The 5th Avenue Mile Bibs

[gh]

I was just browsing collection of photos from last month's race and all of a sudden something leapt out at me.

The finishers in the men's race are "Manzano" and "Baddeley" and "Lalang."

On the women's side? It's "Shannon" and "Christin" and "Lisa." WTF?!

[guru]

Re: The 5th Avenue Mile Bibs

On the women's side? It's "Shannon" and "Christin" and "Lisa." WTF?!

President and CEO of the NYRR.

[Walt Murphy]

Re: The 5th Avenue Mile Bibs

I was just browsing collection of photos from last month's race and all of a sudden something leapt out at me.

The finishers in the men's race are "Manzano" and "Baddeley" and "Lalang."

On the women's side? It's "Shannon" and "Christin" and "Lisa." WTF?!

I asked about that on the day of the races and was told "the women are more recognizable by their first names".

[mcgato]

I think we had an entire thread about this recently.
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... hp?t=35667

[Brian]

I think we had an entire thread about this recently.
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... hp?t=35667

Someone send that to the woman (or does she prefer "girl"?) above.

[dfmonti]

Re: The 5th Avenue Mile Bibs

I was just browsing collection of photos from last month's race and all of a sudden something leapt out at me.

The finishers in the men's race are "Manzano" and "Baddeley" and "Lalang."

On the women's side? It's "Shannon" and "Christin" and "Lisa." WTF?!

I'm the professional athletes consultant for the event, so I'll answer Garry directly.

The "brand" of many women runners has become their first names, instead of their last names, or full names, as it is for the men. While it is not clear why, it is clear to any reader of this message board who "Paula," "Kara," "Deena," or "Lornah" is, and fans mostly refer to them this way. Cheers from the sidelines are usually heard to be, "Go Paula!" and not "Go Radcliffe!" In fact, I've never heard anyone shout "Go Radcliffe!"

Moreover, we also use regularly use nicknames on the name bibs when athletes are commonly known by that name, like "Abdi" or "Meb." Again, fans refer to them most commonly by those names instead of "Abdirahman" and "Keflezighi."

Respectfully,

David Monti, Professional Athletes Consultant
New York Road Runners

[guru]

David, it was sexist and disrespectful. As a coach of high school girls I was highly disappointed in the NYRR.

As for "Abdi" and "Meb", I'm sure it has more to do with fitting their entire last nmaes on the bib than it does appeasing the fans.

Either use ALL first names, male and female, or all last names. Period.

[joeltetreault]

I think what is telling is to see how Paula Radcliffe is used on these message boards. If you use the search mechanism and search only for "Paula" you get 720 hits. If you search "Radcliffe", you get 546 hits. The same holds true for "Shannon" vs. "Rowbury" (123 to 100). So even on the TFN board, it's more common to use the first name than the last name.

Of course I'll put the disclaimer that this is just looking at the raw counts and that there are several instances where both the first and last names are used together of course. But if the last name were more commonly used, you'd expect it to have more counts regardless.

[bhall]

Or ask the athletes what they want on their bib.

Also, no answer as to why the men had their last names used? Leo, Boaz, and Andrew somehow don't fit the fan friendly "brand" decision?

[guru]

I also think how fans "cheer" as a reason is a non-starter. The vast, vast majority of encouragement for the male athletes during a race will also use first names.

[dfmonti]

Thanks for all or your feedback. We appreciate it.

[Daisy]

Or ask the athletes what they want on their bib.

Maybe athletes should register stage names? As first names would get a little confusing for common names. Or do first and last initial, as in "Paula R." or "Andy B."

I don't think the critics here are not saying first names are bad. Rather, the inconsistency between men and women is bad.

[LopenUupunut]

I think what is telling is to see how Paula Radcliffe is used on these message boards. If you use the search mechanism and search only for "Paula" you get 720 hits. If you search "Radcliffe", you get 546 hits. The same holds true for "Shannon" vs. "Rowbury" (123 to 100). So even on the TFN board, it's more common to use the first name than the last name.

"Joel": 269 hits.
"Tetreault": 3 hits.

Go figure.

[Daisy]

Lopen 42:0 Uupunut

[STL_Runner]

David, it was sexist and disrespectful. As a coach of high school girls I was highly disappointed in the NYRR.

As for "Abdi" and "Meb", I'm sure it has more to do with fitting their entire last nmaes on the bib than it does appeasing the fans.

Either use ALL first names, male and female, or all last names. Period.

My goodness, are you joking? I can't tell since they banned emoticons.