Yes, it was staged. The guy is wearing skin tight skin colored pants. Not to mention the fact that the announcers are pretty poor actors, along with the fact that the guy so easily got to the stage without anyone stopping him.
let also not forget the fact that most winners of the finals have been asian dudes that are only a few inches taller than her. I am not saying it's impossible for taller competitors to win I am just saying that the shorter people have an advantage when it comes to endurance on these courses.
The year before this, he had gone further than any other American. He is an elite athlete, he just made a simple mistake that year. This current year, he is going to Vegas while she didn't even finish the first course.
Just because he can't perform as well doesn't mean he can't help her improve. That's the point of coaching. If you can do better than them then you should be competing, not them.
Coaching is something completely different than doing, requires a different set of skill.
Imagine two soccer players, both brilliant. One reads any opponent like a book and can get past easily, however fails to plan ahead and get outnumbered a lot. The other guy can't do any of that, but he's a tactical genius and spot any weaknesses in the enemies defense. That's why guy 1 is the star and guy 2 is the coach or shotcaller.
there are olympic level swimming coaches that dont know how to swim, are you implying you must be good yourself at something to know theory and actually see mistakes and teach how to not do them?