Olympic Trials & Tribulations Musings on 2024
It’s over.
I have spent eleven days in this Eugene OR South University Neighborhood Air B&B, walking back and forth to the big track meet in the new monolith stadium, which seems to tower over the immediate area. Or is it only because I still remember the old Haywood field, which seemed a more natural fit in the neighborhood.
We can speculate what Bill Bowerman, the legendary Track Coach at the University, might have thought to see his beloved track and grandstand obliterated. We know that his biographer and protege, Kenny Moore, was not in favor of the new facility even in the planning stages.
This Kenny Moore quote encapsulates how I felt walking daily through my South University neighborhood to the big track meet:
In a statement to the Eugene City Council, Bowerman biographer Kenny Moore described the Hayward Field design as a “perversely ignorant remembering of the character and wishes of the man” and said Bowerman “would cringe at the height of his honorary tower, it seeming to signify the track program as somehow above our great academic university.”
I have mixed feelings, having spent considerable time now in the new facility. It certainly has many modern enhancements and gives the United States at least one quality facility, though there are several others with potential. This facility in Oregon has had a lock on the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials for the past five versions. I wonder if this is best for our sport.
I’m thinking of historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia as a possibility. In fact, it did have a part in this year’s trials when young James Corrigan, needing a qualifying time for the Olympic Games and only a matter of days to achieve it, went to a meet being held at Franklin Field, where they added a steeple event and achieved the necessary time.
Los Angeles Coliseum should get the trials in 2028, given that they are hosting the Olympics, but no one will be surprised to see them back in Eugene as the LA organization has shown no interest in hosting.
Nike built the new Hayward and is the primary sponsor of USATF. What were the psychographics? I wonder if any other community with an adequate facility will even bother to bid on future trial events.
https://trackandfieldnews.com/usa-olympic-trials-history/
From a back porch near Hendrick’s Park, I have a view of…
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