Initially, I agreed with the writer of the Feb. 1 letter about my sister, Kara Goucher, "Runner's family plans don't qualify as news," Feb. 1. I wasn't sure how much information was the business of the public and not my family's private matters.
But after the letter was published, I was reminded by people that they were glad to read of Kara's plans. What I heard over and over again was how, if she suddenly wasn't in the media for a while, there'd be speculation that her career had faltered. Allowing the people of Duluth, who have been so incredibly supportive of Kara, to be informed of what the rest of her year after the Boston Marathon might entail seems to make sense. Ironically, the very people complaining of the coverage now would probably be the first to declare Kara's silence on the track as an indication of a running career in peril.
It's impossible to be objective when writing about my sister, but I have learned over the years that the people in Duluth who follow her and are proud of her are great in number. I'm also learning that my sister is a public figure and that a lot of what I don't think is news is for any number of media outlets.
The reality is that Kara isn't a collegiate indoor track runner anymore. She's an Olympian and world-class marathoner, proudly from Duluth. She's probably one of the city's most notable athletes in years. As long as she has a following here, and an impressive one at that, she probably deserves coverage relevant to her career. My guess is something that might stall her training and, subsequently, her racing for a year or so probably falls into that category.
Kelly Grgas Wheeler
ADVERTISEMENT
Duluth
