Keep World Relays As a Qualifier

Ten years ago, World Athletics introduced a new addition to the international track & field calendar--the World Relays.  The first few editions included distance events, as well as the traditional 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays.  They've continually tinkered with the events, adding some and dropping others, with varying degrees of success.  It was at the 2017 World Relays, for example, where the mixed 4x400 made its debut, and that event hasn't just been a regular feature of all international track & field meets, it's become one of the most popular.  The distance races, meanwhile, were eventually dropped entirely, with the mixed shuttle hurdles and the mixed 2x2x400 (it's as confusing as it sounds) joining the program instead. 

At this year's edition of the World Relays, which just concluded in the Bahamas, they finally found the right format.  They made the World Relays an Olympic qualifier and only contested the five Olympic events.  It wasn't just a great idea, it's what they should do moving forward.  Have the World Relays three times every Olympic cycle and use it as the qualifying event for both the Olympics and World Championships, while not holding the meet in the off year.

Only 16 teams qualify for the Olympic and World Championship relays.  In the past, those 16 qualifiers would be the 16 nations that had the 16 fastest times in the world (or were the 16 highest-ranked in the world rankings).  Which makes sense since it really is one of the fairest ways to do it.  Except it put certain countries that contest relays more regularly at a significant advantage and pretty much guaranteed that it would always be the same usual suspects in all five relays.

While it's obviously a good thing to see teams like the United States and Jamaica and Great Britain going against each other at the Olympics and World Championships, there's no denying that they also have more opportunities to post fast times at the various college meets held weekly all over the U.S. throughout the season.  Other nations, while they may have the advantage of being able to use the same four runners all the time, may not be able to get that foursome together more than a handful of times, assuming they're able to enter a meet that has a relay for the national team to race in.  That's one of the reasons why the World Relays are so great.

The World Relays doesn't just give those nations a chance to race together, it gives them a chance to do so in a competitive international setting.  It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that a lot of season best and national record times have been set at the World Relays.  However, the degree to which other (larger) countries cared about the World Relays has certainly varied.  The United States didn't even send a team to the 2021 edition!  That's another reason why making it a qualifying event was such a smart idea.

Even if countries didn't send their full "A" national teams that'll be on the track in Paris, there were still plenty of stars in the Bahamas...because nations wanted to make sure they qualified!  It also meant that there would be full participation (or close enough to it).  With 14 of the 16 Olympic spots being awarded directly at the World Relays, they couldn't just sit there relying on the fast time they put up early in the qualifying period being good enough to guarantee them an Olympic place.  If they want to run the Olympic relay, they need to go to World Relays and earn their spot.  Which resulted in some great competition in the Bahamas.

There were four heats in every event in the first round.  The top two made the final and also punched their ticket to Paris.  Everybody else got a second chance in the second Olympic Qualifying Round, where the top two in each of the three heats also earned an Olympic spot.  That only leaves two places remaining, which will go to the highest teams in the world rankings at the end of June.  So, there's a bit of a failsafe there for teams that didn't get the job done in the Bahamas...but not something they can rely on.

They did put in one caveat regarding Olympic qualification, though.  You must run your first-round race in order to run in the second Olympic Qualifying Round.  It's fine if you don't finish or get disqualified (which the U.S. men's 4x400 was sure happy about), but if you withdraw prior to the first round, you have no shot at going to the Olympics.  Which guaranteed full fields and some really competitive racing in the first round, which wasn't always something we've seen at the World Relays in the past.

It also led to some interesting strategic decisions.  Because the mixed 4x400 and the men's/women's 4x400s were only about 90 minutes apart, very few athletes ran in both.  So, countries had to decide which event to race their top athletes in.  The Netherlands, for example, thought its women's 4x400 was strong enough without its top two runners, Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver, so they had them race in the mixed 4x400 instead.  The strategy worked.  The Dutch qualified in both events.  Poland also prioritized the mixed 4x400, entering its top two women in the first round of that event, then, after they qualified withdrew from the final and had them run in the women's 4x400 final.

In Paris, that obviously won't be a problem.  The mixed 4x400 final is one of the first on the Olympic track & field schedule, while the men's & women's 4x400s traditionally close out the in-stadium program.  But they wouldn't be able to run both at the Olympics if they didn't qualify first.  Only nine nations made both the women's and mixed 4x400, while only six countries will be in both the men's and mixed 4x400.

What we saw in the Bahamas as a result of this new qualifying format was incredible.  Nations were celebrating finishing second in a consolation heat.  Why?  Because it meant they're going to the Olympics.  We also saw some unexpected failures (Jamaica in the men's 4x400, Germany in the women's 4x400) and some pleasant surprises that will guarantee some new blood in Paris (Liberia in the men's 4x100, Norway in the women's 4x400).  You can't argue that any of those teams don't belong, either.  Because they all earned their spot directly through head-to-head competition.

For those nations that made the final, meanwhile, there was still plenty of incentive even though their Olympic berth was already secured.  There was prize money at stake for the medalists, as well as Olympic seeding and lane priority.  Whether they actually cared about Olympic seeding and lane selection is questionable, but they certainly cared about the prize money.

Making the World Relays a qualifying event brought new life into the competition.  More importantly, it resulted in both more countries coming and more of them taking the meet seriously.  It gave them a reason to want to be at the World Relays, which hadn't really been the case previously.  And that's why they should stick with the format moving forward.

Countries obviously attended the 2024 World Relays because there was Olympic qualification at stake.  While that won't necessarily be the case in World Championship years, you're still more likely to get more nations there if qualifying is attached (as opposed to just times).  Plus, you'll have the potential for those surprises and smaller nations will get a chance to earn their spot directly without having to worry about times.  More importantly, it would keep the World Relays relevant and make them an important fixture on the annual world track & field calendar.  After a great two days in the Bahamas, that's not just a worthwhile goal, it's an achievable one.