Don't Bring Back the Mile

Last week, the NCAA track & field coaches voted to change from the 1500 meters to the mile at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.  When I first heard that this was being proposed, I thought it had absolutely no chance of passing.  Now that it has, I can't help but wonder what they were thinking.  Because the whole idea is really stupid!

This whole mile crusade started a couple years ago when some guy launched the website "Bring Back the Mile."  They claim on the website that the mile is "America's Distance."  Really?  Name one famous American miler.  America's actual distance is the 100 meters (although the Jamaicans have done a good job of usurping that event in recent years).

"Bring Back the Mile" supporters are obviously ecstatic about this news.  Unfortunately, though, they're still fixated on some romanticized notion of what the mile used to be.  The mile hasn't been raced regularly in nearly 30 years!  Not since the U.S. decided in the mid-70s to go along with the rest of the world and race over the metric distances.  The mile has been the 1500 ever since.

Yes, the mile has historical significance, which is why they still mark the start line for the mile on the standard 400-meter track.  But I think the "Bring Back the Mile" community is relying a little to heavily on that historical significance.  When Roger Bannister broke the 4:00 barrier, it was one of the greatest achievement in the history of sports.  That was in 1954!  A lot has happened in the last 61 years (like the change from running on dirt to running on synthetic tracks, for example).

Does 4:00 still resonate with people?  Sure.  But there are those benchmarks in every event.  The 10-second barrier in the 100 meters.  Two meters in the women's high jump.  Two minutes in the women's 800.  The thing about the 4:00 mile, though, is that there's no equivalent time for women.  The best mile time by a woman in 2015 was 4:16.71 by Kenya's Faith Kipyegon.  The all-time world best is 4:12.56, which is the only time the women's mile has been run in under 4:15.  (In fact, only 103 women all-time have even run a sub-4:00 1500!)

Among the responses to all the excitement of so many mile supporters, was exactly that point.  This obsession with the magical 4:00 barometer could backfire.  Badly.  More often than not, championship 1500-meter races, which are run without a pacesetter, are slow and tactical.  So, if you're using 4:00 as your frame of reference, all it could do is prove how slow a race is.  (Case in point: Chad Noelle of Oklahoma State won the 1500 at the 2015 NCAA Championships in 3:54.96, which translates to roughly a 4:10-4:15 mile.)

There also doesn't seem to be much logic behind moving away from the distance that's raced year-round around the world, especially with the number of world-class international runners that compete collegiately for U.S. schools and race at the NCAA Championships.  And the IAAF won't be changing the 1500 to the mile anytime soon.  (It's also worth noting here that the mile has NEVER been run at the Olympics.)

The IAAF only just started accepting mile times as qualifiers for the 1500 meters at the World Championships.  But you can't use a mile time to qualify for the Olympics in the 1500.  So, by changing the 1500 to the mile in the NCAA, you'd be taking away how many opportunities for these athletes to post qualifying times for major international meets?  And for what purpose?

I haven't even touched on the fact yet that the 1500 and the mile are completely different events with completely different tactics.  That, I think, is the biggest point of frustration of some of the athletes who've expressed their opinions on social media.  Many current and former NCAA 1500-meter runners pointed out the difficulty of starting on the turn instead of the straightaway, for example.  (Canadian Sheila Reid, a 2012 Olympian who won an NCAA title at Villanova, was one of the most vocal critics of the decision.)

While the coaches approved this change, it applies only for the NCAA Championships.  Conferences are free to do whatever they want at their respective championship meets.  That makes even less sense!  Some conferences would, undoubtedly, decide to keep the 1500.  Which means that those athletes would run the 1500 all year, then have to move up to the mile just for the NCAA meet!  And, since they run the IAAF championship distances at the U.S. Nationals, they'd be running a 1500 there, as well.  Or, if they're in a conference that opts for the mile, they'd run that all year before moving down for U.S. Nationals, which might then become their only chance to post a 1500 qualifying time.

It's important to note that this was only approved by the coaches.  Now that the coaches have passed it, it'll go the NCAA, which has the final say.  That's usually a slam dunk, but I'm not so sure it will be in this case.  There was anything but unanimous support for this change among the coaches, and now that the athletes have begun to speak out against it, you'd have to think the NCAA will listen to everyone before making a final decision.  I hope they do listen.  And I hope common sense prevails.  Because there's absolutely no reason to replace the 1500 with the mile at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.