The CHill Zone of T&F

That didn’t take long. The ball dropped, the clock struck one, and everyone got busy! The last several weeks have seen a flurry of action, and as usual in a post Olympic season, those not on the podium have been the busiest. Every quadrennial cycle is basically the same. The year before the Games, everyone is getting ready. Everyone wanting to be at their very best, next year. Some racing less frequently. Some getting necessary surgeries. A few even taking the year off. Then the big year, the Olympic year. Training cycles set for Trials and Games! Then the year after, the redemption cycle. Those not at the Games, or…

Season two of Netflix’s SPRINT has finally dropped, and the internet is once again being very vocal! Track Twitter is extremely critical and negative. While I think I understand Netflix’s intent, I’m also critical, and I’ll tell you why. Let me start by saying that if people are watching, then Sprint has succeeded. The idea is to be a PR piece for the sport. Which means that the audience it’s looking for isn’t necessarily made up of track nerds and lifelong fans. Netflix is hoping to attract people that aren’t normally watching track and field. I believe I understand what they were trying to do. To get the audience engaged…

Trailers are now out for the second season of “Sprint”! The huge selling point being that it’s the “Olympic Season”! The season that matters. If you don’t get it done at the Olympics, you won’t be remembered! Unfortunately, this is probably true. I remember championship races outside of the Olympics. The 1987 men’s 100m with Ben and Carl. Maurice Greene’s emergence in Athens in 1997. The close men’s 200m finish in Edmonton 2001. Justin Gatlin’s sprint double in Helsinki 2005 (yes, Gat won a double), followed by Tyson Gay’s double in Osaka two years later. However, I’m a track nerd that watches and remember dozens of races every year! For…

There has been a lot of talk this year about new track “leagues” that are scheduled to begin in 2025. Let me begin by saying that people that know me know that I’m a stickler for accuracy and correct “wording”, because in my education I was taught very sternly that, “words have meaning” so use them properly. From that perspective, there are no “leagues” in track and field. In professional sports terms, and the intent here is to make track more professional and lucrative for athletes, a league would be a contained system in which there would be teams and/or individuals that are contracted to play only against each other…

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…

The season is almost at an end. The only thing left is the Diamond League final. A two day competition between the top Diamond League contenders. Always a good competition, and a nice end to the season. So why is the controversy this year? Well, because Sydney McLaughlin Levrone has decided that she wants to run! But didn’t I say that the meet is a competition between the top Diamond League contenders? Yes. Therein lies the rub, because Sydney doesn’t compete in the Diamond League, at all. That being the case, the Diamond League said no to Sydney, as they should have. Angering some people. How dare they turn Sydney…