The sport of running is slowly dying :(((

The sport of running is growing, just like most sports. There are many developing countries around the world which continue to improve and raise the standard of living. As people gain free time and don't have to do manual labor, they have the opportunity to participate in sport.

Look at the NCAA lists for sprints. There are tons of Nigerian named, whereas 10 years ago there would have been none. Nigeria is one country which has improved significantly over the last 10 years, and thusly has given its population better access to sport.

I don't know what you are on about. The US has had some good md runners (Glenn Cunningham, a world record holder in the '30's; Jim Ryun in the '60's - remember him?) and distance runners over the decades but it has excelled in the sprints, the latter mainly because of African Americans. But the sport doesn't have the adherence of your truly "American" sports - which are baseball, football and basketball. Athletes also earn more in those sports - for obvious reasons. I don't see any of that changing until your culture changes.

Spectating is NOT a sport

Nothing will change if our sport isn't televised and as another thread pointed out ESPN, our sports network would rather show cornhole competitions.

In 1964, before the Olympics, Americans were able to watch Gerry Lindgren defeat the Russians in a 10,000 meter race. Maybe we Americans need an enemy to drum up interest in a niche sport.

The high school scene is producing excellent times all over this country even in areas that have typically produced mediocre performances.

I agree, in other parts of the world, particularly Europe it has a strong standing. As a Europour myself I might be biased, but the participation and hype around the European champs for example is huge.

It is not running. Most sports are not drawing massive crowds like the “golden days”. People have so many entertainment options now a days, random sporting events that once seemed appealing to casual fans are no longer making the cut.

Now only the die hards are going out to the meets and this is a common thread around so many sports.

It also doesn’t help we have a unorganized sport. Imagine if we had a simple league to follow. Football has NFL, Hockey NHL, good god running needs a NRL National Running League

-_-

What do you see going on in the US system that's geared to producing 5,000 meter to marathon runners, particularly marathon runners? For the most part high school and college runners run the shortest event they're competent in and if it were geared to producing marathoners there would be a marathon at the NCAA Championships as there is in NAIA. In Japan you've got loads of college aged runners running half marathons at the very least and it's just generally assumed that any young runner who shows ability as a distance runner will move to the marathon soon and it usually happens that way. We don't do that.

It is not the 1960s, 70s, or 80s anymore.

Other sports figured out 'Sports Entertainment' was far more important than 'Sports Competition'.

Track hasn't figured out how to make itself entertaining. Rich white men in the US figured this out decades ago.

Alan

The general sports fan probably would rather watch a cornhole match than a track meet because the cornhole match will have a single winner when it's done and the track meet won't unless it's something like the NCAA Championship where you have a winning team. Fans watch sports to see who wins and when you have a dozen or more winners, as you have in a pro track meet, you really have none.

False. L.A. has the worlds largest running community of millions of runners who run each day. We have a 200 mile long beach to workout on.

Washups like you past their expiry date don’t realize that gratuitously attacking a poster is unproductive, and that with a sufficient number of “except” qualifiers, you can manufacture any dishonest statement.

I don’t care if running is popular or not

Running as a means to exercise is doing fine. Participation in road races is at an all-time high. Interest in xc & t&f is high. HS participation is up. I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

Personally I prefer to ride my road bike or mountain bike to running but that takes a lot longer and require 1000s of $ on equipment. Running takes less time, just requires a good pair of shoe, and some decent clothing.

Why do you care? Three of the most exciting races I’ve seen in person were the Hall/Dobson/Brie 5000m in 2005, the Ritz/Webb 10000m and Leo Daschbach’s sub-4:00.

I was visiting my Dad in L.A. and made a detour from my drive back to Sacramento to watch the 2005 U.S. Championships in Compton. I didn’t have to buy a ticket and there were probably 200 people there. During the 5000m, I was leaning against a waist high fence at the edge of track right at the starting line. Ryan Hall, who I noted was built like a Kenyan, absolutely hammered the pace before Broe and Dobson passed him during the last lap. Broe ran 13:12, Dobson 13:15 and Hall 13:16. Even though I left the meet at around 11:00 PM, I got caught in traffic on the freeway.

At the 10000m race in Stanford, there must have been 100 non-competitors watching and again, I didn’t have to buy a ticket to be a just a few feet away from the starting line. Jennings was playing the bongos about 30 feet away from where I was sitting with no one between us. It was really exciting to watch Ritz and Webb taking turns with setting the pace while running so fast. It was mind blowing to me that Webb could run 27:34.

The Dashbach mile was top secret and the location was a mystery. Some LR morans swore up and and down that the race was at Sac State but when we drove down there, there wasn’t a single person in sight. I checked my phone and learned that it was at Oak Ridge HS which is a few miles from my house and fortunately, there was plenty of time to get there for the race. There were only about 50 people there and it was exciting to see a HS 4:00 attempt in person. After the pacing was screwed up, it didn’t look like Leo was going to make it and him hammering the last lap to get it done was fantastic to watch. Even my kids, who don’t follow distance running, got into it.

In no way would thousands of U.S. citizens in attendance have enhanced my enjoyment of those races and some of them are bad people. At the L.A. Olympics, we sat next to some that were there to strike it off their bucket list which also included the U.S.F.L. championship. They drank copious amounts of beer and other than booing Zola Budd, they were oblivious to what was going on.

Maybe Carson? Or was it Eazy E vs Ice Cube in the 200m?

Yeah, this. Running cannot be killed as a sport. As Voltaire wrote, "If running did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it." Or something.

I believe it’s the sport itself that draws attention. For someone who’s never competed in distance running, it’s going to be boring. Being from California, I’ve never been on ice skates and there’s nothing the NHL could do that would make me interested in hockey.

Are there sports you don’t follow where good marketing would make you a fan? And how do you make T&F entertaining?

You may be right. I will be at NCAAs, USAs and WC. WC does not stop inundating my inbox with ticket deals, which USATF has not done. I think USAs will be half empty with everybody at Worlds. NCAA will be interesting, as the old stadium was never filled to capacity but seemed close with the teams filling the backstretch. It sure was loud though.

The U.S. really does not develop marathoners or half marathoners. We could do much better in that regard like Japan by including those events in the D1 champs, like they do in some of the lower divisions. The U.S. has enormous sprinting depth, coaching, facilities (though too many are locked now), and competitions. It just has to re-direct more of that depth to the 800 and even 1500m. We have three solid gold medal candidates at the 800m in men's this year, though, so we are good at it again. In the women's we have the gold medal favorite, the indoor gold medalist, plus an outdoor medalist in Raevyn Rogers. Combined, the U.S. men and women make us probably the top 800m nation in the world right now. But in the past we didn't get nearly enough talent into the distance. Even now plenty of 1500/mile runners could be starring in the 800m but don't try it much.

As for the popularity of the sport, it starts with winning and developing personalities and rivalries. If the weather keeps people home, then they just don't care enough about the sport to bother. If they care, they go: