{"id":542,"date":"2011-08-01T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=542"},"modified":"2011-08-01T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T16:05:00","slug":"how-important-is-daegu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"How Important Is Daegu?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or more to the point, how important are the World Championships? Where do they stand in the grand scheme of the sport? <\/p>\n

I ask because with just under a month until our \u201cBig Meet\u201d the season has seemed a bit, lackluster. Tyson Gay out. Usain Bolt subpar. Yelena Isinbayeva working her way into it. Eliud Kipchoge good but not great. Caster Semenya way off. I could do a post just listing the athletes that aren\u2019t close to where they should be this time of year but I think you get the point. <\/p>\n

My question is, is everyone really working to peak for Daegu, or are they working on peaking for something else? Because many of the athlete interviews I\u2019ve read this year have had at least one of the following three words in them \u2013 London, Olympics, or Games. As in, \u201cI\u2019ll be ready for London\u201d, or \u201cDaegu will tell me where I am for the Games\u201d, or \u201cthe Olympics are what really matters\u201d among others phrases. <\/p>\n

So, after a quarter century of existence, are the World Championships still playing second fiddle to the Olympics? Is the pre-Games version of Worlds just a dry run for the Games themselves? If so, what does that make the post-Games Championships \u2013 a chance to use the peak built for the Olympics to gain some additional hardware? And if the answer to either of these is \u201cyes\u201d, are we doing ourselves an injustice by holding championships right before and after the Olympics? <\/p>\n

I pose these questions as someone who is always looking for ways to improve the sport. And with last year being an \u201coff season\u201d without any type of championship, World or Olympics, I had hoped that this year would be a lot more entertaining than it has been to date. But so far we\u2019ve seen less of most top level athletes than we did during the \u201coff season\u201d. And for a sport that already has trouble getting it\u2019s top talent on the track\/field regularly that\u2019s NOT a good thing!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often thought that what the sport needs is a World Championships every year there is not an Olympics \u2013 to give the athletes something to shoot for every year. But now I\u2019m wondering if perhaps we need just one Worlds every four years as was the original schedule. Except, not the year before or after the Olympics \u2013 but in the two year gap in between, like the Winter Olympics. This would create separation between the two events. Our athletes would have an off year before both the Games and Worlds \u2013 hopefully giving them needed time to recharge, rehab, and retool for both and to show up to the World Championships ready to give the same effort and performances that they strive for during the Games. It would also give those marketing our sport needed separation from the Olympics to focus on our World Championships as a stand alone event and not the \u201cpre-meet\u201d to the “real event\u201d.<\/p>\n

If we were more closely structured to professional sports like the NBA or NFL, then annual championships would make sense. Especially if that structure incorporated some type of \u201cteam\u201d concept. Unfortunately, while the sport has incorporated the payment of money to athletes (making it \u201cprofessional\u201d) it has yet to create a corresponding structure for the sport \u2013 it\u2019s still basically a very loose association of athletes, federations, and meets. With that being the case, and the sport not really having a coordinated marketing effort, perhaps a quadrennial \u201cblow out\u201d that everyone can rally around might be more in line with what the sport needs. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that that is a big reason why the Olympic Games is the the grand event that it is \u2013 the anticipation that is built up over four years of waiting. That and the fact that with the athletes building up to that event, the performances across the board tend to be spectacular. Contrast that with our World Championships where typically they tend to be remembered more so for one or two individuals per meet as opposed to truly outstanding competition all around. And since the beginning of the new Millennium, it seems that more and more World Championships fall under the category of \u201cless memorable\u201d than \u201cmemorable\u201d \u2013 not a good thing for the sport. <\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019ll be wrong and Daegu will be a meet with outstanding results from top to bottom. But as I start to gather my thoughts to put together final predictions before the meet, I\u2019m already prepared to reduce some of my \u201cwhat it will take to win gold\u201d marks \u2013 because up to this point, the athletes really don\u2019t seem up to the task this year. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be making that same comment heading into London \u2013 because EVERYONE considers London to be very important!<\/p>\n

So I think we need to look at making the World Championships more important. Not just the biggest track meet in any given year, but a MAJOR event. A goal. A destination. Something special. It was special in \u201883 and \u201887. It seems to gradually have lost that over time \u2013 rather than build to something even greater. Maybe just one every four years is what it needs to be. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or more to the point, how important are the World Championships? Where do they stand in the grand scheme of the sport? I ask because with just under a month until our \u201cBig Meet\u201d the season has seemed a bit, lackluster. Tyson Gay out. Usain Bolt subpar. Yelena Isinbayeva working her way into it. Eliud Kipchoge good but not great. Caster Semenya way off. I could do a post just listing the athletes that aren\u2019t close to where they should be this time of year but I think you get the point. My question is, is everyone really working to peak for Daegu, or are they working on peaking for something else? Because many of the athlete interviews I\u2019ve read this year have had at least one of the following three words in them \u2013 London, Olympics, or Games. As in, \u201cI\u2019ll be ready for London\u201d, or \u201cDaegu will tell me where I am for the Games\u201d, or \u201cthe Olympics are what really matters\u201d among others phrases. So, after a quarter century of existence, are the World Championships still playing second fiddle to the Olympics? Is the pre-Games version of Worlds just a dry run for the Games themselves? If so, what does that make the post-Games Championships \u2013 a chance to use the peak built for the Olympics to gain some additional hardware? And if the answer to either of these is \u201cyes\u201d, are we doing ourselves an injustice by holding championships right before and after the Olympics? I pose these questions as someone who is always looking for ways to improve the sport. And with last year being an \u201coff season\u201d without any type of championship, World or Olympics, I had hoped that this year would be a lot more entertaining than it has been to date. But so far we\u2019ve seen less of most top level athletes than we did during the \u201coff season\u201d. And for a sport that already has trouble getting it\u2019s top talent on the track\/field regularly that\u2019s NOT a good thing! I\u2019ve often thought that what the sport needs is a World Championships every year there is not an Olympics \u2013 to give the athletes something to shoot for every year. But now I\u2019m wondering if perhaps we need just one Worlds every four years as was the original schedule. Except, not the year before or after the Olympics \u2013 but in the two year gap in between, like the Winter Olympics. This would create separation between the two events. Our athletes would have an off year before both the Games and Worlds \u2013 hopefully giving them needed time to recharge, rehab, and retool for both and to show up to the World Championships ready to give the same effort and performances that they strive for during the Games. It would also give those marketing our sport needed separation from the Olympics to focus on our World Championships as a stand alone event and not the \u201cpre-meet\u201d to the “real event\u201d. If we were more closely structured to professional sports like the NBA or NFL, then annual championships would make sense. Especially if that structure incorporated some type of \u201cteam\u201d concept. Unfortunately, while the sport has incorporated the payment of money to athletes (making it \u201cprofessional\u201d) it has yet to create a corresponding structure for the sport \u2013 it\u2019s still basically a very loose association of athletes, federations, and meets. With that being the case, and the sport not really having a coordinated marketing effort, perhaps a quadrennial \u201cblow out\u201d that everyone can rally around might be more in line with what the sport needs. It\u2019s clear that that is a big reason why the Olympic Games is the the grand event that it is \u2013 the anticipation that is built up over four years of waiting. That and the fact that with the athletes building up to that event, the performances across the board tend to be spectacular. Contrast that with our World Championships where typically they tend to be remembered more so for one or two individuals per meet as opposed to truly outstanding competition all around. And since the beginning of the new Millennium, it seems that more and more World Championships fall under the category of \u201cless memorable\u201d than \u201cmemorable\u201d \u2013 not a good thing for the sport. Perhaps I\u2019ll be wrong and Daegu will be a meet with outstanding results from top to bottom. But as I start to gather my thoughts to put together final predictions before the meet, I\u2019m already prepared to reduce some of my \u201cwhat it will take to win gold\u201d marks \u2013 because up to this point, the athletes really don\u2019t seem up to the task this year. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be making that same comment heading into London \u2013 because EVERYONE considers London to be very important! So I think we need to look at making the World Championships more important. Not just the biggest track meet in any given year, but a MAJOR event. A goal. A destination. Something special. It was special in \u201883 and \u201887. It seems to gradually have lost that over time \u2013 rather than build to something even greater. Maybe just one every four years is what it needs to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_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-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-8K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":430,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=430","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":0},"title":"Ten Things to Watch in 2011","author":"CHill","date":"January 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Goodbye 2010. Welcome 2011. Last year was fun, but there is something special about having a Major championship to look forward to. It makes the season seem more \u201cofficial\u201d.The athletes seem to feel that way anyway. Last year saw many athletes take time off, and end season\u2019s early. We may\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BERLIN - AUGUST 20: The logo for the Daegu 2011 World Championshisp on display during day six of the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium on August 20, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein\/Bongarts\/Getty Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/view3.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/image\/6089676\/12th-iaaf-world-athletics\/12th-iaaf-world-athletics.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":596,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=596","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":1},"title":"2011 In Review \u2013 Men\u2019s 100 Meters","author":"CHill","date":"October 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"With the general rankings out of the way, it\u2019s time to start taking a look at individual events. So twixt now and the end of the year, I will look back on several events in between other news and events that come up. I will start with the men\u2019s 100\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"100\"","block_context":{"text":"100","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=100"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=597","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":2},"title":"2011 in Review \u2013 Women\u2019s 100 Meters","author":"CHill","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The women\u2019s 2011 season couldn\u2019t have been more different than the men\u2019s season if it had been scripted that way. The top women all had marks on the board by early May as defending World champion Shelly Ann Fraser (JAM) opening up over 200 with a 22.69 (Apr 16) &\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"100\"","block_context":{"text":"100","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=100"},"img":{"alt_text":"Carmelita Jeter Gold medalist Carmelita Jeter of United States celebrates on the podium with her medal for the women's 100 metres during day four of the 13th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Daegu Stadium on August 30, 2011 in Daegu, South Korea.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www1.pictures.zimbio.com\/gi\/Carmelita%2BJeter%2B13th%2BIAAF%2BWorld%2BAthletics%2BzCmfUINIHhTl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=424","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":3},"title":"X-mas List Item #2 \u2013 Free Live Streaming","author":"CHill","date":"December 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If Track Santa is kind enough to give me some exciting matchups this coming season, I\u2019d love to be able to actually watch them as they occur. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love YouTube \u2013 because everything ends up on YouTube sooner or later. But there is something to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=424#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"BERLIN - AUGUST 23: South Korean athletes carry a banner for the 2011 games in Daegu, South Korea during day nine of the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium on August 23, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Mark Dadswell\/Getty Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/view4.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/image\/6136302\/12th-iaaf-world-athletics\/12th-iaaf-world-athletics.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":494,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=494","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":4},"title":"Will The U.S. Sprint Picture Be Clearer After Pre","author":"CHill","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Identifying America\u2019s top sprinters used to be pretty easy. In spite of our depth, there were always two or three men and women that stepped up to stand above the rest. Jim Hines, Charlie Greene, Wilma Rudolph, Steve Williams, Harvey Glance, Evelyn Ashford, Gail Devers, Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, Chandra\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=494#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh4.ggpht.com\/-pIjhRaEZT2A\/Tek1SppMbGI\/AAAAAAAAAMg\/U8ruhEWZ0As\/image_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":605,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":542,"position":5},"title":"2011 in Review \u2013 Women\u2019s 800 Meters","author":"CHill","date":"November 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of the day this became a very difficult event to rank, as Daegu results would not mirror the season in total. The year would get off to an extremely slow start taking us up to June and the Prefontaine Classic before we would see someone go under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"800\"","block_context":{"text":"800","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=800"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh3.ggpht.com\/-eGgEQT6BibA\/TrPm-VOyUWI\/AAAAAAAAAkA\/ZwvJPN4_rbo\/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","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=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}