“Track and field sucks.”
Those four words amount to blasphemy in the city of Eugene, aka “Tracktown, USA.”
Those four words also came out of my mouth roughly two months ago when I was assigned to the men’s track and field beat. I was a firm believer that a sport wasn’t a sport unless a ball was in play.
Being the epitome of a track dummy, I struggled to find the reasoning behind jumping into a sand pit, vaulting over a bar with a flexible pole or chucking a spear as far as your shoulder would allow. How people could sit in the stands at Hayward Field and be entertained by the long jump, pole vault or javelin baffled my mind.
When it came time to cover my first track meet during spring break, I walked into Hayward Field sure of two things: I would be bored for the next five hours, and I would leave with a nice rosy sunburn.
After five hours at the Oregon Preview, however, it turned out that the only sure thing was the sunburn.
After watching Tommy Skipper win the pole vault and Brandon Holliday win the 400-meter hurdles, I was astonished by the amount of athleticism that went into competing in the sport of track and field. An expected five hours of boredom had turned into five hours of being intrigued.
Watching Leonidas Watson compete in the long jump gave me a different perspective of track athletes: They’re not just competitors, they’re entertainers.
As Watson stood at the beginning of the runway, preparing himself for the jump, he looked to the Hayward crowd and signaled for fans to start clapping. Oregon fans responded with a rhythmic clap that filled Watson with a noticeable increase of energy. The St. Louis native responded with an event-winning mark on his fifth jump, leading to plenty of “oohs” and “ahhhs” from the crowd.
Skipper competed with the same kind of flair in the pole vault. The freshman phenom also received a rhythmic clap from the Hayward faithful, causing his eyes to light up with focus and determination. The Sandy native approached the vaulting area with carefully calculated steps before lifting himself over a bar located 17 feet, 5 inches above the ground.
Skipper hopped up off the mat and waved to the fans that had stayed until the last field event of the day to see him jump.
The simple physics of Skipper’s accomplishment was enough to gain the respect of this reporter.
“We’re all out here competing because we love our events,” Skipper said. “You have to show a little enthusiasm while you compete. There’s a lot of young kids out here and one of these days they’re going to be out here for Oregon track and field and that’s what inspires them to do great things in their life. If I can be any type of inspiration to anyone I want to do that.
“I remember watching (former Duck and Olympian) Kory Tarpenning compete in the pole vault and that’s why I’m out here.”
With two meets remaining at Hayward Field this year, I find myself wishing for more. Simply interacting with the athletes is fun in itself. The track athletes aren’t cocky or arrogant, instead, they carry themselves with a humble humility. In a sport that is often judged on individual accomplishments, the track athlete embraces the concept of team unity.
Oregon track athletes are truly blessed to compete in a city where track and field is embraced and dummies like me are kept to a minimum.