Upper Left, United States

I'll post a full debrief on my trip to Oregon for the World Athletics Championships in the next day or two after I finally go through all the pictures on both my phone and my camera.  But today I want to talk about some of the things that I saw while I was out there.  Specifically, I want to address some of the criticisms that journalists weren't shy about making, some of which were justified, some of which weren't.

One of my favorite criticisms was regarding Eugene's remote location.  Actually, I liked what they called it: "Upper Left, United States."  Which is an accurate description.  Because if you look at a map of the U.S., that's exactly where Eugene is--the upper left!

That's a fair critique.  Eugene isn't the easiest place to get to.  I was lucky enough to get a flight into Eugene itself, but I had to change in San Francisco.  And I was coming from a major city in the U.S.!  I can only imagine how difficult it was for some of the foreign teams and fans to get there!  (I was talking to a British fan who managed to get a direct flight from London to Seattle, but Seattle to Eugene is a four-hour drive!) 

There were also plenty of complaints about Eugene's size.  The feeling was that a small college town wasn't the appropriate setting for an event of this stature.  It "should" be in a big city where there are plenty of hotel options and things to do outside of just the track meet.  That's also fair, especially when you consider the next two hosts are Budapest and Tokyo and the three editions before Eugene were in Beijing, London and Doha.

The lack of hotels was something the athletes didn't particularly like.  They're used to staying in nice hotels.  Instead, they're being housed in University of Oregon dorms.  They don't exactly like the dorm life, especially the big shot putters and discus throwers sleeping on those small beds.

However, staying the dorms was also a lot more convenient for the athletes.  Their rooms were literally steps away from Hayward Field, so it only took a matter of minutes to go to the training track, watch the other events, etc.  And, it was actually really cool to walk out of the venue as the session ended and walk past all the different shirts from all the different countries and see the athletes just hanging out.  (The athletes, BTW, couldn't have been more gracious with autograph and picture requests.)

Attendance has been another source of constant criticism.  Specifically, the number of empty seats in a 13,000-seat stadium.  Some of that criticism is unfair, though.  Because there were morning sessions that were never going to be sold out no matter how big the stadium was!  And, what looks worse?  A 13,000-seat stadium that's 2/3 full or a 50,000-seat stadium that's half full, even with banners blocking off sections?

Eugene is also the only place in the United States that can get 10,000 people to attend a day session!  And the evening sessions were all mostly full!  Those "small" crowds, by the way, were knowledgeable and enthusiastic, cheering not just for every country, but getting into it for field events!  The marathon course was packed, too, and the marathons started at 6:00 in the morning Pacific time!

Had these World Championships been held in a larger (and less remote) city, the crowds might've been bigger.  They also would've been met with extreme apathy by those in attendance.  That's the one advantage Eugene has over any other American city.  It's called "Track Town USA" for a reason.  Anywhere else, it would've just been another event going on.  In Eugene, it was THE event.

And, just as I suspected, the small crowds at NCAAs and U.S. Nationals were no indication of what the crowds for Worlds would be like.  Fans from all over the world aren't coming into town for NCAAs or U.S. Nationals.  And fans who live in Oregon and Washington who couldn't afford to go to all three meets were saving their money for the most significant one.

Another thing worth noting is that the "evening" sessions started at 5 p.m. and ended at 8 (which was obviously done for East Coast TV).  The hottest part of the day in Oregon in mid-July is 4:00 in the afternoon, and the stadium is open, so a good percentage of the seats are in the sun.  Meanwhile, sunset isn't until around 8:45, so even the evening sessions were held in broad daylight.  It also meant that some fans had the setting sun in their eyes if they were sitting in the wrong section (happened to me twice).

So, all things considered, was it a mistake to choose Eugene for these World Championships, as some have suggested?  Absolutely not!  The whole point of having the World Championships in Eugene was because they'd never been held in the U.S. before.  While that may not be enough of a reason to justify the location, if you want to have a World Championships in the United States, there's really no other place that could've been chosen than Hayward Field.  It just wouldn't feel right somewhere else.

This meet was all about giving American athletes a chance to perform on a World Championship stage on home soil.  And they have more than delivered!  Getting to compete in front of a home crowd has raised their level, and the result has been some extraordinary performances!  Which has only served to delight the home crowd even more!

How will the Oregon 22 World Championships ultimately be judged?  We won't know that for quite some time, but I don't think anyone who was in Eugene left disappointed.  Sure, there were some technical and logistical issues, but that's true of any major event, and it wasn't enough to overshadow anything (although, that thing with the visas was bad).  And that, for me, is the biggest takeaway.  Was the trip to Eugene worth it?  Absolutely!