Sponsorship Nationals⏱

Lap 68: Sponsored by adidas

At the 2020 Olympic Trials, a then 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton ran 19.84 to set the U20 World Record for 200m — a mark that was previously held by Usain Bolt. But that was just the beginning. Already this season, the teenage phenom has lowered his time to 19.49 seconds to become the fourth fastest athlete of all-time.

You know the name, but now get to know the person. Check out our latest podcast with Erriyon on the CITIUS MAG network. And subscribe to our YouTube channel — later today we will be sharing a behind the scenes look into his life.

CITIUS MAG is excited to be partnering with adidas this week from the US Championships! We’ll be covering all of the action with daily live shows and podcasts. And if you are going to be in Eugene, make sure to join us and Tinman Elite for group runs and giveaways.

High School Nationals 🎒

If you ever visit the gymnasium at Half Hollow Hills High School West, you may see a banner hanging in the gymnasium with my name on it that reads “NATIONAL CHAMPION.” Although maybe somebody should climb up a giant ladder to sew an asterisk next to that phrase. That’s because when I won the Nike Indoor National meet my senior year, I wasn’t the only guy in the country, let alone on Long Island, calling himself the champ.

While I went down to Maryland to race in one national championship meet, Charles White of Garden City made the much shorter trip to The Armory to compete in another. While Charles ran 4:11 to my 4:16 (excuses: 1. tactical and 2. flat track), I rationalized to myself that I was the true national champion because I won our two head-to-head matchups earlier that season. Deep down, however, I felt like I was a fraud — there was a compulsion to let the two or three teachers who feigned interest in my accomplishment know that I wasn’t the sole wearer of the crown. Thankfully, come the outdoor season there would only be one national meet, and thus, one true national champion — and it wasn’t close to being either of us!

The National Scholastic Athletics Foundation started hosting an outdoor national meet in 1991, and for years this was the undisputed post-season national meet. Early versions of the event were sponsored by Footlocker, adidas, and other brands, although my generation (2005-2009), would recognize this event as Nike Outdoor Nationals, and can probably picture the backpacks if they close their eyes for a moment.

But when some higher-ups made career moves over to New Balance, the meet came with them. From 2010 until 2019, the New Balance Outdoor National meet continued to partner with NSAF to host all the best athletes in the country in Greensboro on the blue track of North Carolina A&T University.

When the pandemic hit, New Balance and NSAF parted ways. Now, New Balance hosts its own national meets (this year indoors was at The Armory and outdoors was at Franklin Field). Meanwhile, NSAF and Nike have partnered up again to host their own national meets (indoors was at Ocean Breeze and outdoors was at Hayward Field).

Combine those with the Brooks PR Invitational, which has been a smaller, invite-only outdoor meet since 2013, and the brand new adidas Outdoor Nationals meet that started this year in Greensboro, and it’s a confusing time to be an elite high school runner. Especially if you are from New Jersey, where confusion abounds — there’s a fierce debate over what to call Canadian bacon, and the state meet is called the Meet of Champions, which was also held this weekend.

This past weekend I covered the New Balance National meet with CITIUS, doing the After The Final Lap postgame show. While there, I was explaining the current landscape of high school post-season national meets to my wife and she offered up a solution. Her idea was essentially this — have a single national meet with the different shoe companies drafting teams and competing against each other.

In theory, in a world where there was a single governing body who was solely invested in what was #GoodForTheSport, then that’d be a lot of fun. However, the goal of these events is to sell shoes. These are huge marketing activations with very large budgets with one goal in mind: to win over an extremely valuable demographic and convert them into loyal customers for years to come. The next few years will be interesting as the battle to become the premier national championship will continue. For kids who like free stuff, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it sure as hell makes following the exploits of our burgeoning domestic stars tricky.

And in not-quite-exclusively-high-school-national-championship news, the USATF U20 Championships will also be taking place in Eugene this weekend with the top two finishers in each event having an opportunity to represent the United States at the World Junior Championships in Colombia later this summer.

Oslo Diamond League 💎🇳🇴

One week before running a 3:46.46 mile to win the Bislett Games in front of the home crowd, Olympic 1500m champion, Jakob Ingebrigsten ran an 800m race. Guess how fast he went. Remember, to run the sixth fastest mile of all-time, he ran back-to-back 1:52s! Well, he only ran 1:47.22 — to finish fourth. Those three guys who beat him are in a very exclusive club of athletes who can say they’ve beaten Jakob, and none of them have run anywhere close to 3:46. (Take note, middle distance studs who believe in the transitive property of beating people.)

To this day, Ingebrigsten’s personal best is only 1:46.44. Compare that to the still-European mile record holder and fourth fastest miler of all-time, Steve Cram, who ran 1:42.88 back during that magical season in 1985. Quite coincidentally, Cram was in the broadcast booth calling Jackob’s race and he noted that Ingebrigsten is not known for hard finishes and prefers to run in a comfortable zone. With slightly less room for error in terms of pacing, Jakob relies on another skill to run fast — his brain. Oh, and a 12:48 5000m.

Fortunately, he had some pressure from behind, thanks to the stalking form of Ollie Hoare, who ran a 3:47.48 Australian record. Speaking of bad 800m times, Hoare’s is officially 1:49.98, though I suspect he could go much faster. The baffling part about Hoare continuing his impressive upward trajectory since graduating college two years ago is that he only managed to win a single NCAA title. How much Mountain Dew was he drinking?

The On Athletics Club, which was dismissed for having collectively peaked at the Millrose Games, had themselves one helluva meet in Norway. Joe Klecker narrowly missed a new 5000m personal best, though his 13:04 to finish fourth proved that he is on the verge of breaking through to a place where medal contention is no longer a pipe dream. Although Telahun Bekele won the damn thing in 13:03.51.

In the women’s 5000m, Alicia Monson ran 14:31.11 for the third fastest time in US history and an 11 second personal best. And up front it was Ethiopia’s Dawit Seyaum who won the race in 14:25 — she is now 2 for 2 since moving up in distance from the 1500m and she beat Olympic bronze medalist Gudaf Tsegay in the process.

Both Monson and Klecker are not running the US Championships, because they have already qualified in the 10,000m, and Hoare is not running because he is Australian.

We are pushing up this week’s Victory Lap to Thursday because that’s the day Sam Mattis is competing at USAs in the discus. We want to give you good reason to root for him besides his 8th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics. Our premium newsletter has raised over $21,000 with all proceeds going to the elite athletes whose stories we share.

Paris Diamond League 💎🇫🇷

When Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 2008 Olympics at 21-years-old, she made sure that unlike many gold medalists, that wouldn’t be her peak. Since then she has won 10 more global championships and many other shiny pieces of hardware, and even found the time to give birth to her son, who she welcomed in 2017. Now 35-years-old, Fraser-Pryce isn’t just holding on — she is getting better.

At the Paris Diamond League the Jamaican made the rest of the field look like they belonged at one of the aforementioned American high school national meets. She ran 10.67 (+0.5) to win the 100m by a third of a second. The four fastest times of her career, including a 10.60 personal best, now come after turning 34. For all you statisticians out there who need more numbers to appreciate greatness, there have only been 22 ladies in history to break 10.80 seconds. Shelly-Ann has done it on 24 wind-legal occasions.

In slower news, the men’s 800m continues to shape up as the most unpredictable event of the 2022 World Championships. France’s Benjamin Robert had a breakthrough race posting a 1:43.75 while leading a tightly knit pack of seven men across the finish line within a second of each other. If you’re an 800m runner who has run under 1:45 this year, you probably think there’s a chance you could win a world title… and honestly, why not? You just might. The defending champion, Donavan Brazier is currently recovering from an inflamed bursa sac in his foot, but will line up on Thursday as he has an opportune bye and fourth spot for the US team.

In partnership with Hydrow

Hydrow is designed to transform the way you work out. Rowing works 86% of major muscle groups, compared with only 44% from cycling.That’s twice the benefit in half the time — core work is included! It’s a perfect low impact supplemental form of cross-training to add into your routine. Take the occasional day off from pounding out the miles on pavement to keep your body healthy, while still advancing your fitness. You’ll be glad you did come race day!

Grandma’s Marathon 👵🏻

Why does Minnesota punch so much above its weight class when it comes to churning out great distance runners? Is it the cross-country skiing to cross-country running pipeline? The terrible, character-building winters? The fact that people there just seem to celebrate it?

If it’s the latter, then Grandma’s Marathon is a terrific case study. It’s a Duluth institution that forces runners from all parts of the country to grapple with the fact that they’re not exactly positive where Lake Superior is on the map. Advertising itself as a world class event with small town charm, it’s the perfect opportunity to run fast in a well-organized race where you don’t have to qualify or enter a lottery to get in.

Grandma’s is named for a local restaurant that ponied up $600 in 1977 to sponsor the event and has now captured the title in perpetuity. Good investment!

For a race with just 6,000 finishers and a budget a fraction of the majors, it’s pretty damn good at attracting elites. That’s partially because the schedule is bare of much domestic competition during June. If you want to get two marathons in during the year, it’s a great alternative to schedule opposite a fall major. But it doesn’t hurt that it’s a relatively flat and legal point-to-point which can occasionally get a favorable wind. Every few years the Midwest does that thing where it becomes the hottest place on Earth, but that wasn’t the case this year.

The men’s race was won once again by the 2014 champion and course record holder, Dominic Ondoro of Kenya. I once suggested that a good career path for a marathoner would be to collect all the non-majors from decent sized cities. That’s more or less what Ondoro has done — he has won eight different smaller/local marathons like Helsinki, Melbourne, and Houston. Despite having lined up for 27 marathons and owning a personal best of 2:08:00, he has never once even run a major.

On the women’s side, the story is all about Dakotah Lindwurm. The Minnesota-native won this race in 2021 in 2:29:04, but returned this weekend to repeat as champion and subtract four minutes off her time from a year ago to run 2:25:01. If you were tuning into the local radio station that oscillated between race coverage, general sports talk, and the occasional country hit, you definitely heard plenty of people with very lovely Minnesota accents expressing their excitement over the hometown kid repeating as champ.

When the new Olympic Trials Marathon standards were released, I made the prediction that 200 men and 200 women would run under the new 2:18/2:37 barriers. Just over six months into the open qualifying window and there are 47 men and 43 women. Feeling pretty good about that still…

The state of sponsorship in the sport 💰

The USATF Outdoor Championships are returning to Eugene this weekend and my flight cost $1,430.20 — hopefully if you are going as an athlete then you are one of the fortunate 32% who are sponsored to do so! The true percentage may actually be much lower than this if we set a minimum definition of what qualifies as a legitimate, living wage-ish deal, and exclude those that are limited to gear and bonuses.

There is a lot of animosity towards certain brands for not stepping up and supporting more athletes, and maybe that’s fair. But there are 800 athletes competing this weekend! How many fans do you think this sport has? Sponsoring an athlete is not an act of charity, it’s a business decision by a brand trying to sell a product. If an athlete can help do that — whether or not they are the absolute best in their discipline — then they become valuable.

As demonstrated by the likelihood of 100m runners vs. javelin throwers to be sponsored, there is an unofficial hierarchy in this sport in terms of visibility. The premier events will naturally draw more money to them as they grab more eyeballs. That does not necessitate that others can’t overcome the disadvantage, it just means they have to work harder — to win and break records — but also to capture the finite attention of the relatively shallow pool of fans that are out there. Much like this newsletter, there are a few thousand very enthusiastic track fans who refuse to tell their friends about it no matter how much I subtly ask them to.

Athletes need to take ownership of their career and market themselves. Tell a story worth sharing and create a platform to tell it yourself when no one else will. Unfortunately this is not golf, where simply hitting one brand of ball over another is enough to warrant millions of dollars. Try a podcast, newsletter, YouTube channel, TikTok, running camp, event, Instagram, charity, apparel, cookbook, planner, Twitter, or something else to create a larger billboard for yourself.

As much as many fans and athletes hate to hear it, the reality is that from a brand’s perspective, the specific individuals in each uniform are relatively replaceable with one another, until they set themselves apart. So why you?

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

• At the Brooks PR meet, Simeon Birnbaum, a junior from South Dakota who came into the meet with a 4:07 personal best, ran 3:59.51 to become the 5th high schooler this year to break the 4-minute barrier. If you run this time through my “what is it like to train and usually race in South Dakota” calculator, it’s probably good for about a 3:47 — I’m still ironing out the algorithm here but the general concept holds!

• Chase Ealy won the shot put at the Oslo DL with the second best throw in the world this year at 20.13m. That’s her third PB in a row.

• Valarie Allman finished second in Oslo, tossing the discus 65.91m. However, her coach chalked up the rare loss (via Instagram) to the fact that she competed wearing regular sneakers, while awaiting for the arrival of a new pair of throwing shoes. Question for the thrower-subscribers of this newsletter: is there no way to MacGyver yourself a pair of throwing shoes by greasing up a pair of sneakers or strategically spinning around on a banana peel?

• Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won the 3000m steeplechase in 8:56.55 in Paris. The Kenyan-born athlete ran the fourth fastest time of all-time.

• Athleta and &Mother have partnered together to offer childcare services for athletes and coaches at the USATF Championships. Unfortunately, it will be licensed childcare professionals and not Allyson Felix herself, who will be watching after your kids.

• World Athletics announced that eligible 5k, 10k road and XC events will now earn world ranking points to qualify athletes for on-track events in Budapest and Paris.

• The Olympic silver medalist in the long jump, Juan Miguel Echevarria, asked to be released from competing for Cuba — little explanation has been given, but he won’t be at the World Champs.

• Coach Ryan Vanhoy has left Ole Miss after nine years to become the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Cal Poly. The SEC school became an NCAA powerhouse under his guidance and next year’s recruiting class is one of the best in the country. That said, I get it. San Luis Obispo is basically what you’d come up with if you were told to build a perfect training environment on SimCity.

• In addition to the USA Championships, this weekend will also host the British, French, Canadian, Italian, Brazilian, Jamaican, Spanish, German, and Nigerian Champions. Would be a bad weekend to be Jason Bourne.

Thanks so much to Adidas for sponsoring this week’s newsletter! In addition to following along with CITIUS MAG at USAs via Champs Chat, maybe consider picking up a pair Adizero Adios Pro 3 that come out on Thursday.