021

Others think this is a prime example of mansplaining and the guy is a sexist douchenozzle:

Simple. People shape their behavior on incentives. If men were cut off for mansplaining, the mansplaining would stop. These days, too many men get rewarded for mansplaining.

— Doyenne de Disport (@disportif) August 28, 2021

You do know that it’s been proven that many of us men are horrible at facial recognition, right? And seems like a very ineffective shaming considering we all just know him as “guy”. Got any actual reasons for your distrust?

— Sean M. Shimamoto (@ShimamotoSean) August 28, 2021

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You’re giving the guy a BIG pass. Why should he automatically assume that he has something to teach the random stranger who happens to sit next to him? He didn’t ask if she wanted advice or wanted to trade training tips; he assumed he knew more & started monologuing.

— InaEttaAna (@InaEttaAna) August 28, 2021

He was a misogynist because he was saying that a woman’s method for something was worth following?

I bet he explained the same thing to a lot of people, both men and women, because he thinks it’s awesome. This isn’t misogyny, it’s geekiness.

— Daniel Cincunegui (@danielcincu) August 28, 2021

I’m gonna say, can’t it be both?

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*First Published: September 3, 2021, 6:05 am