XC is huge in USA wrote:
- - - XC running and distance running is the biggest participation sport in the world and also has a large competitive base.
The sport may be 'participated', but that doesn't mean it's watched. The biggest reason top US athletes don't do World XC is because only a small, small percentage of people care. Yeah, tons of High School kids run XC. How many of those kids do you think watch World XC? How many do you think bother to look up the results? How many do you think even know there's a race and could tell you what month it's in? Out of the roughly 500,000 High School XC athletes in America, I'd be willing to bet less than 100 watch World XC/follow the results. Not many college runners even follow it... heck its really not even that big on these Boards compared to the other events.
If you're mad at anyone for not running World XC, be mad at your fellow running fans for not caring enough about it to make it something worthwhile enough to compete in. "Well, if the Big US stars actually ran, maybe more people would watch/care." Maybe... I'd say that's true to some degree. But there's enough Big events, that the big stars don't feel the need to 'create' more by showing up to meets people don't care about- especially when their overseas.
People also bring up 'competition'. "I just want to see the best compete each other instead of time trialing, training, etc." Right or wrong- this is how it works: The top athletes want to win on the biggest stage. To be a big stage, there has to be a big audience. USATF Outdoor Champs in years with World Championships: Big Stage. A couple, Select Diamond League Meets: Big Stage. OUTDOOR TRACK World Championships: Bigger Stage Olympics: Biggest Stage.
Pretty much every other meet is practice. You train/race to compete on the Biggest Stages. A true competitor, a true Champion wins the Big ones. Every single arguement about GOATS across all sports ALWAYS involves; "How many rings did they win"? "How many Championships/Titles did they win?" World XC isn't inlcuded in that (except for in Rojo's mind). And nothing against Rojo there, if you can excel in XC, the roads, and Track, I think that's proves you're just an all-around great runner/competitor. My point is, to the rest of the United States (and most of the World) people don't talk about World XC as a major championships. Right or wrong, that's how it is. It's similar to Ultra running (how dare I bring up ultras). XC and Ultras are both tough, competitive, take certain skill sets, and are honestly great events. Plus they have some diehard fans and almost all of the fans/participants truly love the sport for all that it is. But most people in the World just don't care.
Another factor is the race is March 30th. In the US, we've been conditioned that XC is in the Fall, then Indoor Track in Winter, And Outdoor starts mid March. Then when you're a pro runner, the Track season gets extended to October and XC isn't really a thing. US runners like Shelby have been running Outdoor Track in late March (or at least beginning serious prep work) for the past 10-15 years. The only people that have XC on their minds in March are those runners that just aren't that good in Track. Or they're like their 5th guy/girl in XC... so they can have team glory in XC, but they can't achieve anything individually. Also, particularly in Shelby's case, she's always been a Track runner and loved the Track...not so much with XC. (Quick, off the top of your head, name her XC accomplishments in High School/college). Most of you were surprised she even ran the US champs to begin with. XC in late March is just weird... its Outdoor Track season... the season most of the 'average-fans' actually care about". That's not necessarily a good reason to not run it, but again, that's how it is.
*This is an explanation for why the top US runners don't run World XC and why you shouldn't be mad at them (even though it's frustrating)... I'm not making a statement about if XC should be in the Winter Olympics (although as a biased runner, I'd love to see it in the Olympics).