BUDAPEST – Some number of years ago, Anna Cockrell was an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, where I teach journalism. At a track and field dinner, she and I happened to get seated next to each other. It was obvious she was destined for big things.
On Friday, at the Team USA news conference before the start of the 2023 world championships, Anna, who is a standout hurdler, was asked – by a non-American journalist – how it is that the United States can keep sending a dominant team even though the sport is “losing popularity” and has essentially no “major support” at home. That is because, as he asserted, not incorrectly, “ESPN is ignoring it.”
Anna delivered a lengthy soliloquy that, for the most part, hit the right notes. (Not surprising. She is, as noted, hugely capable.) At the same time, it also underscored the blunt reality facing track and field as the sport heads into what seems by every measure to be first-rate world championships, what could be the best-ever, here in Budapest.
Anna Cockrell at Friday’s Team USA news conference
In contrast to last year’s debacle in Eugene, marked by dismal attendance and almost no buzz, even the first-morning session here Saturday, featuring events such as 100-meter men’s prelims from athletes whose personal best is in the high 11 seconds, is a sellout; the town is carpeted with banners; the welcome dinner Friday night was alight with music and dance, emotion and soul.
What’s missing from Anna’s oration – what she doesn’t touch on, as you’ll see – is the very thing that now begs for acute examination.
Or, rather, reputable wire transfers.
The sport needs money.
Way more money. It’s rooted in a tired, old structure dominated by shoe companies.
There’s sideline talk here that the demand of competing at an Olympics (Tokyo 2021) followed by worlds (Eugene 2022) followed by worlds (Budapest 2023) into an Olympics again (Paris 2024) and then another worlds (Tokyo 2025) is throwing the delicate nature of too many athletes off balance.
Here’s real talk: that’s a cop-out.
If more money was on offer, people would be lining up, happily, to run in Budapest. What would it take? $50,000? $75,000? $100,000? $250,000? $500,000? What’s the price?
A considerable number of high-profile athletes have begged off these championships: Americans Sydney McLaughlin-Leverone and Michael Norman, British distance runner Eilish McColgan, Portugal’s Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Zambia’s 400-meter standout Muzala Samukonga.
McLaughlin-Leverone’s social media withdrawal announcement
McColgan: “With Olympics around the corner, the stakes are too high.” McLaughlin-Leverone: “After consulting with my doctors and coaches, I need to take care of a minor knee issue so that I can be fully healthy for next years’ [sic] Paris Olympics.”
On the one hand, this is absurd. These are the world championships, the premier meet in the sport for this year. It might be one thing for McLaughlin-Leverone to pull out of a new meet that ran May 27 in Los Angeles. But the worlds? Allegedly to save herself for the Olympics nearly a full year away in Paris? Which means, if nothing else, the U.S. Trials roughly six weeks before?
Back to that LA meet in May. It was co-promoted by McLaughlin’s svengali coach, Bobby Kersee, who told the Los Angeles Times in March:
“Track and field needs a serious boost in the arm when it comes to coaches, athletes, administrators behind the sport to get involved, get a product out there that the fans enjoy. We get too locked up into world records. We need good competitions, good performances, good meets. And we got the athletes to do it.”
So which is it? We got the athletes to do it? Or they only care about one meet every four years because it boosts the market value of that particular athlete but doesn’t do a damn thing for the sport itself? And because the value of winning at the worlds isn’t by itself germane to the discussion?
What about that swell noise everyone always makes about how great it is to be a teammate at a big meet? “Team USA is really like a family,” McLaughlin-Leverone said after being part of the winning 4x4 relay at last year’s worlds in Eugene. This year? Did the notion of savory goulash in Budapest turn into nightmares of bad Thanksgiving turkey and loony Uncle Louie and peach pie instead of pecan? No way! Family? What?
The argument that a bothersome knee is too much, or some back pain is too strenuous – that is categorically ridiculous. Especially for a once-a-year meet. Ryan Crouser, the shot put stud, is here with blood clots. He said Friday on Instagram he damn well plans to compete.
The bigger picture is this: week in and week out, dudes suit it up in the NFL and go out there and play. If you have ever been on the sideline of an NFL game, you know that a routine NFL hit is like a car crash. They play hurt. That’s a given.
Then again – this is the on the other hand of this column — dudes in the NFL are paid way, way, way more. An NFL rookie’s salary for 2023 is $750,000 plus whatever he gets in prorated signing bonus. The best quarterback in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes, makes $45 million per year; that’s now seventh – seventh! – in quarterback average annual value.
Before you say, oh, you’re comparing track and field to the NFL, and that’s not fair – it 100% is fair. Track and field aspires in every way to be like the NFL. Further, in the United States, why do you think so many male high school track and field stars peel off to play college football? Let’s play Captain Obvious: it’s the potential to make money, way more money, playing football.
First place at these championships, just like last year in Eugene, is worth $70,000. Compare: a gold medal at the 2023 men’s boxing championships was worth nearly three times that, $200,000.
Things have to change. Seb Coe, elected here to a third term as World Athletics president, knows this is the next focus after eight years devoted to governance reforms that, for instance, now sees a governing council composed of 50% women.
The vote that confirmed him for a third term gave him a rock-solid mandate: 192 yes, zero no, three abstentions. He said afterward: “We have a lot of unfinished work to do … let’s bring this baby home.”
Track and field can boast a core audience. That core is hard-core. The trick is to move beyond that.
This is the unfinished work. It’s going to require a ton of money. The money is out there. The question is whether someone – or some number of someones – will invest it in track and field. And why.
Anna Cockrell had this to say:
“I think we’re strong in spite of the lack of media support. I think a lot of us kind of have this underdog mentality where, especially if you go to university, you see people who are playing football or playing basketball or getting that attention and, you know, you work just as hard if not harder than they do. And, so, it kind of, it becomes a driving force like, OK, we might not get millions of views. We might not be Sunday Night Football, but that doesn't mean my sport, my talent, my contributions aren't valid.
“And I think that the track community in the U.S. is very tight-knit. Like, I've known Noah [Lyles] since, what 11th grade, 10th grade? And we reinforce each other, you know? It'd be lovely to have that outside media validation. It'd be wonderful to get the attention that other sports in the U.S. get but, frankly, we don't need it.
[Editor’s gentle observation: say what?]
“We don't need it – to perform to the best of our abilities. It doesn't make or break our performance. Cameras on, cameras off. We are going to show up and show out every time because – for ourselves, for our personal pride. And then for the different rivalries that you have and, you know, someone's going to come with their best every day if you know it's going to take everything you have to make the team, you can't afford to take time off. Because your competitors aren’t going to.
[Editor’s gentle observation x2: these championships would suggest otherwise.]
“Just because there might not be the media there doesn't mean we're not all going to take it seriously. So, I think that we're maybe a disciplined group of people and standards have been set for us. And I think the nature of track and field – look at the past, look at the present, but look at the past and ask, how can I be the best ever if not the best right now. But the best ever. Whether or not everyone in the U.S. is paying attention. That doesn't change what those times are. And I want to put my name next to those times … So, there's always accountability coming from a bunch of different areas. We would love to have more media attention, but it's not required. It's not required to be the best. OK.”