Athletics 2024 Discussion Thread

[Olympian1010 8,230]

6 hours ago, phelps said:

if there are 10 million male pro athletes and 100 competitive Nations in a sport and 10k pro athletes and 7/8 competitive Nations among the women in the same sport, why should they have the same treatment?

This is a bit of a "Catch 22" though. You can't give women less opportunities to compete, win medals, etc. and expect growth in their sports. If there's less opportunities to make a living, win accolades, train with a nearby club, etc. there's probably going to be less athletes.

 

The point of women's events and domestic laws like "Title 9," are to give female athletes equal, or at least equitable, opportunities to compete. If NOCs (outside the few at the top) can't qualify athletes or win medals in women's event, what incentive do they have to invest in women's sports?

 

In terms of mixed events, some of them have awful formats. I'll agree with you there. However, I will say that they encourage an NOC to develop a sport/event in both genders. If the point of a relay/team event is to measure the depth of an NOC's talent, then I don't really see a problem in that regard.

[Grassmarket 4,030]

One good NCAA meet is FTA this weekend - also has apps on all the major services.

 

https://themw.com/watch/?sport=379

[Monzanator 4,768]

Spanovic & Sawyers have blasted the take-off zone idea. Let's see how WA tries to ignore them because of course they will

 

Foul jumps ARE the drama of long jump and well, TV is glued to showing the track and ignoring the field since many, many years so don't even get me started what a waste of time in this sport really is.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/68357482

[Grassmarket 4,030]

13 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Spanovic & Sawyers have blasted the take-off zone idea. Let's see how WA tries to ignore them because of course they will

 

Foul jumps ARE the drama of long jump and well, TV is glued to showing the track and ignoring the field since many, many years so don't even get me started what a waste of time in this sport really is.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/68357482

Greg Rutherford literally made his whole career out of getting up at dawn, putting in a valid Q first time, then sitting back and watching guys with 8.55m SBs jump XXX and go home.

[heywoodu 16,004]

10 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

I would agree with some of this, but I'd add that women's sports should at least be given the same opportunities to make those kind of earnings. If you relegate their events to backwater channels, then you can't really be surprised they don't rake in as much.

Those channels are mostly commercial though, so will show what they believe earns them money. Especially in a sport like football, there's just not going to be as much interest in say the women's Champions League final, as there'd be in a regular men's Champions League group game.

 

Anyhow, this is in the end about athletics, a sport where men/women generally don't compete in separate events, so this whole thing isn't much of an issue there  

[Olympian1010 8,230]

26 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Those channels are mostly commercial though, so will show what they believe earns them money.

Yes, and no. Women’s sport has been an afterthought for broadcasters for so long. There’s just this belief that “no one wants to watch that,” and so a lot of networks don’t/didn’t really bother to program women’s sport. We’ve seen attendance records shattered in women’s sports over the last few years, and when those events are broadcast on mainstream channels or freely on publicly available channels people pay attention.

 

[heywoodu 16,004]

3 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Yes, and no. Women’s sport has been an afterthought for broadcasters for so long. There’s just this belief that “no one wants to watch that,” and so a lot of networks don’t/didn’t really bother to program women’s sport. We’ve seen attendance records shattered in women’s sports over the last few years, and when those events are broadcast on mainstream channels or freely on publicly available channels people pay attention.

 

It probably depends on the sports as well. Just looking from my own perspective: sports like athletics, biathlon, cross-country skiing and such have the same exposure, because the events can be and are generally held together. Also, when it's about fastest times and such, it's good competition anyway. But then when watching women's tennis, where the balls are often hit a meter over the net, or women's football, where even at the World Cup the level is often almost insultingly low....that shows that there is still a very long way to go in some sports before we get to a point where it gets somewhere close to as much interest.

 

It is on the rise, and that's a good thing, so for now I'll hope it all keeps going up. Who knows, maybe one day it will even be good enough in Nordic combined for the women to be on the Olympic program there (which, in my opinion rightfully, isn't yet the case for 2026). 

 

Anyhow, we should probably either move this to another thread of get back to athletics  

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Two big meets tomorrow - unfortunately Berlin seems to be restricted to German & Polish TV only.

 

Madrid is the Gold Tour Final - preview here.

 

https://worldathletics.org/news/preview/meeting-indoor-tour-final-madrid-2024-charlton

[Grassmarket 4,030]

9 hours ago, heywoodu said:

It probably depends on the sports as well. Just looking from my own perspective: sports like athletics, biathlon, cross-country skiing and such have the same exposure, because the events can be and are generally held together. Also, when it's about fastest times and such, it's good competition anyway. But then when watching women's tennis, where the balls are often hit a meter over the net, or women's football, where even at the World Cup the level is often almost insultingly low....that shows that there is still a very long way to go in some sports before we get to a point where it gets somewhere close to as much interest.

 

Gymnastics, Figure Skating (Olympic) Softball & Netball (non-O) are the only female sports that sustain the kind of commercial audience sufficient to be professional without subsidies from the male version.  AFAIK the single shared sport where the women get bigger audiences & therefore better TV spots than men is….biathlon.  

[Olympian1010 8,230]

Just now, Grassmarket said:

Gymnastics, Figure Skating (Olympic) Softball & Netball (non-O) are the only female sports that sustain the kind of commercial audience sufficient to be professional without subsidies from the male version.  AFAIK the single shared sport where the women get bigger audiences & therefore better TV spots than men is….biathlon.  

A lot of that does come down to publicity and broadcast coverage though. Would women's biathlon be as big if not offered as dual package with men's biathlon for the last few decades?