All throws except the javelin are boring. Something about spear chucking that is more aesthetically pleasing, and you even occasionally get a good looking female JT.
Pole Vault is definitely not boring. Cartoony event, frequent wipeouts, occasional breaking poles, and on average the most eye-candy athletes in TnF (male and female).
Jumps are all more fun to do than watch.
Triple jump - who cares how far you can jump after already having jumped twice?
Pole vault - I don't care how high you can maneuver yourself when aided by a long springy stick.
Hammer - dumb.
Shot put - I'm indifferent to, but how many things do we need to throw? And if we need to throw something, I'm more interested in watching a spear travel great distances, than a big heavy rock go not that far.
I think field events should be high jump, long jump, and javelin.
I also think we could drop the 200, 800, and 10000. Even though I was a steepler, we could do without it. Also get rid of the sprint hurdles and the relays. And of course, get rid of the race walks.
My track program would consist of 100, 400, 1500, 5000, javelin, high jump, and long jump. Oh and Marathon of course for the big championships.
I'd have to agree that decathlon is the most boring event because it takes all of the boring events and performs them at a mediocre/sub elite level and takes all the interesting events and does the same.
Not saying that decathletes arent the best athletes in the world, because they are, but being a jack of all trades can be boring sometimes.
Also that momentary confusion you have when you see the 100m being won in 10.6 and it take a couple seconds to realize its the decathlon 100m not the open 100. That's annoying but also my fault.
I disagree with the comments about pole vault and high jump. Those are the most interesting field events. Pole vault in particular adds an element of actual physical danger that other events don't have.
The most boring are all the throws (tied as equally boring), followed by triple jump (too technical), long jump, high jump, and pole vault. I wouldn't include multis because it's a mix of track and field.
I actually like all of the field events and enjoy watching them, so I'm only rating comparative boringness. Just like the 10000 is the most boring running event, but I still love it.
Hammer throw is easily the most boring. You could get rid of it and only the few people who compete in it would care.
Women's Pole Vault is the most exciting field event to me. It doesn't hurt that it seems like 99% of them are gorgeous.
I am a fan of the high jumps as well. Although it can get kind of boring if they are constantly missing.
Men's Shot is entertaining. Adam Nelson used to be so fun to watch.
I agree with everybody saying to get rid of the hammer.
I like to watch them all as long as the results are in feet and inches so I can actually understand how they are doing.
Pole Vault is most interesting. Tons of technical skill, looks both difficult and fun.
Throwing events are least interesting, though only barely less interesting than Long and Triple.
Triple jump makes not sense either. Hammer is boring too. I like the javelin, the shot isn't bad either.
Why can't they add some technology to the high jump? No bar, just some type of laser that measures how high someone jumped. One color can show current lead, and one what was just jumped. Might even lead to new jumping techniques?
6 jumps total, no passing on a height, etc. Highest jump wins.
Can do the same for the pole vault.
Long jump, triple jump, or discus
I really like high jump and pole vault because they are sort of a last man standing competition.
It is pretty hard to judge how far people jump/throw in the LJ and TJ and since people just take turns to see who can go the farthest it doesn't seem as much like a competition
Nobody can possibly be bored by the spear throw! While focusing on their favorite event they suddenly hear the crowd roar and look up to see, way up in the sky, a spear hurtling in a mighty arc all the way across the field.
It is an event older than humanity itself, which evolved around the use of spears. The only improvement is they should be throwing the spears at something.
I'm hoping they dump the "Triple Jump" for the "Quad Hop", because nothing that can be done great once, and is okay three times in a row, won't be absolutely fantastic if done four times in succession.
Even worse than the hammer throw is its indoor counterpart, the 35-lb weight throw.
How about introducing some less ‘boring events?’
A few ideas here:
Most boring to least boring:
Shotput
Discus
Hammer
Javelin
Pole Vault
High jump
Long jump
Triple jump
Fat CaliDog wrote:
I'm hoping they dump the "Triple Jump" for the "Quad Hop", because nothing that can be done great once, and is okay three times in a row, won't be absolutely fantastic if done four times in succession.
That's what she said.
HarryThizze wrote:
wejo wrote:We're having a midnight pizza and beer and somehow started ranking our field events. It was surprising on how we differed on which ones we liked and didnt like.
Let's hear your rankings and reasoning.
Please include the jumps.
(later we can rank the track events)
Also there is some debate how the line on TV has improved the events and whether we can differentiate from watching in person or on TV.
Hammer throw... esp. women's... at `88 Oly Trials there were about 25 of us watching. Couldn't tell how far they threw from behind the cage.. just lots of unladylike grunting. thanks Title IX.
I was one of those 25 people. Hammer is great, because you never really know where that thing is going. I recall seeing one of the guys rip a divot out of the track with a throw.
I thought shot put was boring to watch...until I saw the female pentathletes do it! Fodorova, oh my God....
Some people have said they don't like the multi-events. Maybe guys' events, but female pent-/heptathletes are almost all gorgeous. Ditto for women's high jump. Based on the podium for the pole vault, I'd say the same thing there, too.
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Seriously, though any field event where the implement is thrown & picked up is worse-off, because there is no visual reference to show how everyone is doing relative to each other.
Imagine Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Eli Manning, and Colin Kaepernick all show up to the same place...to take turns, one at a time, throwing a football as far as they could into an empty field, only to have it picked up as they walk away. Lame. We can do better with these talents!
I wonder if the long jump would be more impacting if you had them all jump at the same time, side by side, in a very wide pit with 6 running ramps or so.
Or maybe we could have some sort of field event tag-team, where there are several teams of field-eventers, each composed of a shot putter, a long jumper, a high jumper, etc. Maybe you could time them to see which team could get through first (like it's an obstacle course), or maybe you could have a point system where you get points for both time and for greatness of field mark, so the athlete has to decide to go fast and easy, or slow and far/high/long.
I think the tag team would move the field events along faster and give the athletes something different to do, and also garner interest from fans so that, every once in a while, people will want to show up to see them do it the old fashioned way.
An 10,000 at an all-comers meet that has 2 runners if unequal ability in it
of unequal ability