This past weekend, athletes gathered to compete at the USATF Indoor National Championships in Albuquerque.
The athletes who competed put on a show for the audience in attendance, as well as for those who watched from afar. Anna Hall was nine points shy of breaking the pentathlon world record, while Joe Kovacs took home his first indoor title in the shot put.
While there was excitement surrounding the meet and those who competed, one of the underlying storylines was the low payout for the athletes who competed. Here were the payout figures, as noted on the USATF event website:
$6,000 – 1st place finishers
$4,000 – 2nd place finishers
$2,500 – 3rd place finishers
$1,500 – 4th place finishers
$1,000 – 5th place finishers
Coach Rob Lewis believes that the low payouts played a factor as to why some of the top athletes in the sports in certain events did not compete at Indoor Nationals last weekend.
“These determinations were made well in advance,” he said. “This wasn’t like they did it at the meet. They knew well in advance of how much the payouts were going to be. So they have that pool of money, and they determine how they’re going to split it up and how it’s going to go about. When you see a number of $6000, you just go like, why do you even bother? If you really want an indoor championship, look at how many of the elite athletes didn’t show up, didn’t come? Because it doesn’t behoove them to go there for $6000 and risk a twinge or a strain or anything for $6000. That’s just something that they’re not going to do.”
In addition to the results at Indoor Nationals, the track and field world saw one of the best sprinters take his talents from Nike, to ASICS. Also, should track athletes race other athletes from various sports?
Coach Rob Lewis and Coach Brett Shields joins Lactic Acid to discuss all these things and more on the latest episode of Track Talk.
