salazar ran it got 2nd to muhammad kedir so he must have thought it was important enough, rupp ran it as a junior.
our junior womens team should be pretty good cain, efraimson, cranny, baxter and other good juniors.
some would argue world cross country is even harder than the olympics, so its a big deal.
when you think about it, world cross country is harder than the olympics and world track is about the same or even harder than the olympics because the defending champ and/or diamond league winner gets a spot in the world track champs so possibly 4 kenyans and 4 ethiopians in the distance events and 4 jamaicans in the sprint, whereas the olympics limits each country to 3 athletes.
the olympics though gets 1000 times the hype.
but most athletes care a lot more about going against the absolute best competition and their legacy far more than they care about hype or money.
so the athletes agents and fans want their favorite athlete to win the olympics.
but the athletes care most about going against the best competition even if its for less money, so they can look themselves in the mirror and say i am the best that has ever been.
example when rupp retires he wants to be recognized as better than gebreselassie ever was, and centrowitz wants to be better than el G ever was, they know they are not their yet so they will use it as motivation for the next 10-12 years, if they dont achieve it, even if they make 100 million or even a billion or more they will have an emptiness knowing they did nnot achieve their goal.