Buckle Up, Venting Time!

Buckle up for this one!

This blog comes to you as I’m sitting on my couch watching the IAAF Diamond League, The Pre Classic. I’m doing everything I can to keep from throwing up in my mouth and throwing random items at the tv. Watching this meet makes me realize why Track and Field will never be popular in the USA. Just to prove my analysis, I put it to the test at random times of this competition, which just so happened to have some of the greatest athletes in the world competing there.

The meet has been on for exactly 30min as I type this...here is what I have tried: Switch channels every 5 minutes for approximately 30min, just to see what was on if I happened to be “channel surfing”…here is what I saw: A shot of the stadium…people standing around…more people walking around, introductions of the men’s 85k or something…guys jogging…guys in a press box, a few shots of starting blocks in funny angles…

So I wonder to myself, if I’m your average person channel surfing on a Saturday afternoon, would I stop and watch the Pre Classic, the answer is an overwhelming no.
This brings me to the coverage of last weeks National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. My training partner Kara Patterson destroyed the American record in the javelin throw, and got a whopping 18 seconds of coverage! 18 seconds of coverage by Universal Sports, who is supposed to be the greatest advocate of our sport…18 seconds…really? For an American Record, and one of the best throws in the history of the event….that added to the 50 or so spectators just makes me wonder if we are fighting a loosing battle. But if you want to watch 9 minutes of a 5k race or something, you’re in luck because you can see the entire thing, start to finish! Des Moines, Iowa is the host for the annual Drake Relays, which is a local high school and college meet, and the meet is sold out well in advance every year, packing thousands into the stands…so how it came to be that our NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS was contested with a less than half filled stands is kind of mind boggling…but then I reflect on the TV coverage, and it starts to make sense.

Speaking of TV coverage, we may not see an increase in interest in track and field until we get a fresh outlook from television commentators who aren’t jaded and biased from the own performances from the 80’s. How many years will we have to continue to listen to the rambling of guys like Dwight Stones? I remember watching the rebroadcast of last years Stockholm Super Grand Prix. Andreas Thorkildsen won with arguably one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen going 86m into a nasty headwind and intermittent rain. I placed 4th and Dwight made the comment that I just couldn’t hang with the Europeans and lacked the arm speed to contend…I’m guessing he didn’t notice that I knocked off the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Silver Medalists as well as the 2003 World Champion in that meet. It was a great source of motivation for me for the rest of the season and still continues to be today….you can imagine my pleasure when I got a friend request from him on facebook! It was also great to hear Dwight say about my roommate, Brad Walker, "Brad is built like a hammer thrower not a pole vaulter" …he then went on and broke the American Record…no big deal right?

Anyways, enough of the negative Nancy stuff… I did manage to throw almost 79m last weekend in Des Moines to take 2nd…again! That makes 4 silvers in a row, always the groomsman, but never the groom! Wait wait wait, not saying I want to be a groom anytime soon, but it would be nice to get a National Championship out of the way! It was a pleasant result, given the fact that I wasn’t even going to compete and the only reason I went is because USATF was threatening to make me reimburse them for my ticket if I didn’t go. I didn’t even take any javelins and was reluctant to even pack my spikes, luckily I did.

I'm sorry I cant even write about the meet right now because the television broadcast of the Pre just finished and guess what…NO JAVELIN COVERAGE! Kara won again with another throw waaaaaay over the previous American Record and kicked the Reigning Olympic Champs butt…I guess that’s not good enough to interrupt a 9 min jog around the track….seriously….I'm going to be sick

M++