6 Comments
User's avatar
Buzz Burrell's avatar

Agreed. This is hugely significant.

And most people won't/needn't care, because running is fundamentally a participation not a spectator sport. (My continual one-liner, which explains much).

Re the Holy Grail, aka the Olympics, this will naturally be controversial, because everyone in the business will be ecstatic, while the 99% of runners who don't earn money doing it will be unsure. Case in point: I love watching the Olympics on TV, and the IOC is one of the most corrupt organizations ever.

Expand full comment
Matt Walsh's avatar

It’s a one-liner i agree on. With marathon season coming up, we know the race’s will be on TV but i don’t know anyone who is bookmarking it as a ‘must watch’. Yet last weekend I watched the Boat Race (Oxford v Cambridge) live on BBC, not exactly a thrilling pursuit, but one that routinely captures a relatively big TV audience.

On the Olympics I also wonder who actually knows/cares about how corrupt the IOC is? For those that know about it, it’s something we shrug at and watch the Olympics anyway.

Expand full comment
Brady Johnson's avatar

The cost is going to hurt. People (me) go the pub to watch football on TNT because we're not paying for the package and I can't imagine a venue that would put trail running on over any match.

Expand full comment
Matt Walsh's avatar

Bingo. The timing of the race becomes crucial to how much airtime it gets, and when it’s international, that could be any time of day.

Also not sure I’d go to a pub to watch a race, but then again i don’t know what other venue would show it :p

Expand full comment
Martin's avatar

The Kobe Trail was not covered live on Italian YouTube either.

100% agree with Buzz's one-liner.

I hate the idea of Trail running being included in the Olympics. It will completely change the sport/activity and not in a good way.

Expand full comment
Eugene Mackie's avatar

I read the whole thing and while I felt your excitement at times my brain kept returning to the thought that the sport I care about is being changed, not to make it better to do, but to make it more profitable for a multinational company. I don't think that's cool. I think anyone that does xc mtb thinks the olympic format is cool either.

Expand full comment