Track and field in the United States
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| Track and field in the United States | |
|---|---|
 Hayward Field has hosted the championships over 10 times, the most of all venues. | |
| Country | United States |
| Governing body | USA Track & Field |
| National team(s) | United States Olympics team |
National competitions | |
International competitions | |
Track and field in the United States is a sport which has only limited popular support.[1][2][3]
A turning point occurred in US track in the running boom of the 1970s.[4] After a series of American successes in various distances from marathoners Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers as well as middle-distance runners Dave Wottle and Steve Prefontaine, running as an American pastime began to take shape. The U.S. win in the 1976 Olympic men's decathlon, achieved by then-Bruce Jenner, made Jenner a national celebrity. High school track in the United States became a unique foundation for creating the United States middle-distance running talent pool, and from 1972 to 1981 an average of 13 high school boys in the United States would run under 4:10 in the mile per year.[4] During this time, several national high school records in the United States were set and remained largely unbroken until the 2000s. The number of high school boys running the mile under 4:10 per year dropped abruptly from 1982,[4] and female participation in many distance events was forbidden by athletic authorities until the 1980s.[5] However a renaissance in high school track developed when Jack Daniels, a former Olympian, published a training manual called "Daniels' Running Formula", which became the most widely used distance training protocol among American coaches[4] along with Arthur Lydiard's high-mileage regimen. Carl Lewis is credited with "normalizing" the practice of having a lengthy track career as opposed to retiring once reaching the age when it is less realistic of gaining a personal best result. The United States is home to school-sponsored track and field, a tradition in which most schools from middle school through college feature a track and field team. Owing to the number of American athletes who satisfy Olympic norm standards, the US holds national trials to select the best of its top-tier athletes for Olympic competition.
Right: Florence Griffith Joyner is considered the fastest woman of all time;[6][7][8] the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand.
Jesse Owens was a notable US track athlete who achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy", although he "wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either".[9]
History[edit]
On 2nd October 1887 representatives of the leading athletic clubs in the country met in New York and formed the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA). The NAAAA (also sometimes referred to as N4A) sponsored a national track and field championship from 1879 up to 1888. On 21 January 1888 another body, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), was founded with the goal of "creating common standards in amateur sport," which meant all sport, not just track and field. There were both NAAAA and AAU track and field championships in 1888 but thereafter the NAAAA disbanded. The AAU sponsored national championships every year from then until 1979.
In the 1950s, many athletes and coaches grew resentful of the power the AAU held over the growth and development of their sport, and as a consequence in 1961 The National Collegiate Track Coaches Association of the United States organised a breakaway from the AAU and a new body, the United States Track and Field Federation (USTFF) was born and started to hold its own championships from then on. This signalled the beginning of the end of the AAU which had authority over all Olympic sport wrested from it by The Amateur Sports Act in 1978.
Between 1980 and 1992 The Athletics Congress (TAC) sponsored the national track and field championships and this body was renamed USA Track & Field (USATF) with effect from the 1993 championship. Therefore, although there have been five different bodies promoting national championships in the United States there has only ever been one year, 1888, in which there was more than one champion.
At a college level, the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America, the nation’s first national athletic group, held the first collegiate races in 1873. They held national championships in Saratoga, NY in 1876. The event was effectively the national collegiate championships of the United States until the introduction of the NCAA meeting in 1921. Since that point in time the event has declined in importance and is now mainly contested by colleges and universities in the north east of the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) held its first national championships in Chicago, Illinois in June 1921, for men only. Indoor championships started in March 1965. Women's athletics was added to the Olympic Games in 1928 but not to the NCAA programme until 1982.[10][11][12]
The United States hosted their first World Athletics Championships in 2022 in Oregon.[13][14]
Governing board[edit]
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was the official organization responsible for the running of all amateur sports in the United States, established in 1888. The AAU was officially charged with the organization and operation of many sports in the US. During this time, Track and Field was one of the committees in the organization and was not an independent governing body.[15]
The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 enabled the governance of sports in the US by organizations other than the AAU. This act made each sport set up its own National governing body (NGB). Each of these governing bodies would be part of the United States Olympic Committee, but would not be run by the Committee. Thus, the USA Track & Field is currently the governing board for Track and Field in the United States.[16][17]
High School track and field[edit]
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations 2018-19 High School Athletics participation survey Track and field is one of the most participated sports in the country at high school level.[18]
College[edit]
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics runs track and field at the college level.[19]
International competitions[edit]
The sport is not popular in the United States, but its athletes dominate at the Summer Olympics and the World Athletics Championships.[20][21][22][23]
References[edit]
- ↑ Wolf, Morgan J. "Malcolm Gladwell thinks track and field's popularity in the US could be fixed by changing the perspective". Business Insider. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ "Pro track athletes make as little as $5,000". Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ "World's second most popular sport, track and field, lacks marketing, national audience". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jonathan Beverly (October 6, 2008). "Runner's World: Born at the Right Time". Retrieved December 21, 2015.
- ↑ Baker, Katie (November 11, 2011). "The Rise of the Female Distance Runner «". Grantland. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- ↑ "FloJo: World's Fastest Woman". CNN.
- ↑ "World's fastest woman Carmelita Jeter seeks Olympic gold". USA Today. June 22, 2011.
- ↑ Florence Griffith Joyner: Fastest Woman on Earth. Legacy.com. December 21, 2010.
- ↑ Schwartz, Larry (2000). "Owens Pierced A Myth". ESPN. Archived from the original on July 6, 2000.
- ↑ https://history.msu.edu/hst329/files/2015/05/LewisGuy-TheBeginning.pdf
- ↑ stevemagness (16 November 2015). "A Brief History of Track and Field in the US". Science of Running. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ Turrini, Joseph M. (12 March 2019). The End of Amateurism in American Track and Field. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252077074. Retrieved 12 March 2019 – via Google Books. Search this book on
- ↑ "American track athletes showed up. Did American fans?". July 25, 2022.
- ↑ Bishop, Greg. "What Will It Take to Make Track More Popular in the U.S.?". Sports Illustrated.
- ↑ Holst, Don; Popp, Marcia S. (22 December 2004). American Men of Olympic Track and Field: Interviews with Athletes and Coaches. McFarland. ISBN 9780786419302. Search this book on
- ↑ "USA Track & Field | History". usatf.org.
- ↑ Turrini, Joseph M. (2010). The End of Amateurism in American Track and Field. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252077074. Search this book on
- ↑ https://www.nfhs.org/media/1020412/2018-19_participation_survey.pdf
- ↑ "The European Difference in Collegiate Athletics". Stratfor. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ Fetter, Henry D. (4 September 2010). "How the 1960 Olympics Changed America". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ "The USA has been historically bad at some track and field events". USA TODAY. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ↑ Adam Kilgore (2022-07-24). "At world championships, U.S. dominance on track, U.S. fan apathy off". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
- ↑ "Despite huge success at world championships, track popularity lags in U.S." Los Angeles Times. July 25, 2022.
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