Are we painting
ourselves into a corner with this incessant chasing of records in swimming and
track and field? Am I missing something? Is not the essence of sport
competition? I maintain that that much of the current situation we have with
performance enhancing drugs comes from this stress on records. I have been
closely following the buildup into the Prefontaine Meet this weekend and all
the hype has been about so and so chasing a record. So what? Isn’t the essence
of it competition? Does the average fan know or care about times or distances? I
would love to see a 1600 meter relay meet that started with eight teams at four
minutes and worked progressively down in five second increments until there
were eight teams at three minutes. It would be much like the old West Coast Relays,
were the highlight was on the racing. Turn off the timers and focus on the competition.
Let’s be realistic it is not humanly possible to keep pushing the records
higher, longer and faster, by doing that we are encouraging people to cheat.
Does John Q. Public really care about the records? I don’t think so. You have
all these wise people trying to figure out how to have track regain the popularity
it once had, it is simple, get the stars to race each other.
3 Comments
Jay Johnson
Check out this race….30 seconds off the world 5,000m record, but does it matter?
http://track.flocasts.com/videos/coverage/view_video/256/14518
In the world of track and field I’ve had this conversation often with other coaches and fans – no one can tell the difference between a 13 flat and 13:30 race on TV, yet a race with lead changes, or a race like the one above where a young athlete keeps making moves to give him self a shot of winning, is what track is about.
thanks for the post Vern.
Jay Johnson
Check out this race….30 seconds off the world 5,000m record, but does it matter?
http://track.flocasts.com/videos/coverage/view_video/256/14518
In the world of track and field I’ve had this conversation often with other coaches and fans – no one can tell the difference between a 13 flat and 13:30 race on TV, yet a race with lead changes, or a race like the one above where a young athlete keeps making moves to give him self a shot of winning, is what track is about.
thanks for the post Vern.
Sympathy
It has become a never ending spectacle of pop culture.