This is Bob Hodge’s final piece for RunBlogRun on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. It is a wonderful piece, once I added TrackTown back in (spell check had changed it to crackdown). Thanks, Bob. To read more of Bob’s musings, please go to: http://bobhodge.us/
Olympic Trials & Tribulations Musings on 2024
It’s over.
I have spent eleven days in this Eugene OR South University Neighborhood Air B&B, walking back and forth to the big track meet in the new monolith stadium, which seems to tower over the immediate area. Or is it only because I still remember the old Haywood field, which seemed a more natural fit in the neighborhood.
We can speculate what Bill Bowerman, the legendary Track Coach at the University, might have thought to see his beloved track and grandstand obliterated. We know that his biographer and protege, Kenny Moore, was not in favor of the new facility even in the planning stages.
This Kenny Moore quote encapsulates how I felt walking daily through my South University neighborhood to the big track meet:
In a statement to the Eugene City Council, Bowerman biographer Kenny Moore described the Hayward Field design as a “perversely ignorant remembering of the character and wishes of the man” and said Bowerman “would cringe at the height of his honorary tower, it seeming to signify the track program as somehow above our great academic university.”
I have mixed feelings, having spent considerable time now in the new facility. It certainly has many modern enhancements and gives the United States at least one quality facility, though there are several others with potential. This facility in Oregon has had a lock on the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials for the past five versions. I wonder if this is best for our sport.
I’m thinking of historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia as a possibility. In fact, it did have a part in this year’s trials when young James Corrigan, needing a qualifying time for the Olympic Games and only a matter of days to achieve it, went to a meet being held at Franklin Field, where they added a steeple event and achieved the necessary time.
Los Angeles Coliseum should get the trials in 2028, given that they are hosting the Olympics, but no one will be surprised to see them back in Eugene as the LA organization has shown no interest in hosting.
Nike built the new Hayward and is the primary sponsor of USATF. What were the psychographics? I wonder if any other community with an adequate facility will even bother to bid on future trial events.
https://trackandfieldnews.com/usa-olympic-trials-history/
From a back porch near Hendrick’s Park, I have a view of the city, the new Hayward, and the tower with the Pre-Bowerman likeness—not to be confused with the Eiffel Tower. In time, the facility will become a part of the scene, melding in as old Hayward fades from most memories.
As I ride the I5 up to Portland, I imagine Bill Bowerman and the men of Oregon as Kenny Moore illuminated this myth of Bowerman beginning with his ancestors’ arrival in his excellent book “Bowerman and the Men of Oregon.”
Traveling—Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis & Clark expedition spent the winter Dalles rapids through the gorge and remembering the natives— original men of Oregon and Bowerman’s ancestors the ranch envisioned of his childhood —a particular ethos.
It is implied and remembered throughout the new stadium imbued in it—but mostly, it is history, and this is new. A slick production to the level of big professional sports. Athletics deserves a seat at that table.
The Los Angeles Coliseum certainly has a history with Athletics a track meet featuring Paaavo Nurmi back in April 1925 to begin with and many historic events since including two Olympic Games. Enough to make Eugene’s Hayward paltry by comparison.
So why all of this myth regarding self-proclaimed Track Town USA? In the winter of 2023-24, Boston deserved the TrackTown title with the outstanding facilities now available at Boston University, Harvard, and the magnificent track at New Balance, which hosted this year’s NCAA Championships.
In other words—we need many cities to carry our sport back to the promised land of the mainstream back from the fringe of relevance that our governing bodies here in the USA and World Athletics have led us. We need diversity of place—no matter how great Eugene’s TrackTown can be, our sport needs more, and there are plenty of precedents to back up the assertion that we need every town and city to become a TrackTown, which is what our sport should be working toward.
Thousands of good people and dedicated coaches, many at the high school and college level, are doing this groundwork. I was fortunate to meet up with a few of the legends of the Massachusetts High School track at these trials and hear their colorful stories. They can inspire, but there needs to be a method– avenues to support the post-collegiate s and a truly professional sport with the governing organizations working for the athletes, not for themselves, as USATF CEO was paid a whopping $3.8 million in 2021, an outrage and his 2022 $1.3 million still excessive.
All this while USATF was losing money. He was rewarded this year with a new five-year contract extension. He also signed a $500 million sponsorship agreement with Nike through 2040. Nice job.
At a rare news conference, USA Track & Field chief executive Max Siegel welcomed the new interest and investment in the sports and pledged cooperation. He said he had heard the gripes about holding every Olympic Trial in Eugene but praised their expertise. He said he was “pretty optimistic” about growing the popularity of the sport on the road to LA28.
Eugene, Oregon, USA
June 21-30, 2024, photo by KevMofoto
Really?
Some other credible bidders, including Mt SAC, were awarded the 2020 trials in 2017 but had the rug pulled from under them when USATF canceled that agreement and later awarded the Trials to Eugene.
https://www.sgvtribune.com/2018/05/01/mt-sac-loses-2020-olympic-track-and-field-trials/
Mt SAC was treated poorly, which has discouraged others from pursuing hosting future trials.
Finally, I wonder about the credibility of the trials. Most of the sporting public believes choosing our Olympians is the most fair, and the top three in each event get to go. However, the convoluted Olympic qualification process of World Athletics makes this idea a sham, as it is often not as simple and clear-cut as we would all like it to be.
https://worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/road-to-paris-qualification-tracking-tool-launches
And also finally, Olympism seeks to create a way of life by blending sport with culture, education, and international cooperation. Diversity is at the heart of athletics, a major strength, a bond. We should take heed regardless of country wealth and fame and celebrity, many countries —-only one planet.
