In the Munich Olympic Stadium in Germany, every fan rose to their feet.
During the past European Athletics Championships in August 2022, 55,000 fans were in attendance for the opening ceremony, which set the stage for 11 straight days of world-class sports performances.
The event took over the entire stadium. Live DJs, graffiti walls, performance artists, jugglers, marching bands, acrobats and laser light shows followed the flag ceremony as they not only celebrated the start of the championships, but the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympic games.
All across Europe, fans treat track and field like Americans treat football.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Americans treat track and field differently. For the first time, the World Athletic Championships came to the United States in 2022 when Eugene hosted the games last summer.
World Athletics’ choice to hold the competition in Eugene was an unusual move, as Oregon22 bypassed the normal bidding process because the organization wanted to have the event in the United States to grow the sport. After the New York Times called Eugene “a crunchy university town,” sports fans seemed wary about going to the event as attendance did not reach the set goals.
“I feel like track and field could be huge in America,” Christian Coleman, former world champion in the 100 meter, said. “You have a lot of kids that run track here and would love the opportunity to see us run in different places.”
Even though attendance wasn’t what officials were planning it to be, American track athletes still gave amazing performances. Kara Winger, the most decorated javelin thrower in American history, won a silver medal and retired shortly after the games. Sydney McLaughlin broke her own world record and won the women’s 400-meter hurdle and Allyson Felix ran her last race in Eugene. After 10 days of competition, many world records were broken and history was made.
“The challenge is to form a really clear connect with what they are doing — particularly those recreational runners — and believing they are part of that track and field landscape,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.
Europe has found a way to stay excited about track and one of the biggest reasons is because of the schedule. Races happen continuously. As soon as the previous runners cross the line, the next group is ready to run. There are no big time gaps, no warmups; just racing.
Another major factor is that U.S.-based sports media companies like ESPN and NBC don’t talk about track and field. Despite claiming to cover the sport, they don’t have anything that fans can interact with that analyzes the sport like they do with baseball, basketball and football. In Europe, track and field athletes are household names that get constant media attention so they always stay relevant.
European and other countries seem to have built track and field into their sports fandom, and the United States has resistance for some reason. Even if U.S. track and field makes the changes to make competitions an experience, I think the bigger question that needs to be asked is it too late for U.S. fans to accept it?