Is Track and Field dead? That’s a question that has been raised often this year in many forms. Anyone that watched any portion of track during the Olympics will agree with my answer of, no. As a sport, track and field is as exciting as ever! Track has all of the elements of every other sport. Athletics is the essence of sport itself. That’s why after over one hundred years, the central focus in the world’s greatest athletic event, the Olympics, continues to be, track and field!
Leading to the question, why isn’t it more popular outside of the Olympics? Personally, I think that the answer is fairly simple. The solution however, is a bit more complex, and because the real answer is complex, those responsible for “growing the sport” continue to look at “easy fixes” that are both wrong and fail!
First, the wrong answers. These are all in the same vein – attempting to change the sport itself! Wrong, because clearly there is nothing wrong with Track and Field as it is! If there was, it wouldn’t be as widely watched as it is during the Olympics! Trying to figure out ways to change the long jump. To only have the top three field event competitors take final attempts. These and other “changes” only screw up what is already exciting competition! The problem with all of this “experimentation” is the incorrect assumption that fans don’t like what they’re currently looking at! No one has ever said that or complained about what they see at a meet! I’m sorry, but trying to create bastardized versions of existing events solves, nothing. All that does is alienate the existing fan base. The idea is to increase the number of fans, not decrease it. If “people” in general did not like the sport, they would not watch it under any circumstances. That would include the Olympics. Which, by the way, gets rid of sports that do not attract audiences!
The purported leaders of the sport have poor problem solving skills. They keep trying to invent problems that need to be solved instead of looking at the real problems that exist. So I’m going to attempt to help them today. Which means this may get a tad long.
Let’s begin with what works! When does track and field attract the largest audiences? That’s easy. The Olympics. In the US, the Olympic Trials. US Nationals. The NCAA Championships. The California, Texas, and Florida state high school championships. The Prefontaine Classic. MtSAC Invitational, Florida and Texas Relays. Getting back to competition outside of the US, Zurich, Brussels, Birmingham, and London Diamond League events. All are track and field competitions that regularly attract large audiences. There are others, but I’m going to stop here, so that I can point out the commonality. I’ve listed different “levels” of ability – high school, college, professional. They all have one thing in common however. That commonality is “elite” competitors! This sport is exciting JUST THE WAY IT IS, when the best competitors are gathered to compete!
Frankly we’re just like every other sport! The NBA is popular because when fans go to the arena, they are guaranteed to see two PROFESSIONAL teams compete! Depending on the teams, they are going to see Steph Curry, LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Giannis, Damian Lillard or other stars of the sport. If it’s an NFL stadium Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson, or CeeDee Lamb. My point here is that in other professional sports, the availability of the athletes is secured! You know who’s going to be there and what you’re going to get. Period. Yes, there are injuries. You may not get Curry for a game or two. But you’re going to get a full, professional team, with the majority of the athletes playing!
THIS is the missing ingredient in track and field! We have stars. We have outstanding athletes. But in most of our competitions, they are not there! Now, some love to compete. And they compete a lot. Mondo Duplantis, competes a lot. Femke Bol completes quite a bit. There are a few that do. Many don’t. And of the ones that do, we don’t see them here in the US! I mentioned European athletes. There are Americans that compete quite a bit. Ryan Crouser when healthy. Kenny Bednarek. Fred Kerley. Noah Lyles. Grant Holloway. A few small meets here and there, because we lack the “bigger” meets in the US. So ironically our best go to Europe to compete! Then there are those athletes that are in Africa and South America and Oceania that never get here. There are also those athletes that are paid very well by their shoe companies and rarely compete. Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, Athing Mu, among others.
So. Because of all of the above, the Olympics becomes the one guaranteed place to see great track and field. Yes, the World Championships, but it has a much smaller audience which I’ll discuss in another post of its own! The point of this post, is that the problem with Track and Field is not the sport, but getting out best athletes together to compete! We need more meets like Prefontaine and Zurich and London! We need them in the United States. In South America. Around the globe. But as Seb Coe said in 2022, especially here in the US. We have the largest number of stars and medal winners. And the lowest number of elite meets! We need more exposure of our athletes. We need more exposure of other country’s athletes! Simple answer. Complicated execution. That however is what is needed in this sport. We need to get the Sydney McLaughlin Levrone’s of the sport competing more.
Ironically, Sydney’s participation in the Diamond League final caused quite a stir. Precisely because of both the want, and need to have her compete. She’s a gold medalist. A world record holder. She’s one of the sport’s “attractions”! She draws fans, and non fans alike. Unfortunately, there are rules relating to how athletes are invited to the Diamond League final. Those rules include having participated in previous Diamond League events and earning points towards participation in the final! Largest point earners go to the final. Sydney does not compete in Diamond League events. Therefore didn’t have the requisite points for participation. A loss for the Diamond League. A loss for the fans. A loss for Sydney. Sum total being a loss for the sport. Ironically Brussels created two separate secrets for Sydney to compete in. However, competing against lesser known athletes felt hollow and only exacerbated the situation with fans and pundits attempting to compare Sydney’s races with the others! At the end of the day, the 400H doesn’t need to be changed. Sydney needs to compete in it more! Or the 200m or 400m. A microcosm of the sport in general!
You see, we don’t need to have athletes learn how to do bastardized versions of their events. We just need them to be seen doing the events that exist! Our stars need to be seen more, period! We need Mondo, Karsten, Femke, Letsile, and Matthew Hudson and other stars to be seen here in the US. Meaning more money and incentives need to come into the sport. You see, the things necessary to build this sport require financial input! Which is why World Athletics spends its time looking at making “technical changes” to events. That requires much less financial input or change. Getting athletes competing more. Competing on foreign lands. Getting them to risk losing. Those things require substantial payments! That’s a harder thing to accomplish. But when you look at other PROFESSIONAL sports, they are expending a lot of money to be who they are! It comes at a price. We have to sit down and figure that out!
The sad thing is this. Everyone knows that the majority of track athletes are under paid. We also know, and have known for decades, that most meets are under represented by our elite athletes! I remember when the conversations were taking place regarding the formation of the Diamond League. The idea was that it was going to have more elite athletes competing more regularly! Unfortunately outside of a few meets, it has not lived up to that goal. Even today, the focus of new “leagues” (actually “series”) forming centers around MONEY! Attempts at getting athletes paid to get them competing more. So it’s no secret what is needed! It’s just that no one wants to talk about it! Especially at the alphabet level – WA, USATF, etc. These are the conversations and endeavors that must be had and undertaken in order to move the sport forward. The financial model of track and field must be fixed. That is what is broken.
Unfortunately that’s exactly what track and field needs. An improved financial model. Perhaps starting with more high paying competition opportunities. Track is not dead, just under funded! It’s time to figure THAT out!