Track & Field Has a Popularity Problem. Here’s How to Fix It
Full disclosure: I am a fan of Track & Field. I am a competitive runner and serve on the board of a running club with a national championship pedigree and aspirations. So, this piece comes from a place of passion and personal interest. However, I recognize that I am very much in the minority when it comes to diehard fandom for runners, jumpers, and throwers.
And that’s the problem.
Track & Field captures the nation’s attention, at most, thrice per decade, when the Summer Olympics kicks into gear and dominates NBC programming. People tune in for a couple weeks, pick a favorite event or two, and then tune out. This, despite Track & Field ranking at the top of high school sports in terms of enrollment for boys and girls. This, even though 60 million Americans run regularly. In fact, it’s quite likely that you either have a runner, jumper, or thrower in your household or, at the very least, know a couple. So, why do we care so little about the pursuits of men and women performing at the very highest level of the sport?
Why don’t we even know their names?
USA Track & Field (USATF) has a popularity problem, but there are several steps that can be taken to bridge the chasm between the sport and the general population. It’ll take time, consistency, and resources — just like anything worth doing. Here are a few thought-starters to get this boulder rolling up the hill:
Organize more amateur Track & Field events
Chances are quite good that if you want to hop into a local 5k, you can do so this weekend in a town near you. You can book a tee time to play golf, join a local soccer league, play some pickup ball at a local court, and even participate in a rec league softball or baseball tournament. But where does one go to hurl a discus? Where are the heats of runners in a local 100m hurdles or 10,000-meter track event?
If you want to make Track & Field more interesting to the general population, the first step is making it more accessible to the masses who are already plugged into that world. USATF does a commendable job of rolling out a calendar of cross-country, road, and ultra/mountain races for affiliated clubs. However, support for track meet facilitation is uneven at best. This is step one of many toward generating buzz and interest in the sport. If I had my way, there would be a full calendar of USATF-sanctioned track meets in most regions across the spring and summer months.
Support the stars
While it is true that the stars of the most popular sports in the U.S. are stars because of their immense talents, it is also true that each has a massive marketing machine catapulting their popularity beyond their respective sport. USATF doesn’t need to create stars — they’re already here. Just watch Valarie Allman throw a discus or watch this recent men’s 5000-meter race in Florence where 13 men broke the 13-minute mark, including U.S. Olympic hopefuls Woody Kinkaid, Joe Klecker, and Grant Fisher, and you’ll see we have quite a bit of talent with which to work. The stars are out there — they just need a bigger platform.
Tell better stories
I’m often drawn to the book and film, “Moneyball,” when I think about the power of storytelling in sports. In the film, there is a poignant scene where the chief protagonist in the form of Brad Pitt comments, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” This comes after his co-star tells a gripping story about a talented player overlooked by the rest of the game; a player who ultimately finds his place on the major league roster as the team digs for diamonds in the rough.
Sure, it’s easy to be romantic about baseball, but these rich stories are not exclusive to hardball. You don’t have to look far for touching stories of triumph over adversity in Track & Field, but too few of these stories reach mass audiences and therefore, the athletes often don’t appear as relatable as they truly are.
Keira D’Amato is a 39-year-old mother of two who had to walk in her first marathon on her way to a time of 3:49 (she later set the American record at that distance). Superstar sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson had a troubled upbringing as a child and has been open about her struggles with mental health — something so many endure across the U.S. Now, she is one of America’s top hopes in France at the short distances. Nikki Hiltz is the first non-binary athlete to win an outdoor championship (1500 meters) and recently broke the American record in the mile — a record that has stood for nearly 40 years. U.S. Track & Field is sitting on a treasure trove of stories about relatable people we can all get behind. It’s time to do a better job of sharing.
Take the Diamond League Big League
In the past, the sporadic nature of Track & Field events has made it difficult to track athletic performances throughout the calendar year. The Diamond League has changed all that. All it will take is a bit more structure built around the series of world-class, international meets (better athlete tracking, easier to follow rankings or standings, a broader season narrative, stronger sharable content, etc.) and it’s possible that Track & Field already has its answer to the NBA, NFL or MLB in development. The bones are already there: the Diamond League has a clear start date, end date, and championship meet. Further, these events are already must-watch TV for anyone already plugged in, as there’s a legitimate chance of a World Record performance at just about every meet — like Faith Kipyegon smashing the mile world record just last month (her third world record this season, by the way).
Tear down the walls — paywalls, that is
I can make this one quick: televised Track & Field is too hard to find. I won’t begin to tell you that I understand the ins and outs of TV rights and contracts, but I will tell you that televised events featuring the top U.S. runners, jumpers, and throwers need to be readily available to more people for free. You can subscribe to USATF.tv for some events. You can subscribe to Peacock for some events. You can subscribe to FloSport for some events. You can accidentally stumble into some events on NBC. That’s way too complicated for the casual viewer who isn’t seeking this stuff out. If I can turn the TV on and watch most if not all Golden State Warriors games any time I want, Track & Field events should be treated the same way.
Embrace technology
We are entering the next tech revolution. That’s not hyperbole — advancements in AI and emerging tech have and will continue to reimagine the world around us. Like the smartphone (2007) and the internet before it (1990s), technology is shifting and changing, and the USATF would do well to bring a few smart people together to figure out how it might leverage new technologies to bring people closer to the sport and its athletes. The NBA is doing it through its new augmented reality app. What can USA Track & Field dream up?
Incentivize the sport’s base to attend key events
Who is the base? High school and college runners. USATF-affiliated club runners. Track & Field events are a notoriously tough draw in the U.S. — the 2021 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., for example, only sold around 50 percent of its capacity. However, the experience of attending these events in person can serve as inspiration for so many as they pursue their own athletic aspirations or, at the very least, become more familiar with the nation’s top athletes. Whenever there is a major Track & Field in the U.S., the organizing bodies should make a concerted effort to offer complimentary admission to all local high school and college athletes along with the top USATF-affiliated clubs in the region. Fill the stands with the people who care the most and watch the buzz build.
Open U.S. tracks to all comers
This is the hill I will die on. There are more than 48,000 running tracks across the U.S., but RunRepeat recently reported that as few as 19 percent are open for use by the general public. I believe every track in the U.S. should be open to all athletes during suitable hours with two exceptions: when schools are in session or when school athletes are at practice. Early morning and evening hours? Open the gates. Worried about liability? Post a “enter at your own risk” notice at the entrance and open the gates.
Accessibility to running facilities is paramount to sustained interest. Now, is this realistic? Probably not for all communities. Keeping tracks open to the public would likely require additional upkeep expenses that some facilities won’t be willing to take on. However, I’ve seen my local tracks open their gates more often to soccer practices on the infield, which one might assume requires significantly more upkeep than footfalls on a 400-meter oval.
This is just a start. What’s your take? Elevating Track & Field into mainstream consciousness is a team sport and will require the collaborative thinking of many. Share yours and together, we can help USA Track & Field do what it does best: inspire the next generation of athletes to lace up a pair of shoes, pick up something to hurl, or toe the line — and put it all on the line.
One more thing: The Track & Field World Championships begin in just a few weeks in Budapest, and many Americans are in contention for the podium across several events. Tune in and support these athletes in this important checkpoint on the road to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris!
