Running And Jumping Into The History Books ⏱️

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This week’s newsletter was compiled by David Melly, Paul Snyder, and Audrey Allen.

Post-World Record, Where Do You Go Next? 🌍

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Two of the greatest students of their respective events have once again reached new heights in their post-championships return to the Diamond League circuit. Pole vault phenom Mondo Duplantis and middle-distance maestro Jakob Ingebrigtsen battled for top billing at last weekend’s Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meet in Silesia, Poland, both setting world records with a commanding win in their respective events. Their battle was also financial: Silesia offered a $10,000 bonus for the performance of the meet that scored highest on the World Athletics tables, and Duplantis’s 6.26m vault, worth 1,339 points, beat out Ingebrigtsen’s 1,320 from his 7:17.55 run in the 3000m.

While a world record is, by definition, an unprecedented achievement, there’s a bit of a sense of deja vu. It’s the first time both men have broken a world record at the same meet, but it’s both athletes’ third time breaking a record at a Diamond League meet since the start of 2023. Duplantis has now literally raised the bar on the pole vault, one centimeter at a time, on ten different occasions. And as Ingebrigtsen himself noted, the Norwegian now has three of the ten distance marks with his 2000m, 3000m, and 2 mile performances (presumably the remaining distances Jakob is targeting are 1500m, 1 mile, steeplechase, 5000m, 10,000m, half marathon, and marathon).

While Ingebrigtsen has yet to take down a record in an Olympic distance, the famed 7:20.67 3000m posted by Daniel Komen in 1996 was generally considered one of the hardest middle-distance records to break. Komen’s mark survived attacks by Hicham El Guerrouj, Haile Gebrselassie, and Kenenisa Bekele, all in their primes, before Jakob Ingebrigtsen got his hands on it – and knocked over three seconds off with his transcendent run in Poland. Duplantis, on the other hand, had barely cleaned the chalk off his palms from his last record-setting leap – his 6.25m in Paris lasted exactly 20 days before being overtaken.

Each record is historic and significant – as are the generational talents that produced them – but the performances came at two different points in each athlete’s narrative. At only 24 years old, Duplantis is rapidly running out of things to accomplish in the sport: he’s the indoor and outdoor world record holder, the 2x Olympic, World, and World Indoor champion, 3x Diamond League champ, and the meet record holder at 12 of the 15 meets currently on the DL circuit. The all-time top 10 list in the men’s pole vault now only has one name on it. So what’s the point of continuing on?

Presumably, there is some intrinsic value motivating the greatest vaulter to ever live to push himself higher. And, while we don’t know the exact structure of Mondo’s endorsement deals, there is undoubtedly great financial incentive from sponsors, meet promoters, and (inter)national federations to keep breaking the world record in perpetuity, one centimeter at a time. And while losses are becoming exceedingly rare for Duplantis, he’s not truly unbeatable: he’s riding an 18-win streak currently, but as recently as July of last year he took fourth on a rare off day in Monaco. What’s currently impossible, however, is for Mondo to have a good performance and lose: much like Team USA in Olympic basketball; it’s not a question of whether Mondo will get beat; it’s whether or not he will give a win away.

Ingebrigtsen, on the other hand, always seems locked into a battle against expectations, critics, and his own high standards. He’s become something of an Ahab-esque figure in pursuit of his white whale – a second global 1500m title following his Olympic gold in 2021. It’s a little funny how it almost doesn’t seem to matter to Jakob that he’s now the 3x reigning World/Olympic champion in the 5000m, a run of accomplishments that would be career-defining for some. But for Ingebrigtsen, he can’t even fully beat back the criticism that he only runs well in rabbited races. Unlike Mondo, Ingebrigtsen has plenty left to prove, and all indications suggest he’ll keep trying to run the legs off his competition in championship 1500s until he gets another gold or they stop holding championships altogether.

So where do we go from here? In the short term, the most interesting competition on Mondo’s calendar is a fun exhibition against 400H world record holder Karsten Warholm over 100 meters in Zurich on September 4th. That race may offer something of a window into Duplantis’s long-term career plan: Keep your day job of world-beating greatness, but pick up some silly side hustles – more street meets, exhibition races, and entertainment-forward appearances.

Jakob has essentially made his long-term plan clear: Get the remaining records on that list of ten. For at least three of them (1500m, mile, 5000m), the path and capacity are clear. Bernard Lagat, for one, thinks the 3000m record was harder than the 1500m, and the stats experts out there have pointed out that 7:17 translates to something like a 12:30 5000m (five seconds under the current world record). But when, and where, are more interesting short-term questions. Ingebrigtsen is not, for example, currently on the entry list for Friday’s Diamond League 5000m. And the rest of the list presents intriguing hypotheticals, to say the least – a return to the steeplechase, a potential marathon debut, and the possibility of Sifan Hassan-like tripling in future championships if Jakob takes to the 10,000m.

In short, Ingebrigtsen’s weekend theatrics have successfully redirected his narrative from what he didn’t do (win the Olympic 1500m) to what could he do (erase everyone from Joshua Cheptegei to Kelvin Kiptum from the record books). In essence, he’s saying: “You think I’m only good at running fast time trials? Well buckle up for a decade of fast time trials like you’ve never seen before.” Surely he’ll want to get revenge on Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse, and especially Josh Kerr somewhere along the way – and their rematch in Zurich next weekend is a great place to start. But while the drama and rivalries of the 1500m will continue to attract the most eyes and generate the most chatter, it’s clear that Ingebrigtsen has much broader sights set as he plans his future.

A Roman (Working) Holiday 🇮🇹

A summer trip to Italy and more high-quality track and field? Now that’s amore!

Just as Audrey Hepburn used her Roman holiday to blow off her princess duties and have a little fun, dozens of Olympic medalists are headed to the 44th Golden Gala to let loose and go for broke now that the hardest part of the season is done. That isn’t to say that they won’t give 110 percent, but now that, for some, the weight of Olympic expectations is finally lifted and, for others, the disappointment of Paris has been redirected into a late-summer revenge tour, there’s no reason not to risk it all for greatness.

We’ll be on world record watch in multiple events for sure, as several reigning record holders will look to channel their championship fitness into another big contract bonus, but we’re also in for some incredible head-to-head racing. In races where the Olympic champion is absent – notably the men’s 100m, women’s 200m, and men’s 5000m – the door is wide open for someone to say “hey, remember me?” in the most dramatic fashion possible.

You can tune in on Peacock or follow along with us on social channels on Friday, August 30 at 3pm, but in the meantime, here are the top events to watch and why you should care:

Women’s 1500m: Faith Kipyegon is back in action on the Diamond League circuit, and that usually means one thing: we’re in for a stupid-fast time, and the 30-year-old Kenyan triple Olympic champ is going to make it look easy. She’ll face something of a challenge from Jessica Hull and the speedy Ethiopian duo of Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom, but in all likelihood the final lap will once again be Faith vs. the clock and the history books.

Men’s 100m: This event is stacked with talent as Olympic silver and bronze medalists Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley take on the likes of Tokyo Olympic champ Marcell Jacobs, World Indoor champ Christian Coleman, and Olympic 200m champ Letsile Tebogo. Kerley seems to be trending strongest in the right direction, but Thompson and Tebogo in particular will surely be tough to beat.

Women’s Steeplechase: All three medalists from Paris return to do battle, and with the possibility of 2022 World champ Norah Jeruto regaining her best form as well, a winning time close to 8:50 isn’t out of the question. Winfred Yavi has to be the favorite given her World/Olympic titles and fastest PB in the field, but anything can happen in the famously-unpredictable event. After an Olympics to forget for Team USA, Courtney Wayment and Val Constien are back in action alongside fellow American Gabbi Jennings looking for some redemption.

Men’s Discus: Five 70-meter throwers competing head-to-head should be must-see TV… which is why it’s a shame that this event starts 90 minutes before the TV window begins. World record holder Mykolas Alekna was denied gold by Jamaican Rojé Stona, but Alekna is probably still favored in their rematch as he’s been on a tear in Diamond League competition all year. Former global champs Kristjan Čeh and Daniel Ståhl will want to get back on top after missing the podium in Paris, so don’t count them out either.

Women’s Pole Vault: Unlike the men’s pole vault, no one is setting world records left and right in this event, but that’s what makes it so interesting this year as virtually every DL-level event has been closely contested for the win. Aussie Olympic champ Nina Kennedy is riding a five-win streak, but all of those wins have been hard-fought and competitors like bronze medalist Alysha Newman, American record holder Sandi Morris, and Paris 4th-placer Angelica Moser will likely give her a run for her money.

Men’s Shot Put: Ryan Crouser has developed an interesting pattern of performances this year. The world record holder has won every championship he’s contested (U.S. indoors, World indoors, U.S. Olympic Trials, and the Paris Olympics), but lost the regular season meets in between, falling to countryman Joe Kovacs in Silesia last weekend and Italian Leonardo Fabbri in London. Crouser may be the farthest thrower in history, but he’s only the third-farthest in 2024, as both Kovacs and Fabbri have thrown over 22.90m, Crouser’s season’s best. Will Crouser recapture the magic he always manages to conjure when medals are on the line, or will he pick up his third L of the season to Kovacs, Fabbri, or someone new?

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What The NCAA’s Conference Realignment Means For Cross Country + Track And Field 👩‍🎓

With the majority of semester-based schools getting back in session this week while quarter-system kids are getting another month at summer camp, the NCAA cross country season is just around the corner. But this year will look a bit different than the past as 2024-2025 will see big changes to the landscape of collegiate athletics. 

Is the Pac-12 now the Pac-2? Does that make the Power Five the Power Four? And how much larger will the Big Ten and the Big 12 get before they finally update their names? These shifts might be driven by football’s media dollars, but every Division I team sporting a new conference logo on their jerseys is feeling the impact.

Let’s break it down:

– SEC: Now 16 schools with the additions of the Oklahoma and Texas 

– Big Ten: Now 18 schools with the additions of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington

– Big 12: Now also at 16 schools with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah

– ACC: Now a whopping 18 schools with the additions of Cal, Stanford, and SMU

You may be thinking that these conference changes don’t mean much for cross country and track and field. After all, outside of conference championships and the postseason, meets are just a hodgepodge gathering of schools without any particular regional organization. (Spare a thought for the west coast soccer or a volleyball student-athlete that will be flying hella far to the Midwest or Eastern seaboard every in-season week to compete head-to-head with another school). Plus, qualification to nationals is still based on geography, not conference. 

But I’m here to reassure you that the conference realignment will have its fair share of shaking things up. While some of the most storied rivalries in college athletics like UCLA-USC or Oklahoma-Texas are sticking around, it’s fun to speculate if this conference shuffle will reignite old feuds or even spark new ones. 

As you can probably figure out, the biggest impact will be on conference championships. More competition on the conference level means that teams that want to win their league title will have to race all their top stars head-to-head earlier than, say, regionals or nationals. Assuming the XC powerhouses are motivated to go all-in on conference performances (a big “if”), we’ll get a legitimate preview of how, say, Notre Dame squares up against Stanford a few weeks out from cross country nationals.

And for the 10 schools ditching the Pac-12 for Midwest or Atlantic-based conferences, there’s some collateral damage. No more training through the winter after cross country or sending a skeleton crew to the MPSF Championships! You’ve got an honest-to-goodness indoor conference championship now, which could put a new emphasis on the winter season for those teams.

And the conference carousel isn’t just a fun ride for the athletes – fans are in for some quality entertainment, too. Rivalries that have been on a decade-long hiatus are back, like Texas-Texas A&M in the SEC and BYU-Utah in the Big 12. We also no longer have to wait until November, March, and June to see the heavy-hitting teams go head-to-head. We may not see a return of the true dual meet in track – at this point largely dead, but once the beating heart of NCAA track and field – but we’re sure to get some de facto ones in the forms of conference-championship grudge matches. 

Circling back to Texas… Given UT’s esteemed “track” record, it’s funny to think that Texas wasn’t already in the SEC. But now that the Longhorns have found their new home, they’re undoubtedly going to make some noise in the South. Their move leaves a Texas-sized hole in the Big 12 picture moving forward, but their neighbors to the west, Texas Tech, have shown over the last few years that they’re more than capable of filling it. 

Meanwhile, the already-stacked ACC is going to become even more of a distance powerhouse with Stanford added to the mix against top contenders like UNC and Syracuse on the men’s side, coupled with intense competition among NC State, Notre Dame and Stanford on the women’s side. 

From a track perspective, West Coast comrades USC and Washington are bringing their competitive pedigrees to the men’s field of the Big Ten, with a fresh third-place NCAA outdoor finish and a Pac-12 title to their names, respectively. The Oregon and Washington women are ready to leave the Pacific branding behind and aren’t afraid of the new travel (distance) as they both scored the highest of the Big Ten players at last year’s cross country championships. Then, on the track side of things, Oregon and USC are looking to assert their P5P4 status and shake things up in the Midwest.

And with additional changes likely coming soon when new roster size limits and revenue-sharing models get implemented next year, the changes for collegiate runners, jumpers, and throwers are only likely to get more dramatic in the coming months. We’ll spend a little more time unpacking those potential impacts in upcoming issues as well.

So whether you’re upset about finding a new network to watch your favorite college athletes compete, or are contemplating the idea that the NCAA might become one giant superconference in the near future (which feels even closer in track than some other sports) – there’s no more reminiscing over the past, more geographically-coherent era of college sports. The school year of major conference realignments has arrived, and the NCAA has a whole new look to get familiar with.

Track And Field Stars’ Songs Of The Summer 🎶

Summer 2024 has been a great one for music. The feminomenon that is Chappell Roan has taken the world by storm and Charli XCX’s latest album has all your boomer relatives asking “what exactly is a ‘brat summer’?” And if the number of Olympians doing the apple dance is any indication, the best athletes in the world also spent their summers prepping the perfect pre-race playlists.

So whether you’re trying to hold onto the last gasps of August or trying to build the perfect pump-up mix for the upcoming XC season, we decided to help out by handing out personalized Songs of the Summer to some of the sport’s biggest stars:

Julien Alfred – “Remember The Name,” Fort Minor. While the wider world focused on Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the leadup to the women’s sprint finals, it was mostly diehards (and University of Texas supporters) who were pulling hard for the St. Lucian to deliver her country’s first ever Olympic medals. But as Alfred comes home from Paris with gold in the 100m, silver in the 200m, and a whole lot of new fans, she certainly won’t be forgotten when the next championships roll around.

Grant Fisher – “Lose You To Love Me,” Selena Gomez. After leaving Bowerman Track Club last fall and betting big on himself, Grant will head back to Park City with two Olympic medals and the satisfaction of knowing that he came out of his dramatic breakup better than he was before. Meanwhile, Jerry Schumacher and co. may have “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 on repeat.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone – “Dancing On My Own,” Robyn. Despite a lot of pre-Olympic hype around the battle between McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol, the American superstar did a lot of solo running in Paris. Her average margin of victory across three rounds of hurdles was a whopping 1.62 seconds, and her 47.71 split on the second leg of the 4x400m put a huge gap on the field. When you’re the GOAT of your event, you do a lot of dancing on your own.

Rai Benjamin – “At Last,” by Etta James. After three straight silvers and a bronze in the 400m hurdles, Benjamin finally got his golden moment in Paris with a 46.46 victory in his second Olympic final (and a second gold-medal anchor performance in the 4x400m to boot).

Tara Davis-Woodhall – “Crazy In Love,” Beyonce feat. Jay-Z. While her red, white, and blue cowboy hat screams “Cowboy Carter,” the newly-minted long jump champion went viral for her sweet celebratory moment with husband Hunter Woodhall. Here’s hoping the honeymoon feeling continues through Woodhall’s first rounds of competition at the Paralympics this afternoon.

Quincy Hall – “Who Let The Dogs Out,” Baha Men. The question memorably (and repetitively) asked by the Baha Men in 2000 might apply better to Matthew Hudson-Smith, who held the lead in the Olympic 400m final for about 390 meters before Quincy Hall snuck up, dug deep, and showed the world he had that DAWG in him.

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

– Multiple-time U.S. 800m champ Nia Akins has left the Brooks Beasts and is no longer sponsored by Brooks. Akins joined the Beasts in 2000 after a decorated NCAA career at Penn.

– Mike Smith has announced his impending departure from NAU, and will take over a new Flagstaff-based, Nike-sponsored pro group. Smith, who assumed head distance and mid-distance coaching responsibilities for the perennial powerhouse in 2016, will hand over the reins to current assistant Jarred Cornfield after the conclusion of the 2025 outdoor season. Under Smith’s guidance, the NAU men’s cross country team has won five NCAA titles. In addition to still-to-be-announced Nike athletes, Smith will continue coaching a handful of non-Nike-affiliated professionals he’s already working with.

– Quincy Wilson’s summer to remember rolls onwards, as he got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game last week. If you’re nervous about one of track and field’s brightest stars winding up in the clutches of some other, more moneyed sport, don’t worry. Wilson, an Olympic gold medalist at just 16, does not appear to have a future in baseball.

– Kenneth Rooks’s dramatic European racing stint has come to an end. The Olympic silver medalist returned home to Utah to a hero’s welcome, while wearing a sling on his arm after taking a nasty tumble in the steeple at the Silesia Diamond League meet. The good news is Rooks’s arm is unbroken as a result of the fall. The bad news is so is the American record.

– After a historic, two-medal showing in Paris, Grant Fisher has opted to conclude his 2024 campaign, stating “the wheels finally came off” in his 7:49.79 3000m outing in Silesia. He shared this information via an Instagram story depicting a disheveled Simon Cowell holding a bottle of Sol beer in the back of a limousine. He’s still on the entry list for the 5000m in Rome, but expect that to change in the next day or two.

– USATF is putting its money where its mouth is for the upcoming 2025 Road Racing World Championships, to be held in San Diego in 2025. The federation announced it’s offering significant prize money for both Team USA selection events for the 2025 and 2026 road championships as well as the road racing circuit generally, in an effort to attract the country’s top talent to the new world championship format.