The only reason hardcore purists ever watched Dolt after his 9.72 in NYC was to see when he would either get popped, or go down with injury, finally out of his envelope.
We only got minor satisfaction very late in his “career”, making having watched it ultimately mostly a waste of time. Satisfaction with Flake came a bit sooner, also with Carter.
A “superstar” can be “super” because they are great, because they are adored, or because they are reviled, or because they are funny, or because they are an entertainment clown show, or because they are super-hot, etc…lots of reasons, for lots of different people.
Bottom line: they need to arouse passions.
For me right now, I can’t stand CC and El Baakali, SCR, so I will watch them race in the hope that they fail—and the greater the failure, the greater will be my satisfaction. I like Mu and Muir, I want to see them do well and beat some men and users. I like Bromell because of his technical beauty, I watch to see how closely to perfection he can execute a race. And of course the Citizen Runner, true grit—for me, rainy Boston was epically great, where the best marathoner (if not the absolute fastest) won the race💪👍.
Mondo, Warholm, Kipchoge, Dibaba, Syd, Jakob, etc are all just meh for me.
But some people do arouse passions, for whatever reason—the thing is, you have to follow a bit to develop those passions, unless you are a child or a half-wit, and respond to the instantly superficial—like how tall someone is or a pose, how hot someone looks, how great you think their body is, how long their nails are, what color their hair/wig is, how they are dressed, etc.
Maybe this shallowness explains the popularity of the 100m: short attention span. You see them behind the blocks, and judge for the 5-10 seconds the camera is on them—then you have to pay attention for only 10-11 seconds or less.
In that 10 seconds, for the average joe there are 3 parts, lasting say 3 seconds each: start, middle, finish. Bam! 💥. A series of quick hits, like the best TikTok vid, or ad. And the motion is rapid, and the moves are fast.
Easy. Gets you going. Makes you want another hit. That’s why rounds are the best, multiple hits.
Distance, you have to invest time to understand—and the dynamics are so subtle that they need education to even perceive. Sure a hockey, basketball, or football game are long, but look at how many individual dynamics happen along the way—tons! Especially in hockey. And they’re obvious to anyone, instantly.
This may be why distance will be followed by only those who have actually done it. Literally, too much time/work for others, they could be getting tons of big hits in the meantime from a video game, surfing, pro sports, etc.
My 20 cents. Yeah, I know, 🤮