Saturday, October 30, 2010

Women and Track: Interview with Ann Gaffigan part 2

Ann Gaffigan is the cofounder of the website Womentalksports. In the first section, we talked about advertising women and to women, it can be found in the post below this one. In the rest of the interview, we talk more specifically about the sport of Track and Field and she leaves us with some words of wisdom from Young Jeezy.


OntherightTrack:When looking specifically at Track and Field, there has been a huge upswing in women’s performances in the past few years, do you think there has been an added popularity because of this for the women’s side of the sport?


Ann Gaffigan: Absolutely. Our female track & field athletes have been making huge strides as of late. I was particularly excited in 2009 when we had 3 women run under 4:00 in the 1500 plus Shannon Rowbury getting the bronze medal at World Champs. For years, every time someone ran a 4:05 and won USA's, the reaction was always "US women suck and could never make it on the world stage." Then in 2009, 4 women from 4 different training groups either ran sub 4 or won a medal at World Champs. That was a healthy thing for the rest of the distance runners - it showed everyone what they could do if they kept at it. This wasn't one group having this success - it was a variety of situations working out for the respective athletes.

Similar things have been happening in the other events - we had Chaunte Lowe go head to head with Blanka Vlasic week after week and give her a run for her money. Kara Patterson beat the world record holder in the javelin. Lolo Jones won indoor worlds. Molly Huddle set the American Record in the 5K.

When I say "healthy" I am referring to the positive effect certain advancements can have on other athletes. It is healthy for track & field to have a variety of athletes succeeding in a variety of events and coming from a variety of training groups. It proves that there is no one magic formula, there is the right formula for YOU and you just have to find it to reach your potential. It makes things seem very doable and less "pie in the sky."

The variety also encourages mainstream media as well as sponsors to push more than just one star athlete or one marquee event. This makes track & field more appealing to a wider range of people. It also means less risk - when there is a single point of failure (the men's 100m for example), then what happens if Usain Bolt can't run that day? If he is all anyone promoted leading up to the meet, why is the casual fan going to watch once he cancels?
OTRT: You are the former American record holder in the steeplechase, since the time you were competing what are some of the largest changes within the sport?

AG:Well for starters, they added the steeplechase to the Olympics! When I won the trials in 2004 and set the American Record, it was the best day of my life, but I couldn't go to the Olympics! It was the first time in my life I couldn't do something because of my gender. I had never faced that barrier before. It felt so silly and ridiculous. That was when I realized that the women's movement was not finished.

Besides the belated inclusion of the steeplechase, I am in general very proud of track & field for being gender neutral. Since men and women compete at the same competitions, they are always shown together. Our biggest mistake may be favoring certain events over others, not gender.

I was happy to see the field events get more attention this year. Amber Campbell won the indoor VISA Championships Series, so they were forced to cover the throws. Kara Patterson set the American Record in the javelin at USA's, and they made sure to cover that on TV. We always got to see Chaunte Lowe jump. I want to see more of the decathlon and heptathlon. I don't think we emphasize those athletes enough. They are arguably the best athletes on the track and we totally ignore them.

A big change in track & field has been the implementation of the Diamond League. From a fan's perspective, I think it is a very positive thing because we can look at a website listing all of the Diamond League meets and know who is going to compete where and when. We have something to look forward to. It seemed to encourage big name athletes to show up, even if it meant going head to head with their biggest competitor. The meets were shown live at universalsports.com, so we knew where to go to find them. They were also shown on Universal Sports' TV channel later in the day. This is a step in the right direction but not many people get that channel yet. Also, it was usually a watered-down version that didn't compare to the live broadcast, which was usually a BBC feed (or so I've been told).

Not everyone likes the Diamond League, including some athletes. I can't speak on that because I haven't competed since it came about.

Another positive for track & field since 2004 has been the growth in the number of quality training groups for athletes around the country. We have seen more pop up and the numbers rise at each individual "camp." This means (1) people are having success in these training situations and (2) sponsors are putting money into these camps, both of which are positive things.

Finally, the Track & Field Athletes Association has been formed. This is something that the athletes have been in need of for quite some time, especially with the cuts to sponsorships of individual athletes in recent years. The TFAA is in its infancy stage but will soon offer group health insurance, disability insurance, fund-raising efforts and more to its members.


OTRT: If you could set some action items for the sport of Track and field to make it more popular what would they be?


AG:
We need to get track & field on TV on a channel (or channels) that value it and want to cover it like the Outdoor Channel covers the Tour de France and Spike covers MMA - in FULL and LIVE. I want to turn on the TV and watch the track meet live just like I can at universalsports.com....except with a more reliable, clearer feed. Putting one meet every once in awhile on NBC and promoting one name, such as Usain Bolt, doesn't cut it. The average Joe might tune in, realize he'll have to wait until the end to see Bolt run, come back later to watch and then be disappointed if Bolt doesn't set a world record. It's not a good formula.

It needs to be on TV regularly and we need to emphasize every event that has a good competition going on, which is usually most of them! Just watch a feed from overseas, they have it down. We can just copy them, see it's easy!

We have some great personalities in US Track & Field. The athletes' personalities sell themselves. But we have to put the camera on them on a regular basis! 


Finally, what are some lessons you have learned from Women Talk Sports that can be applied to the sport as a whole? 
AG: If you build it, they will come. We've been told our whole lives that no one cares about women's sports. They never have and never will. Guess, what? They're wrong. We are constantly outgrowing our server because of increasing traffic and increasing additions of member sites to our network. Now they've announced espnW - I think the world is starting to wake up.

Another thing I've learned - if you don't like it, do something. That's how things get done. I think it was Young Jeezy who said, "where I'm from, if we don't like it we do something," but I should be more philosophical and reference Ghandi's quote, "be the change you wish to see in the world." Same idea, no?

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