The Problem With the 2025 Track & Field Calendar and What It Means for Athletes, Fans and Meets

[@weljenks]

The Diamond League will be useless to an American audience due to Flo Track. Few people will pay exorbitant prices for poor coverage. Flo track is the worst thing to happen to American track ever probably. Absolutely ridiculous.

[@TheFinalLeg]

Useless may be a strong word, but I definitely hear you. The more subscriptions we have to pay for, the more complex it becomes to be able to be able to watch the sport we love. In a perfect world, we could just watch everything for free on KZbin, but I also understand and acknowledge that meets need to not only expand viewership but also make money and streaming for free it not always a smart financial move, which leads to subscriptions and increased prices. I will say to be fair that people still had to pay for Peacock to watch the Diamond league in previous years, now the price may have been different, but its a subscription. Its a tricky world when it comes to watching Track & Field

[@kevinwoods2585]

For a T/F fanatic .. I love it 🎉 there’s gonna be complications for sure but overall ( personally speaking ) the more meets the better. I hope they’ll be televised or easy to stream 🤞🏾 Absolutely love your coverage 🤝🏾

[@TheFinalLeg]

Thanks for watching! Yea, for fans this will be great since we can watch so much track all year round. Now streaming is a whole other question since so many meets means we have to go around to different places to watch. But well see how this works out!

[@trogpo]

Wow, Anderson, thanks so much for this important survey and wonderful analysis of such complex information. Great points and observations!

[@TheFinalLeg]

Absolutely! Really do appreciate that bro!💯

[@njbpaul]

Using the world relays to qualify for the world championship is the biggest problem especially for smaller countries who doesn't have the depth to send other athletes to replace the ones who are either in college or just injured or not in shape in May to qualify for WC

[@TheFinalLeg]

Yea its a big problem. I do understand the idea of qualifying your relays to get into the world championships, but the problem is because of how the sport is structured, a country's relay team don't always train together and each individual athlete schedules their season differently. And like you said, athletes may be college or other factors may arise. But a big issue is the location with it being out in China which is far for the majority of the nations who are competing for relay spots.

[@Terry-du3vc]

The diamond league is more of a European thing. The USA needs to cater to the sport domestically .

[@distanceman8147]

​@@Terry-du3vcDefinitely for growth.

[@Obkerry]

Hey Anderson let me take this moment to commend you for the good job you are doing, very unbiased track and field news/highlights letting us fans be on know on what's happening or gonna happen. On this accept my gratitude and keep it up.

[@MAC-tf7pw]

It’s a lot going on. As a TF fan it’s exciting but I do hope the athletes aren’t stressed with the schedule set up and all that traveling this yr

[@tonyhunt8059]

Excellent analysis for any of the couch potatoes around the globe, especially those of us on the outer limits! Tony Hunt World Junior Athletics News NZL.

[@tak0331]

Thanks Anderson for the thorough insight. It’ll be interesting to see where the dominoes fall this year. Overall, I see the diamond league taking the biggest hit - makes me wonder the impact on ROI for the likely most impacted cities that invested in those beautiful track stadiums. Funny that your thumbnail pits MJ vs Coe - what are you really trying to say? lol

[@TheFinalLeg]

Thanks for watching! Yea I suspect the Diamond League might take the biggest hit in terms of quality, but not sure yet because many of those diamond league meets (Lausanne, Zurich, Monaco, Brussels, etc. are historical legacy meets. They will always be staples on the calendar and because Europe is always enthusiastic about track, they will get attendance. But the quality of the fields may likely be diminished relative to previous years. Hahahaha I actually created 3 thumbnails are rotating now, but yea the main one is MJ next to Coe. I mean GST is the new venture, Diamond League is the existing World Athletics venture, just an interesting comparison with the "faces" of both, but no harm meant!

[@litespeed65]

Mu and McLaughlin barely run now, the Diamond league will never see them.

[@k.o6157]

Yes more meets more racing more rivalry more fun for me...😭😭🔥

[@trogpo]

@@k.o6157 Perhaps more diluted line-ups on each competition? There will be more competitions, but less talents in each, as athletes will not compete in more competitions than on last season, to prevent injuries.

[@TobyGuyana]

Leads to more injuries and athletes dropping out from sheer exhaustion

[@trogpo]

@@TobyGuyana Exactly, but since coaches know how many competitions their athletes are capable of participating with minimum injury risk, the more probable outcome will be less talents in each competition.

[@TobyGuyana]

@@trogpo for sure, either way it won’t be a perfect outcome but I guess this is how they will learn

[@10msplits]

More meets doesn't mean, guarantee or produce more competition. Athletes will be setting targets just as they always have.

[@TheWayWithKhuwayne]

In regards to the athletes specifically, this upcoming season is going to display/expose who can manage their season well and peak accordingly for the World Championships at the end of the year. There have been some athletes who race/jump/throw/compete all year round from indoor to outdoor and manage to successfully get on the podium at the Outdoor Championships with no major setbacks (Femkie Bol, Noah Lyles, Ryan Crouser, Mondo Duplantis etc). Then there are other athletes who have successful indoor seasons but can't seem to replicate this success Outdoors. As well as that, you have athletes who don't compete indoors at all, wait to the outdoor season, and either have a great season from nationals to Worlds/Olympics, etc, or a problematic one or an inconsistent one. The athletes who are able to manage a balanced calendar as well as handle the travelling, the conditions at each event and not have major injury or fatigue issues, will be able to succeed at the Worlds in Japan in September. It's not enough to run fast times/throw or jump big distances at nationals and wait it out until the Worlds a month later. The schedule difference doesn't give most athletes the comfort like it used to before. So not only is it going to expose the best athletes from the pack, but it will display the methods coaches use for their athletes and if it is sustainable and helpful long term. I do think some athletes are going to under/overcompete from this.

[@TheFinalLeg]

This is a great point, athletes and coaches will really have to lock in an ensure they are able to make appropriate decisions to manage the season well. World Indoors, World Relays, World Championships. The best of the best athletes will likely be fine, especially athletes who have wild cards to Worlds (Noah, Femke, Mondo, Sha'Carri, Paulino, etc.). But for everyone else the decisions they make will be key to success, especially if they decide to do Indoors this year. Could we see more athletes skip indoors and instead focus on running outdoors with the goal being worlds? How will NCAA athletes manage? Will be interesting to see how things play out!

[@NelleBligh333]

Thanks for addressing this. The existence of GST might mean we don't see as many races during the season where the top ranked Europeans and Americans compete against one another, which would be ironic (because GST was meant to put all the top names in one event) and sad for fans who want to see these match ups. I can see Jamaica having issues again with world relays because the same team was just voted back in at JAAA. With regard Oceania athletes, Australia has its major outdoor meets from January and nationals in early April, from memory NZ nationals is early in the calendar too. Many athletes then go to Europe for DL and WA continental tour meets, because selection is done early athletes will know well in advance if they have to return for Tokyo WC so this should not be an issue for them. Finding where meets stream is always a nightmare for track fans but I'm old enough to remember when there was no livestream to look for so I'm just grateful for what we have.

[@audreydavis45]

Jamaica usually schedules it's national track and field championships the same time as the US does, so I don't think there will be a conflict with Grand Slam Track.

[@TheFinalLeg]

I hope that ends up being the case. Jamaica released it's 2025 calendar already and national championships is on the 26th-29th which is why I included it in the video. Hopefully they plan to move it to a different date and maybe it was just oversight on their end in terms of scheduling.

[@edabakah]

​@@TheFinalLegIt would be wild for Jamaica to have their championship so far ahead of the actual Worlds. I also think GST doesnt choose that week unless they knew it would be free of Champs. They don't mind fighting with the DL and Continental Tour but country champs is something different, especially during a Worlds year. Just puts up a barrier when they are trying to get the fastest and best racers.

[@Neofolis]

Jamaica putting their Nationals back seems like a sensible option, although what would seem even more sensible is if these diffierent bodies/organisations actually communicated with each other, so scheduling conflicts could be reduced. I realise, to some extent, Gland Slam and Wanda are competitors, but they both want the same thing, which is to attract more fans to athletics, so it makes sense for them to work together to achieve this goal. That said, I don't really see Grand Slam/Diamond League conflicts as much of an issue, given that athletes don't compete in every DL event anyway. You could view this as athletes having more choice of when and where to compete. Season length is an issue, but that's always the case with late Globals. Seb Coe has said that he ideally wants the Globals to be the final event of the season, but obviously that's not always the best option when they are being held in places like Northern Europe where the weather is already in decline by that time. I doubt too many athletes/coaches will have too much of a hard time with scheduling. They will decide their priorities early in the season. If they want to compete at Globals, they will have to compete at Nationals or whatever the qualifying event is. They will obviously change their personal schedules throughout the season, depending on how things are going at the time, but that happens every season anyway. The thing I'm not sure about is the Gland Slam contracts. From what I've seen, it seems like the athletes are contracted to compete at every event, so if there is a conflict, particularly like Jamaican Nationals, they have to choose whether or not to honour their contract. That could potentially result in top athletes missing Globals, which doesn't seem like a good way to bring more people to the sport. Maybe there has been communication in this regard between MJ and World Athletics. It was already a great time to be a track fan, now we get even more. Sounds good to me, assuming it doesn't cause issues.

[@pierre1114]

As a track fan it is good to have this many choices for athletes. As an American the sad thing is the poor coverage…but hey why would the IAAF care about American fans when USATF doesn’t care.

[@RickyCase]

Jamaica Athletics Association may move our champs to July. Let’s see.

[@ninz5250]

How many athletes in the NCAA will actually be needed for world relays this year? CMW for sure for Canada (if he even intends to come back to Georgia) and Nickisha Pryce for Jamaica (again, if she comes back) but other than that I can’t think of any other top international sprinters competing in the NCAA right now, most seem to be on the distance side and they won’t be needed for relays.

[@TheFinalLeg]

There may be a few here and there, but it could be a factor depending on the country. Your probably right that its not an overwhelming number of NCAA athletes, but 1-2 athletes from the NCAA, could be a deciding factor for a smaller country getting representation, especially if the top professionals don't go to world relays. Last year with Jamaica not making it showed that all it takes are a few mad decisions you a country loses it's opportunity to compete. But hopefully things work out.

[@tyeguy5373]

@ninz5250 Nakisha price no longer in school this was senior year she’s fully a professional athlete now..

[@raquelcarter3350]

Decisions decisions decisions 🤔

[@brianbethune616]

Jamaican trial kept in july in 2023 so i hope thats what do again

[@TheFinalLeg]

Yea I think that may be the move. It could be that they released the 2025 Jamaican calendar and mistakenly kept the Championships in Late June, but eventually intend to move it to mid/late July or later

[@k.o6157]

Dang mights as well stay in China for start of season

[@TheFinalLeg]

Yea it seems to literally be set up for athletes to just stay in China for April/May