Field Event Coverage

[ralmcg]

There is one thing that most people here can agree with. That is the less-than-stellar coverage of field events. While track events, for the most part, is shown in their entirety, the field events, if covered at all, are shown between the track events. They don't show all the jumps and throws and they are sometimes shown after they occurred. That is why I'm glad for coverage of the Chula Vista Field Festival. The webcast shows much of the events, even having separate feeds for throws, men's jumps, and women's jumps, along with the main feed.

[gh]

don't get too excited: that kind of attention to detail will only occur in a meet without running events

[Atticus]

don't get too excited: that kind of attention to detail will only occur in a meet without running events

Running events is just one more feed. Once you have 3, what's 1 more?

[Powell]

While I sort of understand the general broadcasting rule about the track events taking precedence, there are cases when common sense should prevail. When you have the first heat of the heptathlon 800 (featuring the women placed 25th-32nd overall) taking place at the same time as the HJ attempt that will decide who wins gold, which one would you rather watch live? At every televised event I have ever watched, the former would be shown live, the latter pre-recorded.

[SoCal45]

TV people know which events generate the most interest...if a meet is on TV (not streamed) the limited field event coverage will never change unless you have a confrontation like Lewis v. Powell.

[Atticus]

Whoever is doing the Chula Vista feeds today should be in charge of producing ALL T&F on TV. Best I've ever seen.

[gh]

While I sort of understand the general broadcasting rule about the track events taking precedence, there are cases when common sense should prevail. When you have the first heat of the heptathlon 800 (featuring the women placed 25th-32nd overall) taking place at the same time as the HJ attempt that will decide who wins gold, which one would you rather watch live? At every televised event I have ever watched, the former would be shown live, the latter pre-recorded.

the European definition of "common sense" is different from (and far superior to) the American version when it comes to broadcasting track meets (aka TRACK & field meets)

[Trickstat]

While I sort of understand the general broadcasting rule about the track events taking precedence, there are cases when common sense should prevail. When you have the first heat of the heptathlon 800 (featuring the women placed 25th-32nd overall) taking place at the same time as the HJ attempt that will decide who wins gold, which one would you rather watch live? At every televised event I have ever watched, the former would be shown live, the latter pre-recorded.

Here in the UK, the BBC would probably be in the studio replaying and discussing the 100m semis that preceded the heptathlon 800s. They would then show the HJ attempt 'off tape' and would then probably only show the final heptathlon 800 plus any others with Brits in.

[Alan Shank]

NBC Gold/Peacock is one step away from my ideal -- a races-only stream. Of course, it's really up to the local provider for each meet. Back in 2016 and '17, you could watch every second of every distance race, as well as each field event. (My recollection is that they even had streams for the field prelims, right?) In Doha, streams for field finals only and no races-only stream. Let's push, push, push WA to require telecasters to provide a races-only stream. Then we can all stop arguing about what events/event groups are "best" and just enjoy!
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA, USA

[jc203]

... field event coverage will never change unless you have a confrontation like Lewis v. Powell.

Probably true, but that has been 30-years ago and we'll probably have to wait another 30-years for that sort of epic.

[ralmcg]

Field-events-only meets such as the USATF Throws and Field festivals are one way of having the field events center stage instead of playing second fiddle to races. I would like to see more of them.

[KenStone]

Added photos of Vashti Cunningham's PR and world-leading 2.02 (6-7 1/2) to my story on Brittney Reese and a legally blind prep runner:
https://timesofsandiego.com/sports/2...e-tokyo-glory/

[ralmcg]

I think that the dream meet for US commercial networks at least is one without field events. That way they can devote every minute to track events, similar to swimming when there are no simultaneous other events to interfere with the coverage of a swimming race.

[KevinR]

Great piece, Ken!

[ralmcg]

I found a podcast featuring Dwight Stones where he talks about why NBC short-shifts field events at the Olympics. It's at Hang Up and Listen interviews Dwight Stones about NBC’s track-and-field coverage. (slate.com) and the talk about field coverage starts at around 9 minutes and 50 seconds into the conversation. It's from 2016.