qcassidyy wrote:
Everyone says that 'widespread doping' (of which there is no evidence) is 'killing the sport,' but no one ever provides a shred of evidence to support that claim. After Lance was caught, the entire generation of Americans he inspired to get into cycling didn't suddenly lose interest in the sport. I think the explosion of popularity we've seen in distance running will have the same durability.
Lol, you have to be under 40 to believe that. You clearly have no idea how popular track was back in the day, especially in Europe and Australasia.
Decades ago, the world's fastest miler would be as famous as the world heavyweight boxing champion and the most famous soccer players. Every schoolboy would know their names and worship them. I bet less than 1% (maybe less than 0.1%) in Europe could tell you today who either the fastest miler is (potato Tim) or who the Olympic 1500m champion is.
And the reason is largely that outside of the small bubble of LetsRun, very few people care anymore about watching the latest doped up East (or North) African no personality clone winning (and then getting busted a couple of years later).
Road running as a participation sport has exploded, but that has nothing to do with the success of East Africans. The reason why there is still money in road racing is because of it riding on the coattails of the running boom, as well as the shoe wars that result in sponsorship.
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/world-athletics-financial-losses-2017-2018-revenue-reserveshttps://www.expressandstar.com/sport/uk-sports/2020/04/08/new-uk-athletics-chief-executive-plays-down-bankruptcy-fears/