Some stars fade, but US track shines

Michael Johnson - the golden-shoed Texan who blasted into sports history with an astonishing 19.32-second 200-meter victory at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics - is retiring.

One of track's greatest stars ever, Johnson will not compete in this year's track-and-field world championships, today through Aug. 12, in Edmonton, Alberta. Thanks to a strict interpretation of United States rules, he cannot defend his titles, so he will join the broadcast team instead.

In the recent past, this turn of events might have hobbled a US track-and-field team. But not this year.

"US track and field has never been stronger than in 2001," says Jill Geer, spokesperson for USA Track & Field (USATF), the sport's US governing body.

Here's why: Johnson may be track's biggest brand, but USATF has spent the past four years developing a savvier marketing strategy that is helping the sport flourish, with or without him. That strategy received a massive boost this spring from high school miler Alan Webb, who gave track a glorious run in the public eye by shattering one of the sport's oldest records (the high school mile), an event that still captures the popular imagination.

Whatever the results from Edmonton, an event that will be watched on TV by some 4 billion people around the world, American track fans will remember 2001 as a good year.

Post-Olympic years are often a letdown for track fans, as sponsorship budgets tighten and athletes recover from one of the toughest seasons of their careers. Even these biennial world championships seem more a coda than a climax when they fall the year after the Olympics.

What's more, the American team traveling to Edmonton is unusually depleted. An injury has rendered the world's fastest man, Maurice Greene, questionable for the 200 meters, though he plans to defend his title in the sport's marquee event, the 100-meter sprint. Triple gold-medallist Marion Jones is skipping the women's long jump, one of two events in which she "only" won a bronze medal in Sydney. Regina Jacobs, who won silver in the women's 1,500 meters at the 1999 world championships, is off her form. And American 5,000-meter record-holder Bob Kennedy is out with another physical problem. The list goes on.

Yet, despite all these nicks and dings, interest in track is growing. The USATF added two major sponsors this year - Verizon and SoBe Sports System - and its budget reached a record $13 million. More meets will be shown on national TV this year, and the average Nielsen ratings for track broadcasts are now higher than those of the NHL, the WNBA, and Major League Soccer. Several major American track competitions, including the hallowed Penn and Drake Relays, boasted record crowds this spring.

These are the changes that prompted Geer to declare 2001 a terrific year, and her upbeat assessment is echoed by many others. "Would it be premature for me to declare that we're actually seeing a renaissance for track and field in the United States? I don't think so," says Garry Hill, editor of Track & Field News, in his August editorial.

The prospect of a renaissance only exists, of course, because track has spent the past several decades on the fringes of American sports. Though nearly synonymous with the summer Olympics, track barely registers with most US sports fans in non-Olympic years. The scarce attention the sport does attract tends to focus on controversies about performance-enhancing drugs.

The problem is not a lack of familiarity. More than 886,000 high school students competed in outdoor track and field in 2000, ranking the sport a close third in participation, behind football and basketball, according to an annual survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Some 10 million Americans run for recreation at least 100 days per year, reports Running USA.

Since Craig Masback became head of USATF in 1997, the organization's strategy has been to hype the biggest stars and work with organizers and agents to boost major American meets. USATF has also hounded Fortune 500 companies for sponsorship dollars to make US meets competitive with the European circuit, where big names command hefty fees just to show up.

This spring, USATF received a rare jolt of good fortune when Webb, a South Lakes (Va.) High School senior, challenged and then shattered Jim Ryun's 36-year-old American schoolboy record in the mile with an astonishing run of 3:53.43 at a May meet in Eugene, Ore.

Webb's performance landed the easygoing miler on the morning TV-show circuit and "Late Night with David Letterman" - the kind of unabashedly positive exposure the sport has rarely enjoyed in recent years. "It's those sorts of appearances that give track and field mainstream currency," Geer says.

Webb will not be racing in Edmonton, because he finished fifth at the US championships, and only the top three finishers make the team. Nevertheless, track fans are hoping the excitement surrounding his accomplishments will carry over into the future.

One of the toughest tests for the revival that now seems under way will be the extent to which track can become a viable profession for athletes who are not superstars. Against this yardstick, the sport is still struggling, albeit improving.

Asked if he has seen any changes in the past year or two, 10,000-meter runner and 2000 Olympian Alan Culpepper replies, "I guess I have on a small scale." He ran a personal best at a brand new, sold-out meet this spring in Stanford, Calif., and he is particularly grateful for the expansion of world-class meets on US soil. Recalling the excitement that evening in Stanford, he says of USATF, "They're doing something right."

Culpepper will be one of more than 3,000 athletes, coaches, and officials from more than 200 countries expected to be in Edmonton for the championships, the world's third-largest sporting event behind the summer Olympics and soccer's World Cup.

But what he hopes to achieve has nothing to do with winning higher Nielsen TV ratings or attracting Fortune 500 companies as sponsors. His goal is much simpler: "I expect to run really well."