Aussies, is track suddenly taking off and becoming popular in your country?

I love it Rojo when you start a thread with “Aussies” or “Ultra experts” etc, it always cracks me up. I am waiting for the day when your thread starts with “Morons…”

It's pronounced moran ya moran

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That's how many usually end, some quicker than others. So starting AND ending wouldnt be too far out of the realm of possibility.

That being said, Australia is certainly competing well in many events, both genders, and are becoming regular finalists and medalists in championship meets. I'd say they are closing in on their swimming team and definitely pulling away from their break dancing team.

Whether or not a few marketable headlines about Olympic success and Gout Gout actually translates into more dedicated fans is another question.

Would need to look to other metrics like Australian event attendance and viewership. We had Zatopek recently, not sure how it stacks up to previous years. Maurie Plant meet could be a good indicator.

Not at all.

Lots of people do parkrun, but I doubt 95% of them could name a single elite distance runner.

I don't live in Melbourne or Sydney though (maybe people there have a better sense), but in my home city, track and field has been slowly dying.

No one turns up to watch track, other than the parents of the kids competing, and outside of the 100m -1500m, you're lucky if you get more than a half dozen competitors in any other event.

Yes and No.

Running is definitely booming at a recreational level. All big marathons (Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast) are selling out within a day. Popular training spots are now busy 7 days a week. But track is still somewhat irrelevant. Gout Gout is getting some headlines on the comparisons vs Bolt and people that follow sport will know him. But I’m not sure how many people would know Jess Hull.

Athletics Australia, athletes and fans of the sport need to promote big track meets better to draw in crowds. Zatopek earlier this month did well having a music act play post the last 10k.

Being a smaller country it might be possible to capitalise on Olympic success in ways that the US can’t (think Kenya or Jamaica).

We have a massive Olympic budget and for our population, we perform disproportionately well.

The patriotism has to build towards Brisbane 2032.

I wonder if there’s parallels to horse racing. The Melbourne cup drew 1.5mil viewers this year. Could we translate the appeal of “picking the winner” to athletics?

People might be paying more attention to the headlines (because athletics is actually making headlines) but I doubt there'll be much of a shift in event attendance or viewership. Maybe if Gout Gout can do something big at a global championship then things might shift.

We will never get 12000 to athletics outside the games but a thousand might watch Gout or Hull running world leading times

It's probably too early to say, but success usually breeds success, and athletes like Gout and Myers could transcend the sport and become household names.

They shot themselves in the foot a little by not taking Myers to Paris. That alone suggests that the people in charge of Australian athletics don't have the brains to capitalize on a unique opportunity to grow the sport and create stars.

They got 6100 at Maurie Plant meet in 2023. For sure they could pull more under the right circumstances. Gout in particular needs to keep improving and making headlines.

Some non-runners know who Gout Gout is in Australia. I think mostly only distance fans know who Myers is despite his age-group records. Gout Gout's 20.04 (23rd in the world) is competitive on the world stage right now. Myers is exceptional for his age, but at 3:33.3 (38th in the world) he isn't quite in the same conversation, in my opinion, just yet.

Zatopek looked like it around 6,000 and neither Jess or Gout ran there.

I think the sport is moving in the right direction but more needs to be done to increase numbers between the ages of 13-19 with a huge drop out rate from little athletics.

I'm not sure what the numbers are like in Sydney or Melbourne. I live in a city of almost 500,000 and there might be 60 kids that I know of who are middle distance (800-5k) athletes that I know of. The pool is very small.

the Age had an article on Gout Gout, which was previewed on the front page. Which would be great, except they used a photo of Peter Bol.

So I wouldn’t say he’s really translated into a household name, as even the journos writing about him don’t know who he is.

I don’t think track is on the cusp of exploding here. Attendance at Zatopek and the unfortunately named Maurie Plant meet haven’t boomed over the past few years. And the success has largely occurred in spite of Athletics Australia, not because of it. Selection controversies continue to be front and centre for every major games, and the issues with Bideau, Parnov etc. are a major stain on the sport.

It's usually not the journos responsible for choosing photos for news articles at major news outlets.

Zatopek was dire; the actual racing was fine but the event itself was dull and not well attended. It’s zero comparison to night of the 10000m.

The only time athletics hits the news in Australia is when something insane happens - gout gout breaks 50 year old record, jess hull wins Olympic medal or similar. After these moments occur it’s radio silence until the next outrageous performance. However if an AFL footballer so much as sneezes it’s ‘back page’ news. It’s exactly the same in most other countries. It’s just the way things are. T&F is a very minor sport outside of Olympics.
Still I’m a diehard fan living in Melbourne and am frothing in anticipation of seeing Gout Gout and Can Myers (and rumours of some big name internationals?)

Thank you for sharing this information......