I doubt that an all womxn track meet would be as entertaining. The clock does not lie. You cannot lie to yourself enough when you see 1:57 for 800m
If I had to choose between watching a men only track meet vs a women only track meet, I would go to the women only track meet. Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude's only meet?
So you never go see baseball. You only go see womxn softball.
You also never go see an NBA game, you only go see WNBA…
I doubt that an all womxn track meet would be as entertaining. The clock does not lie. You cannot lie to yourself enough when you see 1:57 for 800m
If I had to choose between watching a men only track meet vs a women only track meet, I would go to the women only track meet. Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude's only meet?
I doubt that an all womxn track meet would be as entertaining. The clock does not lie. You cannot lie to yourself enough when you see 1:57 for 800m
If I had to choose between watching a men only track meet vs a women only track meet, I would go to the women only track meet. Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude's only meet?
Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude’s only baseball, football, soccer, or basketball game?
Because I am interested in the sport being contested at a high level. I don’t attend sporting events to leer at women.
Please. God. No. Seeing women and men (or girls and boys) on the same program is one of the best things about T&F, something that sets it apart from other sports. As a kid, it was thrilling to see 3:53.6 go to 3:51.3 then 3:51.1 in just over two years, and as an old man, I was excited about 21.96, 21.80, 21.77 and 21.55 in just over two months. I’ve learned 21.55 is every bit as eye-popping as 19.49, and how far they are from 21.34 and 19.19. if I had to choose between watching men or women, sprints or distance, track or field, I wouldn’t know how to begin. It’s all good.
Why separate them? Combine them. No more mens races and women's races. Just human races. That would also include everyone in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet soup. Total equality. Then the best will always win. If it happens to be a woman-then she reigns supreme. Then everyone gets the same prize money. Purses can go deeper so more people win money. Until this happens, true equality will never be achieved. There will always be someone complaining that they are being discriminated against or not getting enough attention. And it would push everyone to test their limits.
Track races are quick hits - The excitement builds upon each other. We don’t have enough star power in one gender to make it interesting enough. The meet would be incomplete without having both men and women.
On a slightly separate note, I liked it when the 2008 marathon trials had the men in NYC and women at the Boston marathon. Having both races simultaneously take attention away from the other. There’s also a lot to unpack from the various storylines of a marathon. As a fan it’s tough to keep track of everyone and as a coach, it must be rough going back and forth on the course knowing what’s actually taking place.
If I had to choose between watching a men only track meet vs a women only track meet, I would go to the women only track meet. Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude's only meet?
Why would I as a straight man want to go to a dude’s only baseball, football, soccer, or basketball game?
Because I am interested in the sport being contested at a high level. I don’t attend sporting events to leer at women.
Just admit it, you just enjoy the company of men more than women. All sporting events look the same after you've attended enough. Why would a straight man want to spend a day surrounded by other sweaty men rather than women?
Separating the running events from the throws would make more sense.
I could actually see this benefiting the throws to even rival or pass the popularity of running events.
Separate out the throws and then add in a half dozen of the best strongman and Highland games type events. It could be quite popular. Sport is evolving and there are fun and popular new ways of competing.
On the running side, you could add in a couple Spartan-lite type events with obstacles. Again, people’s interest in sport is evolving.
No, I’m not actually suggesting the changes. I’m too much of a traditionalist.
This was done back in the early to mid 2000s. It was called the Titan Games. It featured strength and power sports. Fun to watch but marketing sucked and it died within a couple of years.
In general (Bolt being the major exception) women track stars are more popular than the men, especially in the US. Track and field has a ton of attractive women of all types, races, backgrounds, bodies, etc. in pretty skimpy outfits which makes men watch, and women like seeing powerful talented women tear it up.
It *could* be done. But why would anyone want to enact such a stupid idea? It wouldn’t make the sport more popular. I personally love watching both men’s and women’s competition, but I’m not a misogynist a-hole.
As somebody who has been a coach at a split program, let me make a point of why this is NOT a good idea... two coaches for the same event areas using the same facilities. For example, I watched two throws coaches train their athletes, and one of the coaches was mediocre, and the other was excellent. The program with the mediocre coach, had athletes wanting to be coached by the other programs coach because it was absolutely clear that one coach was superior to the other. Finally, the inferior coach was let go, and cross-program coaching established. The program has literally never been better than it is now. Factor this in for other event areas and it is easy to see how much of a problem split programs can be in a sport like Track and Field. Also, combined programs are more efficient from a budget standpoint when it comes to coaches salaries, and money spent on volunteers.