Here are a few of the quotes...
David Gillick who won Gold in the 400m at the European Indoor Championships in 2005 and 2007 said....“It’s the reality of where athletics sits in the psyche of the Irish public. Go back a few weeks earlier to the national indoor champs – there weren’t many people there. To be honest, it was an empty stadium and that was disappointing. That’s maybe where athletics is right now.”
It's not just an Irish problem either. The International governing body conducted a survey two years ago found ..."that the average age of athletics fans watching on television is 55".
In terms of media presence, the article said..."But athletics has become increasingly ghettoised in terms of media coverage. Go on to newspaper websites and you’ll find it buried in the ‘Other Sport’ category."
The full article can be read here... https://buzz.ie/long-read-irish-athletics-is-becoming-an-invisible-sport/
3 comments:
Perhaps AAA should start offering some explanations ? Perhaps AAA need to start to become more user friendly ? Why in 2017 can competitors not simply turn up on cross country days and other events and register and run as they can in other race competitions run by clubs and the Business Houses ?
Excellent comment, user friendly is the key word here, ever since the formation of the AAI nearly twenty years ago athletics has been in decline, I know road racing has taken over but there has to be other factors in the decline of T/F., the local sports was a key factor in introducing novice athletes to T/F but this is no longer the case, sports are now almost 100% juvenile, I know Cork AAI organise the Summer League and is a big help as it is graded but it is city based and to entice and introduce aspiring young athletes they must they must be given the chance to compete at local level, pre entry is grand in major events but give people a chance to enter on the day at some low number events eg County Senior/Veteran T/F., I know people will quote electronic timing, computing etc.,but we are not dealing with superstars and it is time to get the ordinary run of the mill athletes back on the track. Another argument I have heard in favour of pre entry is that it prevents people entering low number events in order to win soft medals, my reply to that is that I have seen in the past few years athletes doing solo runs around tracks in County and Munster T/F., how soft a medal is that!
Agree with Alot of the above. I wanted to run this weekend in the munster masters and novice 4 mile race in kerry. Entries closed over a week in advance. Was also told that to register with my club could not be completed till well into April so I couldn't run. I was never going to win the race!! Who exactly was my participation denying a medal to? Then they wonder why numbers running are low! Also having the cork novice and masters road race 5 days after the ballycotton 10 is a joke! Anybody who entered ballycotton (one of corks biggest races) wouldn't be able to run a great race 5 days later!
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