Teamsense: how to build a fan

How do you make men care about women's events? How do you make sprinters care about distance runners? how do you make anyone care about field events?

Last week I had the unique opportunity to attend the DecaNation meeting in Annecy, France. And by opportunity, I mean that I bought a plane ticket, flew over there and hitched my wagon to Team USA.

This track meet was fantastic, and not just because of the backdrop:

This meet is a novelty that the world of track and field could use much, much more of. 

In case you missed AnnGaff's preview, the simple format for this team was 10 men + 10 women = 20 events = ONE team score. That's right, ONE unisex team score. This was fantastic. It meant that the women's steeplechase mattered as much as the men's 100m and the women's long jump.

The result of this is that instead of boredly checking my email between distance events, I was frantically deciding if I should be standing by the shot put / water jump or in between the hammer and high jump pit / 1500m start line.

The first race that made my heart race AND resulted in a Team USA win was the women's 3000m steeplechase. After 6.5 laps of relative jogging, which included a trip and a tie-up and the French athlete walking off the track (in front of her home crowd nonetheless), the Russian athlete, Liudmila Kuzmin, threw down a surge and tried to distance herself from USA's Lisa Aguilera and China's Li Zhenzhu.

Aguilera, who is becoming a little cocky about her hurdling and finishing kick, decided to let them battle it out while she hung out in 3rd. Aguilara threw down the hammer in the last 100m, weaved around Zhenzhu and finally out leaned Kuzmin, who let her pass on the inside. It took a well placed shoulder, but Aguilara pulled off a .05 second victory.

The next race that got my adrenaline pumping was the men's 1500m. Some people hate when professional runners refuse to run fast, but personally I love it. It turns racing into a game, rather than a time trial. It adds a psychological element that makes our sport a sport, not an exercise in speed. The pack came through 800m in 2:10, which is very pedestrian. The race didn't really happen until the last 200m when three of the men started to distance themselves from the pack. However, it was the 4th guy who threw down the hammer and pulled out a convincing victory in the last 100m - USA's Will Leer.

Finally, in the most anticipated race (for the French), USA's Michael Rodgers handily beat French sensation Christophe Lemaitre in the last race of the meet. I was pretty sure there was going to be a riot after this one, as Lemaitre is both the hometown hero and the country's star runner. The French, however, were disappointingly civilized.

There were also a few less dramatic wins: David Oliver is the best in the world over 110m hurdles and undefeated for the year. Team USA throwers were largely dominant and expected to win, and they did - Kibwe Johnson in the hammer, Jillian Camarena-Williams and Cory Martin in the shot.

There were also a couple dramatic 2nds - Erin Donohue threw in a few pace changes into the 1500m (like a 61 second 2nd lap), but ultimately fell to recent French drug cheat Hind Dehiba Chahyd. She did, however, take down the world leader, Anna Alminova, who finished 3rd.

In the men's 3000m steeplechase, USA's Dan Huling traded the lead with 2008 silver medalist Mehiedine Mekhissi-Benebbad until the last 300m, where Mekhissi pulled away smoothly.

There were other wins and close calls, but these were the dramatic points that stood out in my mind. What is exciting, though, is that they all mattered. Men, women, sprinters, steeplers, throwers, jumpers.... they all combined into one score, which turned out to be very dominating for the USA team. The final score was USA's 133 to Russia's 94 and Germany's 91. And then the entire team got to stand on the podium together and share a trophy.

If only this format could be implemented in the states... imagine a structure with regions or teams and athletes that actually show up and compete. We might get actual fans!

Full results for the meet can be found HERE.

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