World Track and Field Championships
I don’t think it’s hard to recognize that Track and Field is one of the truest tests of pure athleticism. Yes all sports require athletic ability, certain specialized skills, and countless hours of preparation, but it is in track and field where performance is directly linked to how fast you run, how high you jump, how far you throw. So why doesn’t the sport have a more mainstream presence in American entertainment?
I understand that the pure entertainment value of the sport may not be nearly as significant as the three major sports that currently monopolize television and media coverage (I think there used to be four major sports but I only remember seeing three this past year). However, consider this year’s track and field world championships which takes place August 6-14 in Helsinki, Finland. Television coverage for the event is limited to essentially a one hour daily highlight show on the PAX network. The PAX network? Does anyone remember watching anything on that channel ever? It’s certainly not a mainstream television network and it’s definitely not a sports network. ESPN, which is supposed to be the worldwide leader in sports, doesn’t even pick up any coverage of the world championships of one of the ultimate sports. Instead they show hot dog eating contests and reruns of the same poker championships over and over.
Despite this lack of television coverage, there is one good thing about the world championships this year:
Track fans in the United States and U.S. territories will be able to watch, for the first time ever, an unprecedented 58 hours of live Webcast coverage of the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, plus archived footage and broadcast highlights. For $4.95, fans will be able to watch every day of competition from the World Championships in Helsinki, including every heat of every track event, as well as extensive field event coverage.
Apparently, a new sports network called the World Championship Sports Network is going to be launched this summer and they are offering complete coverage of the Helsinki event via live webcasts. This is a step in the right direction, but I still think that the public interest is there for major networks to televise more of the significant events that occur in the sport of track and field.
