Track and Field is a sport that is popular all around the world although America does appear to have more of the top talent than any other nation. That matters because other countries appear to be bigger fans of it. When Noah Lyles goes to Zurich he can sell out a twenty five thousand seat stadium. But in New York City, which is the biggest city in his own home country, he can’t even get five thousand fans to attend. Keep in mind Noah Lyles is a sprinter and the fastest one in the world right now, so as long as he holds that title, there will be people willing to pay attention. 

Track and Field has at least 18 primary events at the college level and beyond, and only three of them are authentically sprinting events. But YouTube view counts make it clear that sprinting gets the most attention. The popularity of sprinting is so imbalanced that it is arguable that track and field has a bit of a sprinting problem. People complain that the sport doesn’t have enough action for them to watch, and that the events are so short, that the highlights of a track event are basically just watching the race all over again. That’s only true if you just pay attention to the sprints, and nothing else.

What is the sprinting problem in track and field? 

Sprinting events are not actually a problem for track and field. However, fans have allowed it to rise above the sport of track and field, to become its own sport all to itself. That is a serious issue. Just consider that football is the most popular sport in all of America, and depending on who you ask it is most popular at the college level. One of the reasons it is so well like is that the quarterback is the most beloved position in that sport. Everybody knows that you can’t win much in that sport without one. But real football fans also know that you can’t do that without offensive lineman to protect them. In addition you you need a defense that is good enough to stop the other team and their quarterback. The funny thing is nobody really knows who the lineman are by name, or many of the defensive players. It’s likely because they don’t care that much. But we give them credit because without them the team doesn’t function. The quarterback might be the most exciting thing to pay attention to, but he needs his team to win, just as much as they need him. We could sell a football product without the lineman, it’s called seven on seven. But the reason why they don’t is because the NFL, with 11 on 11 football has proven to be more valuable than just focusing on what people claim to be the most interesting parts. In track and field the media has been selling the events practically one at a time and it’s backfiring.

How popular is sprinting?

Track and field at the college level is actually a team sport, and the NCAA championships are basically the only thing that gets on cable tv. There are 18 events on the men’s and women’s sides, that make up several different event groups. But sprinting, in particular the 100 meter dash is clearly the star of the show. That is fine, that people want to watch Shericka Jackson and Sha’carri Richardson face off. But there is no excuse for their world championship race to get nearly 4 million views, and Grant Holloway’s in the 110 hurdles to barely get over half a million. To be clear, Grant Holloway is a showman on the track just like Noah Lyles which makes him box office entertainment. He is a triple world champion in his event. In fact, he might be the best hurdler that we’ve ever seen when it’s all said and done. However, barely anybody tuned in to watch him prove it.

Track and field fans wonder why the sport isn’t bigger on television, and why there are no functional track leagues for entertainment. The reason is that nobody will ever invest in Noah Lyles, Sha’carri Richardson, or even Shericka Jackson running 100 meters, or even 200 meters for a few seconds on television. That doesn’t make sense. It’s not enough entertainment for people to pay to watch it. As long as track fans only want to tune in to watch one event quickly and get back to what they are doing, the whole entire sport will suffer. The only way that track and field can thrive as an entire sport is if everybody does it together, and remember we already have track teams all throughout high school and college. People just forget about that the moment athletes turn pro.

How popular are non-sprinting track and field events?

Distance events are treated like the commercial break of track and field. As a young sprinter myself I used to see it that way for a long time. People might watch an 800 meter run, but that’s really only if Donovan Brazier or someone else we recognize is taking a shot at a world record. Anything longer than the mile, is so far away from people’s mind that it might as well not even exist. The 5K at the World Championships had so few views, that it barely reached a quarter of a million views, and that is from 2022 until now. Granted YouTube is not cable. People who call themselves track and field fans, are ignoring most of the sport even when they do tune in. So because the community won’t support itself, nobody else who is a sports fan sees the reason to do so.

Right now we are witnessing some of the best track and field athletes that the world has ever seen all at one time. But many fans don’t even know that it’s happening! Faith Kipyegon owns three World Records in the distance events, and she broke all of them in the year 2023! She is just one of several distance runners to break records since the year 2021. Tobi Amusan broke the women’s 100 hurdle record in 2022 in an event so competitive she lost to the old world record holder Keni Harrison and Danielle Williams at the world championships in 2023. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is clearly the greatest 400 hurdler of all time, last breaking her own record in 2022. Even the women’s triple jump world record went down in 2022!

On the men’s side the pole vault and shot put records both went down in 2023. The only event group that hasn’t broken a world record on the men’s or women’s sides in the past five years is the sprinting events! But for some reason, that is the only thing that track fans know about, because the people who control the broadcasts are convinced that is all that we care about.

What is the difference between distance running and sprinting? 

I was a sprinter all the way through my college career, and I knew very little about throwing, distance or any other event group until I got there. But after I started coaching at the high school level and later in college, the first job I was hired for both times was to coach the distance events. I had to learn how to think like a distance runner, and interestingly enough I would describe it as a beautiful struggle. Sprinting is all about controlled aggression. It requires an athlete to get their body to hit the ground as hard, precise, and as fast as possible with the insane confidence that nobody can do it as hard or as fast as you. But distance is about proving who can submit their body to the most amount of pain, and continue to push further than anyone else without breaking. It’s like having someone drop an anvil on your shoulders and ask you to carry it for however long the race will last. But the winner is always the man or woman who can carry that anvil stronger than anyone else. That’s why Katlyn Tuohy is a superstar, because she’s been carrying that load in every event that she runs at the high school and college level better than anyone else. But when she officially has no more NCAA races left to run, all of her talent will probably be forgotten about, at least on television with all the rest of the distance runners. I know distance running has its own community. But it is a shame that their community doesn’t seem to feel like they are even a part of the same sport, alongside the sprinting community.

The Bottom Line

Track and Field is a team sport whether or not people acknowledge it. It functions that way all the way through the college ranks, and sprinters are a part of that team. Professional track and field has a whole bunch of problems to solve in the current day. But one of the biggest ones is it’s overwhelming focus on the sprinting events. It is the event group I love the most, but that’s only because I was a sprinter myself. Yet we have to give credit where it is due. The sport can’t succeed if we don’t do it together, and because what you focus on is all that you will ever see, you are probably missing out on the golden age of track and field, right now. That’s even if it isn’t the golden age of sprinting.

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