Why is Professional Track and Field not popular in America?
The United States of America has the best collection of track and field athletes in the world. That statement is a fact based on all the results for the past decade. At the 2023 World Championships they dominated the medal count with 29 medals, 12 of them gold. No other nation in the world had more than 12 medals of any color. Led by sprinters Sha’carri Richardson and Noah Lyles, team USA dominated the sprinting events. In 2022 they swept the world in the men’s 100 and 200 meter dashes with 6 different men. But America did not win 29 medals by only sprinting. Heading into 2024, America has reigning Olympic champions in the women’s discus (Valerie Allman), men’s shot put (Ryan Crouser), women’s 800 meter dash (Athing Mu), and women’s Pole Vault (Katie Nageotte). America does track and field at a high level! But if you attend a professional track event in the United States, there will likely be only a few people in the stands.
The New York City Grand Prix is run at Icahn Stadium which only seats 5,000 people. The event is only held once a year, and it does not sell out. So why does a nation that is clearly the best in the world at a sport, not really care that much to watch, it both in person and on tv? The truth is that the way America does track and field at the pro level is broken. People likely won’t pay attention until it gets fixed.
How good is the USA at track and field?
It is very clear to track fans that America has the best collection of track and field talent in the world. It is more than enough to entertain any real fan. America has won the Olympic track and field medal count every single Olympics since the year 2000. The success of Noah Lyles as the first triple World Champion since Usain Bolt, makes him the LeBron James of sprinting, since Bolt himself is clearly the Michael Jordan of the sport. Grant Holloway is arguably the greatest hurdler of all time, joining Noah in completing a World Championship three peat. For the record, neither of their careers are anywhere close to over. America is actually so fast in the sprints that after they swept the world in the 100 and the 200 meter dashes in 2022, it was Christian Coleman, the 2019 World Champion who failed to get a medal. He is the same man who is tied for the fastest time in the world in 2023. America even left Olympic finalist Ronnie Baker, off team USA that year because there is so much talent to go around.
Gabby Thomas is a 200 meter sprinter who is faster at this point in her career than Allyson Felix ever was. Likewise Sydney McLaughlin’s is making her case for the greatest women’s track athlete ever before she turns 25 years old. In every event America is loaded with talent that can at least threaten for a world medal every year. But those athletes often times have to go overseas to be appreciated.
How does professional track and field work?
The Diamond League and the Continental Tour are the best thing track and field has going on right now for the pro level. If you are American and you want to run as a pro, your only real option is to compete at open college level track meets if you don’t get invited to show up in either.
In the year 2023 alone Noah Lyles competed in Bermuda, France, Jamaica, and Great Britain before competing at the World Championships in Hungary. He even finished his pro season up in Switzerland after the championship was over. The Zurich, Switzerland stadium he competed in holds 26,000 fans. Remember his race in New York City, the most populated city in all of America by a lot only held 5,000 fans. And although he could sell out in Zurich, he did not do so in New York! American track athletes are appreciated around the world, just not when they get back home. That’s probably why Noah Lyles said what he said about the NBA not being legitimate NBA champions. All he practically does is compete internationally because his bank account depends on it.
How can America make Track and Field popular?
Parts of the rest of the world actually care about track and field, even if their athletes are nowhere near as good as those in the United States. That proves the sport can work to entertain fans. The question is only why doesn’t America itself seem to care that much. The real answer is evident all around the United States on networks like ESPN. America made up its own system for professional sports to make money. So any sport that wants to reach the fans, has to conform to it. At the present moment, most track fans don’t even know what is going on in their own sport.
American sports that work are all set up the same way. There is a pro league, like the NFL, MLB, or NBA that actually drafts most of their athletes out of the American college system. Talent is developed through the schools, all the way to the top of D1. Then the pro teams take their pick of the best players to add to their team. NFL teams are competing to win a Super Bowl. As a result every fan knows what the end goal is. Every game up until that point is just a formality. Many people don’t even tune in to watch until the Super Bowl, or even the NBA Finals. It is also about star power. So when Patrick Mahomes plays Aaron Rodgers, it’s an instant classic, regardless of the uniforms they are wearing.
In the American sports system, fans need to know who the players are, where they came from, and where they are going. It also helps that they represent a specific city when they do it. It’s simple enough to follow because almost everyone knows how it works, but that’s not what the world does. Soccer in America has basically been a failure, and Messi coming to Miami probably won’t change it that much. The MLS, which is what the pro soccer league in America is called, copies much of its structure from the rest of the world, with a club development team system that is way too complicated to explain to the average American sports fan. College soccer is a thing, but people have little idea what that has to do with the players who are in the MLS. Many don’t know when their playoffs are, what their championship is called, or who is playing in it. Unfortunately Track and field is kind of like that in America, but worse. Before the American Track League was created a few years ago, there was no attempt to create legitimate professional track in the US. Likewise that league is hardly noticeable at this time. What most fans actually resort to is watching YouTube videos of races that already happened somewhere else around the world most of the time.
The Bottom Line
The professional track and field problem in America is fixable. But before you can fix a problem, you must admit that you have one to begin with. Noah Lyles made comments that were critical of American sports, because people don’t know much about track and field in America. In his situation most of the time is spent competing overseas. He is also the reigning World Champion in three separate events. Track and field in America is in a state of crisis, even if the U.S. has the best team in the world that does it.
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