When the concept of the Diamond League was presented in 2009, I found myself anticipating the 2010 season like an anxious child awaiting Christmas. After all there was much to look forward to based on the \u201cpreviews\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gone was the \u201cwinner take all\u201d concept of only undefeated athletes being eligible for the pot of gold at the end of the season \u2013 which meant that after the first meet only a handful of individuals were eligible for prize money. A concept that said there was no reason to compete after the first meet unless you wanted to stop the competition from winning the prize!<\/p>\n
All events were going to be a part of the Diamond League, meaning that everyone would be eligible to win a Diamond League championship, not just a handful of athletes based on the luck of the draw when it came to determining the events that would be eligible to compete for the pot of gold. <\/p>\n
The US was finally going to become part of the \u201csummer circuit\u201d with the inclusion of New York and Prefontaine as Diamond League fixtures. Which should ensure that we would get more international stars competing on our shores.<\/p>\n
Then there was the biggest enticement of all \u2013 that the Diamond League was going to contract with the sport\u2019s biggest stars to to make sure they would be competing in a large number of Diamond League competitions AND that they would be competing against each other! THAT alone was worth the wait.<\/p>\n
Looking forward to 2010 in \u201809, I had \u201cvisions of sugar plums\u201d dancing in my head. Giddy from the anticipation of a much improved European\/Summer season this off season. But 2010 has come and gone and with it the first season of the Diamond League. Now that it\u2019s over and in the books the question I have to ask is: were we any better off because there was a Diamond League this year? To wit I have to respond: I don\u2019t think so. <\/p>\n
Much was promised, but sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men, well they don\u2019t always turn out how we envision. The big winner for the League was the elimination of the \u201cwinner take all\u201d concept. This year\u2019s league went down the the final two meets to determine \u201cchampions\u201d in many of the events. With d with the caveat that you had to compete in the \u201cfinale\u201d to win the prize money, almost all of the athletes in contention showed up to the finale events. And that is where the best laid plans begin to go awry for me \u2013 and continue from there. <\/p>\n
You see, there wasn\u2019t a single \u201cfinale\u201d. Instead there were two finales that encompassed two different cities a week apart. This was due in large part to the fact that there was no single meet that contained all of the events! This was a league of \u201chalf\u201d meets \u2013 with only half of the standard track and field events being run in any given meet. Now there was one exception, that being the meet in London. But even that in a manner was \u201ctwo\u201d competitions as the meet was separated into two different days. The half meet concept was carried throughout the season with half of the events being contested one week\/meet, then the other half the next. Half the men\u2019s events and half the women\u2019s events, with both genders competing in different disciplines in each meet. For example, If you had the men\u2019s 100 in Stockholm but no women; the women\u2019s 1500 in Stockholm but no men. Very frustrating as a fan, and from what I hear, frustrating for the athletes as well. Because for the athletes only having their event on the docket half the time, cut their earning opportunities in half as well!<\/p>\n
Then there was the matter of those two US entries in the league. The first (New York) was scheduled only two days after the Rome meeting! Needless to say the lineups in New York were not the most stellar. And when you factor in that the marketing surrounded a match up that was never really scheduled (Gay v Bolt), there was quite a let down for this meet. Prefontaine was Prefontaine \u2013 excellent as always. But having moved the meet to accommodate the \u201cleague\u201d I would\u2019ve expected a larger influx of foreign talent. Then again, Prefontaine has always done well with that \u2013 which makes me wonder why the need to be in the Diamond League?<\/p>\n
Oh did I mention \u201cmatch ups\u201d? Because that was one of the biggest selling points of all for the Diamond League \u2013 we were going to get more top level match ups than ever before! The centerpiece being that nearly every meet was going to have at least one of the world\u2019s top three sprinters contracted, with a majority having at least two of them going head to head and one or more featuring all three. FINALLY we were going to get something more than the 1 meeting a year when they all ran in a major! At least that was the hope. What we ended up with was Gay v Powell, once; Powell v Bolt, once; and Bolt v Gay, once. Powell losing to both his adversaries then dropping out due to \u201cback trouble\u201d. Bolt losing to Gay then dropping out due to \u201cback trouble\u201d. Then Gay left to compete against the up and comers \u2013 not what we saw in the previews. Again very frustrating for the fans. <\/p>\n
Finally I thought the whole \u201cseason\u201d was just way too long. The first meeting in Doha was on May 14th, the final finale was in Brussels on August 27th. By Brussels I had almost forgotten what had happened in Doha! So did the athlete\u2019s bodies. Sprinters that were ailing and getting trying to get it together for Doha, were ready to role by Zurich and Brussels. Those that were looking good in Doha couldn\u2019t even make it to the track by Brussels. Lolo Jones looked ready to rule the world in the first half of the Diamond League and no one knew who Sally Pearson was. By Brussels Pearson was in the hunt, Jones was struggling and Priscilla Lopes Sliep was in charge. Kara Patterson hit her stride in the middle of the season then slowly got tired by the final few meets. And there was a definite advantage for those athletes in the finals that had \u201cpeaked\u201d during or late in the season! To be honest, I\u2019m not sure how it will play during the three years where there are major championships, with athletes focusing on the major and looking to all peak late in the year. It could make the first half of the Diamond League fairly irrelevant. <\/p>\n
Having said all of that, I do think that some things can be \u201cfixed\u201d. For example, why not simply offer all the events in each meet, but alternate the events that have Diamond designation \u2013 half this meet half the next. And while everyone is trying to hold on to the traditional dates that they held their meets, if this \u201cleague\u201d is going to work there may have to be some compromises. The schedule needs to be condensed, with perhaps two meetings per week, and running for two months during July and August \u2013 starting after most national championships and ending before the start of a major championship. I also think that having a shorter, more condensed series will aid in getting match ups on the track as it would give the top athletes a condensed set of competitive opportunities as they are preparing for the upcoming major \u2013 at a time when they should be most fit. Because it seems asking today\u2019s athletes to stay fit and healthy for four months is more than most can handle \u2013 a topic that I intent to expound more upon soon. <\/p>\n
I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but I was just expecting MORE from the Diamond League. After the season was done I went back through my meet archives and watched earlier versions of the Weltklasse, and Ivo Van Damme and Bislett from the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s. And all the \u201cmissing\u201d components were there. They had the stars like Steve Ovett,Roger Kingdom, Colin Jackson, Carl Lewis, Maurice Greene, Allen Johnson, Stefka Kostadinova, Gail Devers, Evelyn Ashford, and on and on. There were full meets, and plenty of top level match ups. After all, that\u2019s how these meets got to be as big as they are \u2013 they put the best in the world on the track. In many ways that\u2019s what the Diamond League is going to have to do, get back to the future to bring the excitement back to the sport. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the concept of the Diamond League was presented in 2009, I found myself anticipating the 2010 season like an anxious child awaiting Christmas. After all there was much to look forward to based on the \u201cpreviews\u201d. Gone was the \u201cwinner take all\u201d concept of only undefeated athletes being eligible for the pot of gold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-6s","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}