Runnerville

From Gallup Poll

With 35% of women naming swimming as their favorite Olympic sport (and only 8% track and field), it is not surprising that the aquatic’s center in Beijing will furnish a greater bulk of live, primetime NBC coverage than track and field.  But with Michael Phelps and Dana Torres leading the way in the Olympic Q-factor ratings, perhaps that isn’t so surprising. 

Along those lines, I was pleased by the tone of USOC CEO Doug Logan’s latest blog on USATF.org which spoke of the need to triple USATF’s annual operating budget ($15 million) to bring track back in line in the business world of modern sport.  The trend lines in Olympic interest point to the ailment.  Now all we need to find are the solutions. Read more…

Having the Golden League on ESPN?  Great.  Having it called by announcers who are watching a cut-up feed on monitors?  Not great.

Today was Day One in the 2008 Golden League, which ESPN, it was recently announced, would be covering at each stop on the tour.  I don’t know what I was expecting from the coverage, but suffice it to say, the telecast didn’t exactly encourage me to settle in and enjoy some track.  Now, I’m not going to get into a critique of the individual broadcasters because we do enough of that already.  Rather, I’m curious about what the viewership thought of the format.  Why do we need ESPN to provide two guys to narrate the Eurosport feed, when Eurosport already provides more than capable broadcasters?  Do Larry Rawson and Dwight Stones really bring that much to the broadcast that we’d rather them than the Euros? Read more…

Heavy analysis of the Adidas Track Classic and reports from Japan and Iraq. Enjoy the show.

Matt Taylor plays Taps after watching the ATC. It quite possibly could signal the end of our sport . . . unless, of course, someone institutes his three ideas for improving television coverage.

Toni Reavis goes Inside Baseball with running, looking at the current business plan of how the sport stages events. What do you think of his alternative business model?

Dan Lilot misses Ana Guevara for her ability to fill a stadium, even in the United States. A look back to 2003 makes the atmosphere at the 2008 edition of the ATC feel like a 5th grade play. What do we have to do to get people to come to a track meet?

Brett Larner reports on the Kanto University Track & Field Championships, the first major meet of the season for University men. He also points out two Japanese versions of Ritz.

Major Russ Stewart reports from Tikrit, Iraq with a perspective on running that can only be defined as refreshing. Tikrit has a 400m track and regular road races. What more can a runner in Iraq ask for? Major Russ also started the “Tikrit Running Club” and hopes to start some races across Iraq. Are you interested in helping with t-shirts or race numbers?

What do you think? Leave your comments below or call the comment line at 206-888-0346. Thanks for listening.