True story: A guy saw me running and asked if I ran marathons. I said, "No, I race the 800m." He said, "How far is that?" I told him it was about a half mile and then asked him how far he thought it was. He said he thought it was about two miles.
The typical person in the US knows nothing about track and field. My questions would be more basic. Even so, I'd guess the typical person who is not a track fan could not get more than three right.
1) How far is one lap around a track?
2) Name three track events
3) Name three field events
4) In the 400 meter run, runners start in different lanes, but they don't start side by side. Why not?
5) In some track races, a bell is rung. What does it mean when the bell rings?
I also asked about former athletes that were well-known.
The names so far are: Jackie-Joyner Kersey ("is that the same as Flo Jo?"), Bruce Jenner, Prefontaine, and Usain Bolt.
Nobody (so far) has mentioned Jesse Owens, Billy Mills, or Carl Lewis.
A tiny, tiny percentage of people have any clue who Billy Mills is. He’s not an identifiable figure.
Someone suggested a “How far is a 10k?” question. It’s honestly sad to me that Americans wouldn’t know this based on the length of a Kilometer. I mean, it’s hardly even a Track and Field question, really.
A tiny, tiny percentage of people have any clue who Billy Mills is. He’s not an identifiable figure.
Someone suggested a “How far is a 10k?” question. It’s honestly sad to me that Americans wouldn’t know this based on the length of a Kilometer. I mean, it’s hardly even a Track and Field question, really.
I’d love it if you could explain why you think it is sad? I honestly want to know.
My perspective tends to be that people who want to look down on Americans for our units of measurement, are just expressing some kind of snobbery. How could one unit of measurement be better than another? What is really so laudable about measurements expressed in kilometers, or degrees centigrade, or kilograms?
On another note, I slapped together some questions I thought would be fun to ask people about running, up in a previous post, but they definitely were NOT track and field questions. I would get an F for not following directions!
A tiny, tiny percentage of people have any clue who Billy Mills is. He’s not an identifiable figure.
Someone suggested a “How far is a 10k?” question. It’s honestly sad to me that Americans wouldn’t know this based on the length of a Kilometer. I mean, it’s hardly even a Track and Field question, really.
I’d love it if you could explain why you think it is sad? I honestly want to know.
My perspective tends to be that people who want to look down on Americans for our units of measurement, are just expressing some kind of snobbery. How could one unit of measurement be better than another? What is really so laudable about measurements expressed in kilometers, or degrees centigrade, or kilograms?
On another note, I slapped together some questions I thought would be fun to ask people about running, up in a previous post, but they definitely were NOT track and field questions. I would get an F for not following directions!
For the record, I am American. It’s not about thinking metric units are better than imperial units, though the based-on-ten thing and the fact that the rest of the world uses them seem like pluses. I could argue the arrogance is in declining to use the tiniest amount of brainpower memorizing a few basic and approximate conversions, especially in an increasingly global world. Kg = ~2.2 lbs., cm = ~.4 in., m = ~1.1 yds., km = ~.6 mi. It’s not hard to know this and it can be practical info.
A: That one lady with the crazy fingernails and the colored hair?
Q: How much does the winner of the Boston Marathon get in prize money?
A: Zero, maybe?
Q: What is the pole vault world record?
A: 27 feet?
Q: What is the high jump record?
A: 10 feet? No, that is too high. 6 feet?
If someone asked me to say the NFL record for passing yards, I doubt I’d be anywhere close to right. Records are a niche knowledge to any sport.
Rules are a pretty good standard. How long is lane one on a standard track? How is XC scored in the US HS and NCAA? What is the difference between a ‘Q’ and a ‘q’ at the WCs or Olympics?
If someone asked me to say the NFL record for passing yards, I doubt I’d be anywhere close to right. Records are a niche knowledge to any sport.
Rules are a pretty good standard. How long is lane one on a standard track? How is XC scored in the US HS and NCAA? What is the difference between a ‘Q’ and a ‘q’ at the WCs or Olympics?
Not knowing how many passing yards someone can throw in a career is a normal thing to not know. There is no "common sense" involved.
But thinking the High Jump world record is 15 feet or 4 feet is just weird because you can use your common sense to figure out how high a person could jump.
For the record, I am American. It’s not about thinking metric units are better than imperial units, though the based-on-ten thing and the fact that the rest of the world uses them seem like pluses. I could argue the arrogance is in declining to use the tiniest amount of brainpower memorizing a few basic and approximate conversions, especially in an increasingly global world. Kg = ~2.2 lbs., cm = ~.4 in., m = ~1.1 yds., km = ~.6 mi. It’s not hard to know this and it can be practical info.
Yes. This ^ is the reason it makes people mad. It isn't about using the units, it is the fact that the follow up comment is always, "and we never will." It is the sense of "we are above the rest of the world, so who cares what everyone else does." That arrogance shines through in the "I'll NEVER learn the metric system" attitude that many Americans have.
It isn't that they don't know it, it is being proud of not knowing it, that bothers a lot of people.
On the Letsrun podcast, Rojo's brother-in-law and nephew were asked questions about our sport. They knew a bit, but not much...
That made me curious about how much an average non-runner knows about our sport. I think I will run a survey with fifty regular people (from my daily life) and report the results back here.
What should I ask on the survey? I will not ask more than 7-8 questions or the people won't have time/interest.
Here are some examples:
How far is a marathon?
How much money do you think the winner of the Boston Marathon gets??
What is the current world record in the mile?
Name three active track and field athletes (if you can).
What nation won the most track and field medals at the Olympics?
If someone is jogging down the street, what is a normal jogging pace (in minutes per mile)?
How high is the world record in the high jump? And pole vault?
People that played other sports in college and might have even done track & field in high school knew very little back in the 90s.
Not knowing how many passing yards someone can throw in a career is a normal thing to not know. There is no "common sense" involved.
But thinking the High Jump world record is 15 feet or 4 feet is just weird because you can use your common sense to figure out how high a person could jump.
I think it's weird that anyone thinks that HJ record is 4 feet. I could jump 4 feet in my 9th grade PE class. Many other kids did. But thinking it is 15 feet is a bit less weird. Thinking it is 10 feet is even less weird. It's hard to grasp how much better the very best is compared to an average person.
I think most people know that the men's WR in 100m is between 9 and 10 seconds. Far fewer people know that the men's WR in marathon is between 2:00 and 2:10. I have bad many people asking me if my 1:3x.xx finishing time was for half or full marathon, including some race volunteers. When I told them no one could run a marathon in 1:40, they looked at me like "How could I possibly know?"
One of the more respected survey organizations in the U.S. is the Pew Research Center, and in 2023 they surveyed about 12,000 folks across the U.S. to explore attitudes towards American sports. Their main takeaways? About 6 in 10 Americans (62%) don't follow professional or college sports at all, or only casually. Only 16% follow them very/extremely closely (following sports daily and/or talking about them daily with someone somehow). Of that 16%, most only follow the 'big three' sports of football, baseball, and basketball (see: Most Americans don’t closely follow professional or college sports | Pew Research Center).
You get the idea. For the average American, even remembering who the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs is a challenge, let alone which American won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. T&F just isn't on their radar. At. all. Nada. Maybe the odd sports fan can recall the name of Carl Lewis, but they'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple more athletes of any era.
That being said, Olympic sports (including the cornerstone T&F events) continue to be a big draw among Americans, with the Paris Games averaging over 32 million American viewers a day over a couple of weeks (similar to an NBA Finals deciding match, more than a World Series baseball game, but far less than the 123 million that tuned in for the 2024 NFL Super Bowl), a big increase over the 2020 Tokyo Games. Even though most Olympic viewers are casual and they couldn't name a single American T&F athlete a week after the Games' closing ceremonies even if their life depended on it, the concept and spectacle of the Games still matters to many 'average Americans'.
That being said, Olympic sports (including the cornerstone T&F events) continue to be a big draw among Americans, with the Paris Games averaging over 32 million American viewers a day over a couple of weeks (similar to an NBA Finals deciding match, more than a World Series baseball game, but far less than the 123 million that tuned in for the 2024 NFL Super Bowl), a big increase over the 2020 Tokyo Games. Even though most Olympic viewers are casual and they couldn't name a single American T&F athlete a week after the Games' closing ceremonies even if their life depended on it, the concept and spectacle of the Games still matters to many 'average Americans'.
Without looking up, how many gold medalists in swimming @ Paris Olympics can you name?
Can you tell the "ballpark figure" of current WR in swimming?
Can you name any gymnast other than Biles? How about past gold medalists?
On the Letsrun podcast, Rojo's brother-in-law and nephew were asked questions about our sport. They knew a bit, but not much...
That made me curious about how much an average non-runner knows about our sport. I think I will run a survey with fifty regular people (from my daily life) and report the results back here.
What should I ask on the survey? I will not ask more than 7-8 questions or the people won't have time/interest.
Here are some examples:
How far is a marathon?
How much money do you think the winner of the Boston Marathon gets??
What is the current world record in the mile?
Name three active track and field athletes (if you can).
What nation won the most track and field medals at the Olympics?
If someone is jogging down the street, what is a normal jogging pace (in minutes per mile)?
How high is the world record in the high jump? And pole vault?
i will answer these questions based on what i knew before joining the high school cross country team
How far is a marathon?
26 miles
How much money do you think the winner of the Boston Marathon gets??
1 million
What is the current world record in the mile?
probably 4:xx. in my PE class, most people ran between 8-12 minutes. a few faster ones did 6:xx or even 5:xx for the super fast ones. probably would have assumed that 4:xx would be elite level
Name three active track and field athletes (if you can).
usain bolt
What nation won the most track and field medals at the Olympics?
kenya
If someone is jogging down the street, what is a normal jogging pace (in minutes per mile)?
9 minutes per mile
How high is the world record in the high jump? And pole vault?
Very little. At Christmas, I was pulled aside by my wife’s cousin who had apparently googled me. She very seriously asked me why I hadn’t kept training harder to make the Olympics. My best time in the mile is 4:13 and 14:45 in the 5k. I told her people run my mile pace for 10k and 5k pace for a marathon. People who don’t follow track/running have no comprehension how fast elite runners are.