Why the 2024 NIKE Pre Classic was the Best EVER Pre!

The recent NIKE Pre Classic was held on May 25, 2024, in the stadium that Phil and Penny (the Knights, who co-founded the NIKE brand) built in Eugene, Oregon.

The NIKE Pre Classic is named after the late Steve Prefontaine, one of the most charismatic track and field stars of any era. He died at the age of 25 on May 30, 1975. He had just run one of his fastest 5,000 meters at the Hayward Restoration Meet, which soon was renamed in his honor. At the time of his death, Steve Prefontaine owned the American records at 2,000 meters, 3,000 meters, 2 miles, 3 miles, 5,000 meters, six miles, and 10,000 meters.

Over the years, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, the NIKE Pre Classic was one of the few ways American fans could see a meet similar to a European summer athletic event, especially one held in Scandinavia. In fact, at the time of his death, Steve Prefontaine, who was working with the late Geoff Hollister in NIKE sports marketing, had just finished a series of meets held in Oregon that welcomed athletes from Europe.

2024 was a very special year—just how special? The crowd of 12,000, not the largest at a NIKE Pre by any means, was boisterous and enthusiastic. The TV audience, 1.166 million on NBC, was the second-largest audience for track and field of the year (only behind the NB Indoor Grand Prix).

The NIKE Pre-Class always had one race after another, for nearly three hours, featuring many of NIKE’s top athletes. In recent years, some of the top stars have included the very finest from every running brand. Tom Jordan was the meet director until two years ago, and now the meet direction is under three

Here are my six takeaways that this attendee of the 2024 NIKE Pre had (this is my 36th NIKE Pre Classic):

1. The Women’s 10,000m was an era-breaking event. Held with the expectation that Gudaf Tsegay (5,000m WR holder) would break the WR, it was Beatrice Chebet, with a PB of thirty-three and one-half minutes (at 8,000 feet), who not only ran away from Tsegay at 8,700 meters but destroyed the world record with her 28:54.14, becoming the first Women to run under 29 minutes. Her new WR was as fast as the great Emil Zatopek ran in his career (28:54.54).

2. Joe Kovacs of the US gave a shot put clinic at the NIKE Pre, with any of his six throws being long enough to win. His two longest throws, 23.03m, and his massive 23.13m…