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400 meter hurdles

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by poindexter, Jul 20, 2022.

  1. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Supposedly to honor his mother (who is Swedish) -- at least, that's what they said on the broadcast last night. His older brother represented Sweden before him as a pole vaulter in international youth competitions.

    Wikipedia says, "Duplantis also stated that his older brother having great experiences representing Sweden at a youth level and his love for Sweden as a child made his choice very easy but that he also feels a strong bond to Lafayette (La.)."
     
    Webster likes this.
  2. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    And Hayward Field being the former home to just about half the runners.

    But still, no Tirico!
     
  3. Dog8Cats

    Dog8Cats Well-Known Member

    For track and field fans, I highly recommend the content from Citius Mag. They did a "pregame" show and a postgame "Champs Chat" all 10 days of the worlds. I don't spend much time with podcasts and the like, but this became must-streaming for me.

    Best segment is the video in this tweet.

    Those podcasts/live streams allowed viewers to get to know the athletes who appeared on them so much better than can be done in a broadcast window. They didn't get Sydney McLaughlin, but they got Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, Rai Benjamin, Trevor Bassitt, the U.S. women's marathoners, the silver and bronze medalists in the men's shot put, Kenny Bednarek, ...
     
    Donny in his element likes this.
  4. HappyCurmudgeon

    HappyCurmudgeon Well-Known Member

    Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is probably the most underappreciated athlete in the world. She's 35, barely 5-feet tall in a world of long, leggy athletes and she's still winning World Championship medals.

    But one thing McLaughlin has done, at least for the next track cycle, is make the 400M hurdles a marquee track event that was hyped it to the level of the 100M sprints. It was probably the best race of the Tokyo Games and her running a 50.68 at the Worlds is something ridiculous. Between her and Athing Mu, there are two very young, amazingly likable women that look like they could be the faces of American female sports for the next decade.

    I'm kind of hoping both look into running the 400 flat, it would be highly-anticipated showdown.
     
    maumann likes this.
  5. Mngwa

    Mngwa Well-Known Member

    I think the drug issues hurt T&F in lasting ways. There was a time that it seemed like every marquee athlete was found to have cheated. It was never all of them, but I kind of think the Marion Jones saga really had a huge impact. Sort of the last straw. It just seems like yesterday that NBC would hype the hell out of the decathlon and made it a must-watch event, and now it slips past virtually unnoticed. I mean, Daley Thompson. Daley Thompson!!!
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I blame Dan & Dave. Went all downhill after that flameout.
     
    HanSenSE, maumann and Webster like this.
  7. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Late to respond to this, but... If there is one benefit to primetime networks essentially giving up when it comes to programming - NBC currently lists "wait and find out!" for Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in the summer - it's that it does give more chance for this stuff to come back. I think there probably is an opportunity for some of these sports lower on the pyramid to just offer an interesting broadcast package to networks.
     
  8. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    They’d make the decathlon a big deal if there was an American gold medal threat.
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  9. Kato

    Kato Well-Known Member

    Gun to my head, all I could tell you about the decathlon is Bruce Jenner/Montreal/Wheaties and the Dan and Dave debacle, so forgive my ignorance, but I get why the decathlon doesn't capture the imagination of the average T&F fan. While I'm impressed with the athletes' ability to excel in 10 different events -- and there was some decathlon drama that really intrigued me last week at Worlds -- it doesn't quite match up with what you're seeing at the top of the other individual events. And then you thrown the complicated point system into it ... I've had to explain to many people that, no, you don't get credit for first-, second-, etc. place, that the points are based on a rather complex series of formulas. They're competing for points more than they're competing against each other.
     
  10. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    It usually comes down to the winner being able to finish 7th in the 1500. Not a great selling point.
     
    Kato and Webster like this.
  11. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    No one is going to stay glued to the TV for 10 events over the course of 2 days. Maybe back when information wasn’t immediately available and ABC could control the narrative and package the highlights.
     
  12. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    There is something called the one-hour decathlon, where athletes must start the last event within 60 minutes of beginning the first event.
     
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