As the first year of the Diamond League drew to a close last weekend, reviews and commentary are beginning to pop up online. The comments so far, however, have focused mostly on whether or not the series has been good for the athletes. I think that’s a fairly simple question to answer: it tends to be better for some of the minor events and worse for the top events. The shot putters I’ve talked to have loved the series. The event was rarely included in the Diamond League in the past decade, but this year they have been included in a high-profile meets getting the athletes both more exposure and more money. Other events have seen a decline in competitions and earnings. Because more events have been included, appearance fees have become rare in order to pay for the extra events (except for the select few Diamond League Ambassadors). A Twitter exchange between sprint star turned TV announcer Ato Boldon, high jumper Jamie Nieto, and sprint Lisa Barber concluded with Nieto saying “The Diamond League is making it real hard to make a living. Something has got to change.” The split program concept, where meets alternate hosting certain events, also means less meets for 100m runners and stars from events that used to be included in every meet. Sprinter Carmelita Jeter told Spikes Magazine that “This year I had about 40 to 50% less races, because of the split programme concept.” (By my count, she’s only done 13 meets outdoors this year versus 23 last year). This also hurts mid-level athletes, since some of the top athletes are now entering mid-level meets to fill the gaps in their schedule, which is leaving the mid-level athletes with fewer chances to compete.
The fans came out to watch the Diamond League, but was the new series a success? Photo by lejoe on Flickr.
So, to summarize, some athletes win and some lose. And that doesn’t even mention the hammer throw, which was excluded from the series all together. Of greater interest to me, however, is whether the Diamond League met its goal of expanding the brand of athletics. Meeting that goal will help the athletes, coaches, meet directors, and everyone involved in the sport.
Creating a brand is a big problem that all individual sports have faced over the last century. Team sports draw on the loyalty of a region in a way that local sports cannot. When the Mariner’s play 81 games a year in Seattle, they are bound to create a following that will be even stick with them through the retirement of Ken Griffey Jr. and horrible season’s like this year. Individual sports, on the other hand, compete across the globe and rarely are in a single city more than once. The key for them, then, is to create a brand for the sport that is bigger than each individual event. Motor racing, tennis, and golf are three sports that have done this well. Formula 1 is a worldwide phenomena. Fans tune will tune in 19 Sundays this year to watch each event, no matter where it is, because the stars will be there and they will be fighting towards the championship. They are not tuning in because of the scenic landscape in Abu Dhabi or the great history of the Malaysian Grand Prix. They are tuning in because of the brand, not the events. Tennis and golf have the grand slam and majors, but their ATP and PGA brands are also successful. Again, the series is the star bringing people in to watch the brand, not the event.
Athletics has been less successful in creating a brand. While the New York, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, and London marathons are all great events, the creation of the World Marathon Majors has not been able to leverage that to create a bigger brand. The same goes with the Diamond League. Ask someone on the street in Zurich about the Weltklasse meet and they can tell you all about it. But chances are they have never heard of the Diamond League.
In my opinion, the Diamond League is definitely a step in the right direction. Compared with the Golden League, the Diamond League has multiple stops America and Asia. In addition, it includes more field events, which is definitely a plus for throwers. However, there is room to grow since the series definitely lacked a few things. Most notably, it lacked suspense. Most of the Diamond League champions were claimed before the final meetings, taking the additional excitement out of many races. Vice Chairman of the Diamond League and Zurich meet director Patrick Magyar has said the league will learn from this year and make some changes. After brainstorming at practice, I have come up with a few suggestions for them:
Spice up the brand. The Diamond League has a terrible website and a dull logo. The Diamond League website is facing some of the same problems that the Diamond League is facing: it is basically just a collection of meet websites. Adding interactive features about athletes, improving the design, and making it easier to find information would be a great first step. In this regard, they could learn from the Pre Classic, which operates its own website with the help of Runnerspace. While they are at it, I like Gerd Kanter’s idea of having extra internet feeds to show the field event action.
Add some consistency. The sports I mentioned above have been successful because each event is consistent. The Diamond League has tried to do this by contracting Ambassadors to appear at meetings throughout the circuit. However, this plan backfired since the Ambassador program has turned into the new Madden Curse: Yelena Isinbayeva temporarily retired before the season, Kenenisa Bekele and Sanya Richards Ross missed the entire season with injuries, Steven Hooker failed to win any event and no heighted at four of the meets, and both Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt ended their seasons early with injuries after facing each other at just one Diamond League meeting. This is not the Diamond League’s fault. But I think it is their fault to focus on individual stars rather than great competition and battles. You think about the last decade of tennis and it was the great Wimbledon finals between Federer and Nadal that stand out in my mind, not the record breaking years in which Federer annihilated everyone else. Unlike tennis, we don’t have to put up with boring years since there is always at least one event that brings drama and close competition among the best. The key is doing whatever it takes to get that competition in front of the fans. That didn’t always happen this year. The big Bolt vs. Gay vs. Powell battle never came through. The Gay vs. Dix 200m duel also fell through at the last minute as Dix withdrew due to “financial reasons.” Getting stars to face each other has been an issue in athletics, and we need to find a way to solve it. Gay is one athlete who is not affraid to fight and has shown that losing some races will not hurt your image. Hopefully the other athletes will follow his lead and the sponsors can put pressure on the athletes, since it will only help them gain more exposure.
The winner of the Diamond League doesn't even get a real diamond, just a trophy shaped like one.
Make it easy to watch. In addition to having a consistent slate of athletes, make the viewing experience consistent. Forumla 1 is always on Sunday. Monday Night Football is on Monday. When is the Diamond League? Who knows. Some weeks it is on Thursday, some weeks it is on Sunday. Some weeks it is televised, other weeks it on another channel or not on TV at all. Many people in Zurich actually missed out on watching the meet since it has historically been held on a Friday, until it was changed to Thursday this year. The Diamond League should always be on the same day of the week and they should attempt to nail down some television contracts so that viewers know where they can always turn to watch the event.
Just for fun, add some diamonds. The Golden League’s name name sense since the winners took home some gold bars which were on display at every meet. That was cool. But I don’t actually know why it’s called the Diamond League. The winners get a diamond trophy (without any real diamonds) and a check for winning. Why not throw in some real diamonds to add to the allure? Cash is boring, even when it comes in the form of a novelty sized check.
Finally, add some suspense. As I mentioned above, most of the diamond champions had been named before the final race was run. While it was fun to watch Zurich, it would have been more fun to know the winner of each race took home a huge bonus. The Diamond League should consider the idea of having a true final rather than the current system that only awards extra points in the final meetings. The early events could be used to accumulate points to qualify for the final meetings in Zurich and Brussels. Once there, everyone would enter with a clean slate and it would be winner take all. The only advantage the top point getters would have is that they earned more money along the way and would get a better lane assignment. Now that would be exciting. There might be some downfalls to this approach, for instance early qualifiers for the final might skip a few meets, but stars are already skipping many meets and this format could only improve attendance.
If I have time in the next few weeks, I will also provide a recap of the new IAAF Hammer Challenge’s first year and suggest some changes for that series as well.
If you’ve been reading my posts regularly, you might have forgotten that I actually throw the hammer. I’ve posted about being a spectator. I’ve posted about competing in other throwing events. I’ve even posted about coaching the hammer throw. Well I am now here to remind you that I also compete in the hammer.
Don't worry, I've still been throwing the hammer.
Unfortunately, the chances to compete dwindled after the Swiss Championships and it was exactly one month before my next competition. It is amazing how fast the rust sets back in since it felt like my first competition of the season again. I had four sector fouls to begin the competition and ended up throwing 63.15 meters. The result is okay compared to my results this season, but I was disappointed since I started to feel good in the final round, but had run out of attempts by then. My latest competition was on Sunday, but that is a competition I would rather forget. The weather was great and the meet was well run, but my legs were dead. I felt no power whatsoever, partially due to where I am at in my training program and probably also due to another stone throw competition I competed in the day before the meet (which was worth it, I’m improving and took home a cool trophy for winning both the 40- and 50-kg stones). I still was able to win and take home the prize money, which was quickly spent on a nice delicious pizza with a lakeside view in Locarno. This was my fourth meet of the year in Locarno and I think it truly is the best place for a hammer competition in Switzerland. It is a little out of the way, but it more than makes up for it with consistently good weather and people. I definitely wanted to hang out longer, but, as always, I had to head back to Zürich for work on Monday.
The season itself is fast nearing its end. I will compete in Germany next Wednesday and then at the Swiss Team Championships later in September. The Team Championships are a relay style event and my club has a chance at winning the title for best hammer throw team. That should hopefully get the adreneline flowing even without anyone else throwing over 60 meters. I may also do one more stone throw competition and a hammer meet in Luxembourg at the end of September. While this year has already been a success compared to last season, I still think there is a little more in the tank that I will try to convert into far throws in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
It’s a rare opportunity when I guy can put on a powder blue shirt with a edelweiss flower pattern and come off as more masculine, so when I heard about the opportunity to do just that I immediately signed up for the stone throw competition at the 2010 Eidgenössiches Schwing- und Älperfest (ESAF) in Frauenfeld. After all, what is more masculine than seeing who can throw a giant rock the farthest.
Before I explain how the competition went, let me explain a little about the ESAF. The event is the Olympics of traditional Swiss sports. It is held every three years and the main attraction is schwingen, a form of wrestling that is the Swiss national sport and traces its roots back hundreds of years in the Alps. Rather than explain the rules, I suggest you check out this video from the last ESAF in 2007. As you can see, it is an extremely unique and interesting sport to watch and even more fun to watch in person.
It is the environment at ESAF, in addition to the sport, that makes it one of my favorite sporting events to attend. The wrestling arena is packed with nearly 50,000 fans. While tickets have been sold out for months, an equal number of people come without tickets to fill the enormous beer halls showing the matches in the huge grounds surrounding the stadium. Think Super Bowl meets Oktoberfest. Over the course of the two day event over 130,000 bratwurst and 200,000 liters of beer are consumed. It is also a cultural event, with many people wearing traditional Swiss dress and various yodeling groups make their way around the grounds. Perhaps best of all is that the winner becomes a household name and takes their unique share of the $750,000 prize purse: Arnold, a three year old 5’4″ angus bull weighing in at 2,500 pounds.
There is no stadium in Switzerland big enough to host this event, especially in the more rural cities where schwingen is the most popular, so the stadium is a temporarily built hexagon with seven sawdust circles in the middle. Seating is by region, so when a wrestler from Bern wins, one section of the hexagon rises to its feet with elation. When a crowd favorite like stocky 39-year old Hans-Peter Pellet wins, the whole stadium erupts at once and can be heard for miles around.
Throwing the 20kg stone. The other stone weighed four times as much.
In addition to the wrestling, two more sports are contested: the obscure hornussen and the stone throw (Steinstoß). There are several varieties of the stone throw, from 20-kilogram to the famous 83.5-kilogram Unspunnenstein. I held my own with the 20-kilogram stone. It is thrown with an approach like the javelin, so I was able to utilize my speed to throw just short of 7 meters. I finished in the top 20 out of more than 70 competitors. My friend, and former national team member in the shot put, Urs Hasler won the competition with a throw of 8.98m. He was just 3cm short of the Swiss record.
I did not hold my own with the Unspunnenstein. In fact, it kicked my ass. Stones do not become legendary if they are easy to throw, and the Unspunnenstein is definitely a legend. It has been thrown for more than 200 years and it made tabloid headlines when it was stolen and vandalized by separatists in the 1980s (today’s stone is a replica since the vandalism reduced the weight). Sometimes I think I am strong, but things like the Unspunnenstein quickly remind me that I am not. I may be able to do seemingly an infinite number reps of twists with 30-kilograms, but that strength has no correlation to throwing stones. With the Unspunnenstein, I needed upper body strength, which I unfortunately do not train for. On my first attempt I hit my chin trying to lift it over my head and then dropped the stone leaving a nice bruise on my chin and an abrasion on my chest where it must have hit on the way down (my memory is fuzzy since I held my breath too long during the lift). Fearing a headline along the lines of “Stupid American adds to Unspunnenstein history by dropping the 83.5kg stone on his head”, I decided to skip the running approach on my second attempt and instead did a stand throw of just two meters. It took more than three meters to make the nationally televised final.
Still, it was a great experience. Not only did I get to join an elite group of people that have thrown the Unspunnenstein, but I love trying new things and learning more about Swiss culture, and this allowed me to do both while wearing the traditional Swiss edelweiss shirt. In addition, I think I got more publicity through the stone throw than I have in the past few years throwing the hammer. I was called up on Thursday and asked to do an interview with Radio24 in Zürich since I was the only competitor from Zürich at ESAF. In addition, I did an interview on Saturday with national radio station DRS3 and a newspaper (I will provide links to the interviews when they become available). While I definitely am not a natural at stone throwing, I hope to try it again and perhaps do another competition or two in the coming weeks. If nothing else, I’ve already earned more money as a stone thrower in one day than I have in a decade of throwing the hammer.
I hate starting a day off with bad news, but that’s exactly how my Thursday started this week. I normally check my e-mail right when I get up to see what I missed during daytime in America. My first e-mail was from my father and simply entitled “Harold Connolly.” I immediately got a strange feeling about it and, as I opened it, my worst fears were confirmed. My friend and mentor, 1956 gold medalist Harold Connolly had passed away.
An Amazing Life
My friend and 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Harold Connolly passed away on Wednesday at the age of 79 (photo from Getty Images).
If there were one word to describe Harold, it would be inspirational. Harold’s resume just emits inspiration. After growing up in a working class Irish-Catholic home in Boston, Harold fought through physical setbacks during his youth after a nerve was damaged in his left arm during a difficult birth. Subsequent fractures only made it worse, leaving his left arm about 2/3 the size of his right arm. Nevertheless, he excelled at sports and walked on to Boston College as a shot putter, which is where he was introduced to the hammer throw.
Harold’s coach at Boston College was kind enough to drive Harold home from practice if only Harold were willing to wait until after the hammer thrower practiced. After watching practice for a while, Harold eventually started to help retrieve the hammers so help speed things up. Before long, he was throwing the hammers back to the athletes further than they were throwing the hammers into the field. Needless to say, he had found his event, and a few years later he surprised the world by breaking world records and winning Olympic Gold in Melbourne in 1956. His success in a two handed sport is inspirational, although at the time he didn’t see it that way. In his mind, the euphoria of winning was deflated somewhat when he was unable to raise both arms over his head on the podium.
Such a story would be inspirational enough, but this all took place more than fifty years ago and Harold’s work ethic never waned in those years. He went on to make three more Olympic teams and hold the world record for nearly a decade. During his athletic career, he was instrumental in fighting the oppressive amateur restrictions on athletes and even played a behind the scenes role in the famous black power salute at the 1968 Olympics. After his long athletic career, he worked as an educator, then as the executive director of Special Olympics, and continued to coach Olympians throughout this time. More than anything, he was also a great husband and father to a loving family.
Changing Lives, One Hammer Thrower at a Time
Having an inspirational story is one thing, but actually changing lives is another thing all together. The movie Rudy is very inspirational and may inspire a team to work harder, but I doubt it has really changed lives. Harold on the other hand, not only had an inspirational story, but directly bettered the lives of thousands throughout the country. Indirectly he inspired thousands more. Since “retiring,” Harold focused on advancing youth hammer throw in America, an aspect which has been neglected with only one state having the event in high schools. We met in this stage of his life.
Let me set the scene. It is September 2001 and I am a fat kid on the verge of failing out of school for skipping too many classes. I’m tipping the scales at 300 pounds and delusionally think I have a future as an offensive lineman or shot putter. I also threw the hammer and even started a website for the event, but I wouldn’t have called myself a hammer throw since I only practiced a few times a month and was still stuck doing one turn throws after several years of trying more. Harold was coming to Washington state to conduct a hammer clinic and lobby our state athletic federation and needed a place to stay. Hearing this news, I volunteered my family’s house.
I was in awe when we first met. As a high schooler, who could dream of anything cooler than getting to host an Olympic Gold Medalist for a weekend. The first night he arrived he asked to look at film of my throws. He politely refrained from saying my technique was terrible (it was), and then he began to talk openly. He told me I didn’t have a future as a shot putter. With a personal best of 49′ and without any superhuman physical talent, he was right on the money with that assessment. But with the hammer throw, he noted, technique could put me on an even playing field with everyone especially since I was starting before college. I think I decided right there to dedicate myself to the sport. Between clinics and meetings, he found time to do several one-on-one training sessions with me over the weekend and gave me enough advice to get me going on my journey. Before he left, he also advised me on what he felt was even more important than throwing: I needed to get my grades up and lose some weight. Since he first told me what trans fats were, I have been an avid anti-trans fat advocate before anyone even knew what hydrogenation was. I lost nearly 70 pounds in the first year. I also reapplied myself at school and have never received a grade less than an A-/B+ since then.
We stayed in touch often after that. He would continue to review my film and coach me until I went off to college. After that, he still advised me as a mentor and friend. I was honored a year later when he asked me to help coach and demonstrate hammer training for him at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. I was even more honored when he asked me to help with his site (although I had already secretly put together a new design but didn’t have the nerve to ask him about it yet).
If we had not met, I know I would not have been an All-American. I would not have finished law school and become an attorney. Heck, I don’t even know if I would have finished high school or even been healthy at this point in my life. Harold inspired me, and I am just one of many.
A Passionate Man
I last talked to Harold in May before heading to Europe and he was excited about the USATF Foundation grant he had received and we were discussing plans to redesign his webpage and add new fresh content. He was 78 years old, but his level of passion was that of a 20 year old. He did not stop thinking about the hammer throw and luckily his wife Pat not only accepted this, but was proud of it. Harold was a man who squatted 400 pounds on his 70th birthday (more than I’ve ever done), but the greatest muscles he ever needed were to push against the bureaucratic structure to help youth hammer throw. Only someone with his passion could have succeeded like he did.
Harold always said his goal was to see another American win an Olympic medal before he died. While he never got the chance to do that, his work will lead to a medal in the future. His work has been the main reason why the hammer throw has spread from Rhode Island across the country. On the boys’ side America had just 5 high school throwers over 200 feet and 19 over 175 feet back in 2000. In 2009, those numbers were increased to 13 boys (and a record of 19 back in 2007) and over 42 girls. In addition, America has now won the last two World Junior titles after not having won a global title at any level since Harold’s 1956 gold medal. The winners, Conor McCullough and Walter Henning, were both mentored by Harold (Walter has also shared some comments on Harold on his blog).
Continuing His Work
After hearing the news, Thursday got off to a slow start, but I eventually made it out to my morning practice as planned. In fact, I actually threw well, better than I had in over a month. I couldn’t get my mind off of him the whole practice and despite not being able to think about technique, I was able to bring a different level of intensity to training. That’s the way he would have liked it. That’s the way he would have wanted it. Even after his death, he is helping hammer throwers and I plan to continue to use his website and other initiatives to help even more so that the hard work he started will only produce more results in the future.
Although I’m a track fan and athlete, my interest in athletics goes well beyond spectating and competing. For me, I also love the business side of the sport and am constantly thinking about the challenge of how we can grow athletics. One recent idea that has proved very successful is the shot put’s move outside the stadium at many meets. This has been a classic example of thinking outside the box (and the stadium) that has worked.
How We Got Here
The set up for the shot put in the main train station at this year's Weltklasse Zürich meet.
While throwing outside the stadium is nothing new, the idea has been gaining traction in the past decade. The short lived Titan Games first tried it in 2003. It was easy for them to decide to put the shot put outside the stadium since it was the only track and field event included in the strength oriented program. But, the rest of the events took place indoors and the shot put was held outside. The atmosphere was still great, leading Adam Nelson to say, “it was like the combination of a rock concert and fight night.” Nelson had an amazing foul at the 2004 meet before the event disappeared. During this time, the Oregon Track Classic also held the shot put outside the stadium before the meet, creating an intimate setting leading to an intense experience where Adam Nelson set his personal best of 22.51m and Kevin Toth placed just third with a throw of 21.78m.
Not long after the Titan Games, an even bigger meet, the Olympics, decided to hold the shot put outside the stadium and also began to use the event as a publicity tool. The shot put was held at the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia. With the return of the Olympics to its ancient homeland, Greece wanted to do something to recognize the history of the Olympics and elected to hold a competition at the historic grounds. The shot put, however, was not their first choice since it was not even contested in the ancient Olympics. The discus was the first choice since it traces its roots back to Greece, but it required too much space. The shot put, on the other hand, requires little space and seemed to be the perfect fit. Again, the competition was a great success, with thousands of spectators making the drive from Athens to watch the historic event. Everybody won with this decision. The shot putters got to be the center of attention. The Olympics got additional press coverage and was able to bring attention to its history. The live fans were also get watch the event in a more intimate setting and fans at home were treated to abnormally good coverage of the event.
It wasn’t until 2008, however, that the idea caught on with the bigger one-day meets at the DN Galan. The meet decided to create the Big Shot competition, a shot put meet one day prior to the rest of the competition held in the city center as an outreach project. It was very successful and and the idea can now been seen in the main train station at this week’s Weltklasse Zürich and earlier this year at the scenic Goree Island before the Dakar Grand Prix.
Everybody is a Winner
For the one-day meet, the shot put provides several big benefits. First and foremost, it is an advertising tool. By placing one event in the middle of the city the day before the meet, the hype for the meet begins to build with the thousands of people that pass by. Rather than a billboard add, a competition is interactive, load, and fun making it a much better marketing tool. The meets have also treated the event as a platform to build on. In addition to the competition, Zürich let the public try the event themselves, with a constant queue about 20 people long for several hours on Wednesday. Sports celebrity Werner Günthör was brought in to provide live commentary to the crowd and Puma was among many sponsors that set up a booth right next to the stands to sell their latest Bolt line of clothing. In addition, the meet also benefits since they don’t have to repair their precious football field after the competition.
The shot put is always a fun event to watch, but some of its allure is lost when you have to watch the event across eight lanes of track and a dozen Kenyans scaling steeplechase barriers. The rest of the track meet can sometimes dampen the event, even though the rowdy shot putters do their best to prevent that and have famously delayed some headline races with their noise. By putting the shot put outside the stadium, fans can stand feet from the event and, for me, better witness what an amazing physical feat it is to throw the 16-pound ball over 22-meters. Weltklasse Zürich meet director Patrick Magyar put it nicely when he said, “the Shot Put is an aesthetic discipline, offering exciting competitions. Unfortunately, it tends not to get the attention it deserves when staged at its traditional stadium location, simply because the action is so far away from the spectators.”
The athletes, in turn, get to feel the crowd right on top of them. They get to be the center of attention with a crowd estimated at over 700, which is more fans than many full fledged U.S. meets get. They get to expose their event to new faces. They are also given more chances to compete. Only the women’s shot put was on the original slate of events in Zürich, but the men’s shot put was added as a non-Diamond League event because of the idea. While not everything has been smooth for the athletes, the first round reportedly took 30 minutes in Stockholm since every athlete was individually introduced before their first attempt, it is a big upgrade in most cases.
Learning to Think Outside the Box
As I’ve written about numerous times on here before, the hammer throw is already on the fringe of track and field and on the verge of being moved further offstage. Just this week, Magyar, one of the most influential men in athletics, even warned in a newspaper interview that öur sport needs to ask tough questions like whether we need the discus or race walking events or else we will drive into a wall.” While the interview mentioned the discus, Mr. Magyar was obviously referring to the hammer throw since the discus has a secure spot in the sport and, unlike the hammer throw, is actually being contested in Zürich.
While I disagree with Mr. Magyar’s statement that the question of dropping the hammer throw should be on the table, I agree with him in that we need to be asking tough questions about how to improve our sport. And the answers to the questions will need to be ideas where we are thinking outside the box like the recent changes to the shot put. It is through such ideas that will we be able to both reach new fans and excite the current fan base. I don’t have those answers yet, but there must be some idea that can help our event get some extra attention and we need to constantly search for it. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, as some have suggested, but we should be looking for new ways to market the wheel.
If nothing else, the shot put movement has shown once again that moving an event outside the stadium is not always a bad thing. The sprints have been held in city centers and the pole vault has numerous street and beach vault events. Even the hammer throw can be successful outside the stadium, but other ideas will be needed to bring the event back to the limelight.
It’s a rare opportunity when I guy can put on a powder blue shirt with a edelweiss flower pattern and come off as more masculine, so when I heard about the opportunity to do just that I immediately signed up for the stone throw competition at the 2010 
