You talk a lot about building the popularity of the sport. One way to do that is name recognition.
People love to see the past champions compete. In the golf Masters previous winners can compete for as long as they want and often attract much of the press attention. I’d like to see athletics go back beyond the most recent champion. Perhaps if you’ve won in the last 4 champs you get a pass?
Not everything is about entertainment. Your proposal really doesn't do much for the sport; it makes one meet maybe slightly better. I also don't understand the NFL reference; track is much more like golf or tennis; it's an individual event and has a "tour."
I think athletes going to USAs and scratching after 1 round is nonsense though. If the athlete with the bye never enters in the first place I don't think the drama of the meet is affected. Top 3 go and that is still very exciting.
The qualifying system is already incredibly unfair if there's situations where someone with the #2 performance in a year AND wins the regular season title (Joe Kovacs) doesn't qualify for Worlds because they compete for the U.S. I like safety nets for top athletes in general so keep the bye, but the whole system is broken. Giving the bye to the country is even more unfair and convoluted.
To be honest, I'd get rid of the whole qualification system and adopt an NCAA East-West track type qualification system (with more regions). Americas, Africa, Asia/Oceania, Europe. Top 12 go in each event (less make it in 10k). This would require every athlete to run a trials race pre-Worlds (which isn't required right now for most athletes), and the regions would be roughly equal (definitely not perfect but a lot better than the top 3 country limit which has wild differences in qualifying).
I agree with both of these ideas. I don't agree with the LRC proposal. Glad to see Sebastian Coe has already rejected it.
Also: can the LRC staff please get off Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's back about not attempting the 400/400h double? We've been through this before. That double is not feasible when the two events overlap in the schedule like they do.
I knew scrapping the bye would be unpopular but the idea I suggested it is because I'm tired of seeing defending world champions scrapping USAs/not taking it seriously. The bye was invented for MJ in 1997 because he was legitimately injured and the IAAF still wanted one of its biggest stars to be at Worlds. If that is how it was used now, I'd be fine with keeping it. But that's not how it is used now. USA one of the few meets with enormous stakes and we're removing one of the stakes with the bye.
In theory it would be great if USATF could say, "we're only sending the top three" but they're not realistically going to do that and then keep Grant Holloway at home if he finishes 5th at USAs. Maybe the best way to do it is to require "honest effort" but that's hard to enforce.
As for SML...you seem to think it's not feasible. I disagree. It's challenging, but doubles are meant to be challenging. In 2024 and 2025, the 400 and 400H have been on six straight days at the Olympics Worlds, alternating each day. That's not as easy as the 5k/10k but definitely not as hard as some of the doubles/triples Hassan has taken on. The prelims aren't going to be tough for Sydney, and she ran the 200/400 on consecutive days at the Brussels DL last year. I'm not going to rip SML for not doubling this year. She's doing the 400 in Tokyo and that's great. But I disagree that the schedule makes it unfeasible.
I understand your point about world champions scrapping USAs or just going through the motions, but if I had to choose between our best athletes potentially being at only one of either nationals or worlds, I'd rather see them fresh and ready to go at worlds.
The U.S. depth is what makes your proposal unnecessary. Even without Holloway, the men's 110mH wasn't lacking for drama and intrigue at USAs this year. That final featured this fantastic four:
Ja’Kobe Tharp, the rising star and NCAA champ who's run faster at age 19 than Holloway did
Cordell Tinch, the fastest hurdler in the world this year
Dylan Beard, a man chasing his athletic dreams while working at Walmart
Trey Cunningham, the 4th fastest hurdler in the world this year who won at DL Paris, DL Monaco, and GST Miami
Without Lyles in the men's 100m, we still had 5 guys run 9.86 or faster.
Without Crouser in the shot put, we still had Kovacs somehow finishing 4th.
I also think there is added intrigue around the world championships this year precisely because we're going to have four reigning world champions making their outdoor season debuts: Jakob, Crouser, Rojas, and Kennedy. It's so intriguing I made a thread about it last week: (it didn't get many hits, but I think that's only because three of the four athletes compete in field events, and this site focuses more on distance running; I know a lot of people here are intrigued by the mystery of how Jakob is going to perform).
This will be a fascinating world championships competition with four reigning world champions making their outdoor season debuts in Tokyo after long injury layoffs: Jakob Ingebrigtsen - the reigning men's 5k champ hasn't comp...
Re: Sydney, I suggest you talk to 400m hurdlers about it because, as distance runners (myself included), I don't think we fully appreciate how difficult it would be to race over 400/400h six consecutive days in a row and switching back and forth between those events from both a physical standpoint and a technical execution standpoint.
The hurdles are highly technical, and distance runners who are criticizing Sydney need a better understanding of how switching back and forth between the events could throw a hurdler off their rhythm and steps for the hurdles. Your example of Sydney running the 200 and 400 on consecutive days in Brussels underscores the need for education on this topic. Running flat events on two consecutive days is not at all the same as switching back and forth between a flat event and a hurdles event six days in a row.
While Hassan's doubles and triples were incredible, she always had at least one or two days off to recover while attempting them. She never had to race six days in a row.
Rather than approach Sebastian Coe about a change most fans aren't asking for, I think a better change to advocate for with World Athletics is to adjust the timetable for the 2027 world championships and 2028 Olympics to make the 400/400h double truly feasible by having one event conclude before the second one begins. That's how it's done for common doubles such as the 100/200, 5k/10k, and 1500/5k. They adjusted the schedule so Michael Johnson could attempt the 200/400 at the 1996 Olympics, so they can do the same for Sydney.
This is an awful take. We want the reigning champions at worlds.
Why? If they are in shape, I want them running.
If they aren't in shape, it does nothing for me except ruin USAs.
It's like putting the 7-9 2020 NE Patirots into the playoffs as they won the Super Bowl two years previously.
The problem is that you think this is a team sport when really it’s individual. I agree on the two years though. It should just be whoever was the previous years champion. So for Holloway, it would still be valid.
You talk a lot about building the popularity of the sport. One way to do that is name recognition.
People love to see the past champions compete. In the golf Masters previous winners can compete for as long as they want and often attract much of the press attention. I’d like to see athletics go back beyond the most recent champion. Perhaps if you’ve won in the last 4 champs you get a pass?
Golf has a much larger field. In track, this takes away spots from younger folks who are developing and making a name for themselves.
If they aren't in shape, it does nothing for me except ruin USAs.
It's like putting the 7-9 2020 NE Patirots into the playoffs as they won the Super Bowl two years previously.
The problem is that you think this is a team sport when really it’s individual. I agree on the two years though. It should just be whoever was the previous years champion. So for Holloway, it would still be valid.
The World Champion earned the spot. The country did nothing to earn the spot. If the World Champion was American and was forced to compete at nationals and didn't make the team, the country loses the extra spot. The point of nationals is to select the national team, not entertain you.
The World Champion earned the spot. The country did nothing to earn the spot. If the World Champion was American and was forced to compete at nationals and didn't make the team, the country loses the extra spot. The point of nationals is to select the national team, not entertain you.
If you are outside the top three in the US, then you are outside the top three in the world.
Original article is stupid and the idea is stupid. Keep it as is. The USAs are always great even if some World Champs are missing. How many extra people would’ve bought tickets to Eugene if these missing athletes would’ve competed harder? 20?
Off the top of my head from a World perspective, Seb Coe in 1988 and the Dan/Dave decathlon would’ve been premium must watch events and great for track and field. Instead the sport wants to limit itself in stars at competitions.
Completely disagree. This is brilliant on many levels. Has to be earned. Only the most recent champion gets this, not all from the past. Adds to the drama and the champion will be there to repeat...or not. Leave it as is. I even think up to 5 from a country if another wins the Diamond League Final but will settle for 3 and a 4th if your country has the reigning world champion.
Completely disagree. Track is an individual sport - they earned it for themselves.
Did they? Sitting around not racing? As has been pointed out you cant really imagine any sport allowing you to compete in the championship game just because you won years ago.
I think this is one of those arguments that if the debate was reversed we would be outraged. What if there was no such thing as a free spot/bye? And someone said hey lets gift someone a spot for result from years ago? Nobody would be in favor.
Original article is stupid and the idea is stupid. Keep it as is. The USAs are always great even if some World Champs are missing. How many extra people would’ve bought tickets to Eugene if these missing athletes would’ve competed harder? 20?
Off the top of my head from a World perspective, Seb Coe in 1988 and the Dan/Dave decathlon would’ve been premium must watch events and great for track and field. Instead the sport wants to limit itself in stars at competitions.
I actually like the article and that it discusses the complaints openly.
I see one big point missing though: botched selections and the matches we could have seen but did not. LR discusses how poorly the people who got the bye performed, but there is no counterfactual for the match-ups we never saw. Countries like Kenya and Ethiopia (Australia also, but fewer medals) make some questionable political decisions. The bye is a risk management tool to not lose a good story line. Yes, doesn't happen often, but the bye has only been there for a few years now. It really only takes one of those choices to be a bummer for the "product" from WA view and for the casual fan that only knows <10 stars to begin with, that's not to be taken lightly.
Whether that justified SO many byes to save the one shot and whether the bye is the best instrument...I don't know, but I think only basing it off the performance of those who got the bye as the article does is missing the other side of the coin. They say risk is impact*probability...low probability, high impact.
Thinking about an Athing vs. Keely type situation (i know, it was the Olympics, but still...can imagine something like this happen for Worlds in the future and maybe even more stupidly for a political selection decision...didn't even Letsrun write something that you couldn't really watch the race and NOT think about Athing?).
The NFL playoffs analogy doesn't work here, where it's a team competition and precious slots are earned for a limited playoff schedule.
Adding 1-2 to 40+ individual slots in a championship for a previous winner or someone that is on fire with the season's DL wins makes sense to me and adds to the excitement.