The Greatness of Track and Field

I love sports.  You can find me watching touchdowns and tackles on the weekends in the fall; when World Cup rolls around I like to pick teams to follow and cheer for; I even watch a bit of basketball and baseball when good teams play.  Mainly, I love track and field though.  Why?  Well it isn't simply that I coach it or that I ran in high school, there is more to it.

There are plenty of kids who think track is not a sport or propagate other myths about running.  I find it amusing that these athletes who usually play one of the big three (football, basketball, baseball) don't realize that track is one of the few events that are completely pure in the athletic sense while all the other "games" simply look to utilize the teams athleticism. In no way do I mean to diminish the athletic prowess of athletes in those sports (I actually believe some of the worlds best athletes play in the NFL), but track and field is just one athletes body and athleticism against another's.  Yes, there is occasionally some strategy, but mostly in the distance events and relays.  But 99% of the time the winner of the event comes down to who has trained the hardest and who can execute to the best of their ability on meet day.  You can't use a trick play, or get a penalty to give you free throws, etc.  It's you vs the opponent, your body vs theirs.  And the events reflect the core movements of sport: jumping, running, and throwing.

So I enjoy the fact that track and field represents mastering the fundamental movements of sports and how it relates so much on a basic level to all other sporting games even created.  The other reason I love it so much is that you can advance yourself so much simply with work.  There is an event for every body type, every talent level, every person who wants to contribute can find an event that they are successful at if they are willing to work.  This is especially true in distance running where often kids get placed for not being very "athletic" (something I obviously don't believe; the athlete usually has not done much fundamental training when they are labeled "unathletic"), yet you actually find that some of the hardest workers in the sport are guys putting in over 100 miles a week year round in addition to all the ancillary training that modern athletes add to their workouts.

Yes, at the highest levels a lot of factors besides work effort are what allows an athlete to succeed, but track and field is one of the few sports that allow you to become nearly world class on work level alone.  When an athlete puts his mind to it and isn't afraid to put in the necessary training, the sky is the limit.

Tell this guy that track and field isn't a sport!