The Official Athletics Thread

Athlos meet is tonight

It's run by Serena Williams husband, i think he founded reddit so is shitting money

a real go at making track sexy.

Womens only, heavy promotion including a fashion show on times square last night and a pile of high end sponsors like Dior and Tiffany. Walkout music for all athletes

Megan Thee Stallion is the entertainment

fields are Tiny but very high quality 6 per event. only 100h, 100m, 200, 400,800 and 1500m


$60k for the winners is about double what DL final paid out.

Interestingly they hadn't sold out a 5000 seat stadium as of yesterday. That's 5k not 50k.

It'll be live streamed on Athlos YouTube tonight from 00:30.

I guess we'll know how successful it is if they run it next year
LOL, good craic alright - I wonder what the testing regime will be like.

How is this going to fare against the newly-enriched Diamond League I wonder - or Michael Johnson's new setup - Grand Slam Track, I think it's called.

Still though, no Sha'Carri, no party ;)
 
LOL, good craic alright - I wonder what the testing regime will be like.

How is this going to fare against the newly-enriched Diamond League I wonder - or Michael Johnson's new setup - Grand Slam Track, I think it's called.

Still though, no Sha'Carri, no party ;)
Grand Slam track is giving me strong damp squib vibes.

The are talking about 4 meets in April and May,

LA, NYC, Kingston Jamaica, And Birmingham UK.

Syd is saying shit like it'll be nice to run without pressure of a champs so appears to be treating it as well paid pre season

You'll have 800/1500m guys like Kerr and Hocker not running against the other 1500m/5000m guys like Jakob even though so 2x 1500m same meet different pool of athletes.

Same for 100/200 and 200m/400m athletes.

The unpaced 5000m will be snoozefests with a last 400m when athletes are forced to double

Because of doubling it won't be first across the line gets the marbles.

And because its a TV event all about the athletes stories no field events in the stadium experience better be Megan Thee Stallion, John Spillane match race against Mondo in the 400mh

I love the ambition but i am not sure about this one
 
Gabby Thomas would shift a fair number of tickets i would have thought by herself.

Its mad in a world where The NFL combine and UFC weighins can sell 5k ish tickets that its not the hottest ticket In town.

I'm not Megan thee Stallion's biggest fan (Greatest Hits only not all the Albums like), but i would have thought she'd be a slam dunk for an NYC young crowd.

They clearly want to get new fans into the sport post Olympics it hardly matters that the athlete's seasons have been over about 3 weeks now.

With those kind of number sin attendance it doesn't bode well for it going forward.
 
Here's the stadium - the next meet could defo be held in MTU - maybe with Crystal Swing doing the gig in the middle.
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I'd say tickets are not the target for this one - it's just putting the event on the map. They'll have to sell tickets eventually though - people won't tune in for the streaming unless there's a decent atmosphere. The athletes won't perform in a small, dead stadium either. The Eureopean stadiums are perfect for this - tight, densely packed crowds on all four sides, all up for the event.
 
Yeah, they're probably spending $2 million or so and will get some of that back to test the concept.

Michael Johnson is spending $30 mill in year one.

I do think having a specific focus for meets isn't a bad idea. you could rotate it, women, Men, sprints, Middle distance even throws and jumps.

Don't try to be all things to everybody but pump up what you are showcasing for that one
 
LOL just watching it back. Looks fookin brilliant..

Most Heinous False Start I've ever seen to not be called back in the 100mH Tidy 60k for that

Athlete interviews after are great. Different vibe altogether
 
I consume a reasonable volume of athletics content.

This was being plugged hard over the Olympics but i kind of dismissed it because it's only Derv, Heff and Gillick.

Honestly its class. Really open, they obviously like each other and are relaxed and enjoying it.

Well worth a listen for any fan of any sport

 
I went to an athletics Ireland coaching symposium last night.

Derval O'Rourke and John Coghlan spoke for 3.5 hours on Elite sport and hurdle technique. it was completely fascinating.

Coghlan is a legend already, he coached Jasmine Camacho Quinn to Olympic gold in tokyo and to Bronze in Paris. And Cyrene Samba-Mayala to Silver in Paris. he outlined his career, coached GAA teams to make ends meet eventually went to saudi and then china before taking on the meath footballers and the dublin hurlers before taking a huge leap of faith and annoying an agent friend of his to give him an athlete to coach.

His first Client was Jasmine Camacho Quinn and 8 months later she was Oly champ.

He was totally professional, zero BS no buzzwords or management speak, as was Derval O'Rourke. She was great too. Very personable way better than she is on the telly.

He did give a few yarns about all the personalities he deals with. Jasmine Camacho Quinn only trains 4 days a week..Imagine being a coach to your first high profile western athletes and she telling you fuck off i dont do 6 days.

Said Samba-Mayala is basically only a championship runner. DLs and paychecks dont motivate her at all. She trains 6 days and he thought that she would crash out in the first round the way she had been running, she managed on the back of about 20 mins video work and some bits in the warm up track to adjust technically between each round to silver. That is some eye of the Tiger stuff right there.

There was loads of juniors in the room, and demoed drills and technique and coaching points for the guts of an hour after the "advertised" end time.

They also did a specific session with the Juniors beforehand too. Great opportunity for the kids..

Sonia was there and spoke about Sophie's Olympic prep and her running stinkers right up to the week before so her actual performance at Paris was really excellent in that context.

Loads of talk about flight paths and Parabolic moments and shin angles and rate units.

Fascinating stuff all round.
 
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