Usain Bolt’s known as a success coach Glen Mills uploaded a year ago For the Jamaica Observer blunt but justified criticism of international athletics. Mills’ main message was that the sport failed to capitalize on the Bolt phenomenon after the megastar retired.
Mills brought up a basketball legend, among others, as a point of comparison Michael Jordan’swho by his example raised the popularity of the NBA and basketball worldwide.
Bolt, who ended his glorious career in 2017, was a megastar superior to international athletics. In addition to the title of the fastest person in the world, it was a personality that anyone could easily get excited about. Bolt was an entertainment package that appealed to the wider masses. There will hardly ever be another Bolt in athletics.
In Finland, the status of athletics as a popular sport continues year after year. The recent success of value competitions creates new opportunities. Thanks to athletes who appear well on social media, the sport is also young enough.
In the world, the situation is different. During his active days, Bolt was one of the most famous athletes in the world. The same cannot be said about any of the current elite athletes. The sport’s visibility in the international media field falls under the pressure of, for example, football and many other sports.
The problem is not with the athletes
This should not be misunderstood. In athletics, there are superstars of their own sports in the darkest of clouds, like for example Armand Duplantis, Sydney-McLaughlin-Levrone, Karsten Warholm and Ryan Crouser. The problem is that the umbrella organization of the sport, World Athletics, does not know how to productize its front images enough.
I’m not a marketing professional, but especially through social media it would be possible to make more new friends for the sport. The fact that World Athletics has just over two million Instagram followers says something.
In comparison, ice hockey, which is a much smaller sport in the world, the first league NHL has more than six million Instagram followers. F1, which has been a big hit in the American market in recent years, is worth well over 20 million.
The corresponding reading from the International Athletics Federation is weak for a sport that is above all global. Of course, the social media presence of individual athletes plays a big role, but the International Association of Athletics Federations acts as a channel for reaching all athletes. There is a lot of room for growth.
For years, it has been argued to the point of boredom that an athlete has to have some kind of personality in addition to hard athletic aspects in order to be interesting enough. For example, the NHL’s number one draw Connor McDavid is not a charismatic character by any means.
However, the NHL has been able to produce a culture where even boring superstars shine brightly. The same more visible approach would also be needed from World Athletics.
Too many races
An essential challenge in athletics is also finding a functional competition product. The Olympics and the World Cup at least work reasonably well, but the basic product in the Diamond League has had the taste of forced buns for a long time.
First of all, there are far too many competitions, 14 of them. For someone who follows the series less, the system looks confusing.
There are different sports in different competitions. When, for example, there have been certain star athletes in the sprint distance of a race, the list of participants in this sport can be completely different in the next race. It is difficult for potential new viewers to get a good grip on the series.
The actual race broadcast is a compact two-hour set, where the field sports have remained on the sidelines. They do have their own follow-ups for the streaming service, but in the actual broadcast, the best performances often catch a glimpse of replays.
Field sports are, however, a significant part of the overall athletics competition. When only a few pieces of the long distance race are glimpsed, it is impossible to create a story for TV viewers. The current Dimanttiliiga is a very restless entity in terms of its implementation and its strong emphasis on running.
Superstar duels are in short supply
A big part of the success of the competition product is the presence of superstars. The atmosphere of the Monaco Diamond League competition held on Friday was dampened by the last-minute withdrawals of the superstars of their respective sports. Missing from the line were McLaughlin-Levrone, Ray Benjamin, Fred Kerley mixed Erriyon Knighton.
The fact that McLaughlin-Levrore, who is one of the top 3 athletes in athletics at the moment, competed in the Diamond League for the first time since 2019 tells something about the popularity of the series.
This can be seen in the fact that the tops of different sports hardly meet each other outside of the prestigious competitions.
There are high-quality competitions in field sports throughout the summer, but the situation is different in many sprints. The star duo of the women’s 400m hurdles McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol meet only once a year.
This summer, among other things Athing Mu & Keely Hodgkinson (800 m), Warholm & Benjamin (400 m aj) and Noah Lyles & Knighton (200 m) have never met each other. A refreshing exception is the women’s 100-meter hurdles, where the cream of the crop meets each other here.
Among others, Bolia and Finland Delay from Lehikoi coaching Laurent Meuwly stated last summer to Urheilu that athletics needs more high-level competitions, where all the 2-3 best athletes of the sport are present.
– When fans want to see Sydney McLaughlin and Femke Bol compete against each other, they see it once a year in the finals of the prestigious competition. That is not the way we are going to develop athletics. It’s a bit like seeing Roger Federer’s and Novak Djokovic meeting only once a year.
– We want more of this. Because of this, World Athletics, the Diamond League and the national sports federations have to think about how to get the best athletes to compete against each other much more often, Meuwly announced at the time.
A stop for the superstars’ hideout
In athletics, even too much has gone into staring at world records and other tough results. For those following a lesser sport, a certain result of a men’s discus or women’s height is a buzzword. People are still competitive, so anyone can recognize an exciting battle on the track.
The Diamond League needs to be built into an event where there would be significantly more of these encounters. One way to increase the value of the games is to drastically reduce the number to, say, six songs.
This was once the case during the Golden League, the predecessor of the Diamond League. There would still be enough competitions for the athletes, but they would no longer be first category competitions. The events would also, like the Diamond League final event, last for two days and a few hours, so that all sports would get the attention they deserve.
Athletes also have a responsibility. If changes are not made, there is a risk that athletics will find itself in a marginal position in the world in the future.
So the superstars have to stop hiding and dare to face each other outside of the prestigious competitions.