Long jump but not as we know it!
By John Cushing Feb 2024
What’s the saying you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs? Or in this case, to quote World Athletics CEO and former hurdler Jon Ridgeon on our latest episode of Great British Bosses, “you cannot make change in a sport that was basically invented 150 years ago without some controversy, but we think it's worth doing. It’s not about this year, it's about having a sport that’s fit for purpose for another 150 years. It’s time to tackle what the core product is, as I say not to get rid of anything but to try and make what we’ve got as entertaining and dramatic as it can be!”
So I’m intrigued by this latest trial underway in the discipline of long jump that Jon revealed to us. Is he, World Athletics boffins, and athletes who’ve been briefed on the changes already, right? The stats around the number of fouls during the World Championships in Budapest are pretty damning with a third NO jumps “that doesn’t work, that’s a waste of time.” So what is being trialled is a new ‘jump zone’, no board, no light, no plasticine, with the length of the jump being measured from where you take off, effectively ensuring no fouls, longer jumps and presumably hopes of more interest in the event. Jon admits if it doesn’t work it won’t see the light of day, but initially it sounds promising and the right idea to try and remove the jeopardy of a long jump, a bit like the run up to the javelin line.
In our chat, which you can download and listen in full, Jon also admits “less popular events” are unlikely to be included in future worldwide events, including the brand new athletics spectacular (name tbc) starting in 2026, to try and fill the years when there’s no Olympics or World Championships. He’s right, can you imagine a golf or tennis year without the Masters or Wimbledon?!? Seb Coe of course revealed the plan last summer but it seems to have moved on somewhat, to the point we’ll know the host city by the end of this year. It’ll be three nights of athletics, the best of the best, with just semis and finals and what’s key for the athletes I would think is the biggest prize pot EVER in athletics. The athletes will also be running in their ‘national’ strip which I think is great - as a kid I could never understand how the great Carl Lewis was sometimes in the blue and red Santa Monica vest, when I knew he was USA! Athletics is, and always has been, individual v individual, nation v nation! I do wonder though what if all the ‘best’ 100m sprinters are from the US? That could also be a problem from a spectacle point of view.
Talking of spectacles Jon hasn’t seen the first episode yet of the new Netflix doc on athletics, which is being edited now and is out this Spring, but producers are “very happy with the content”. He says it's just part of the armoury to reach new audiences. I for one never thought F1 could be as popular as it now is amongst the world’s young and socially minded!
Paris 2024 will be “fabulous”, but it’s interesting there’s that real hope that the likes of Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, who will star in the Netflix story, will also do well in the Olympics. “What we need as a sport, is ten year long superstar names, Usain Bolt built his name during that period.”
With the World Indoor Athletics Championships coming up in Glasgow, 2024 is already promising to be a great athletics year, but Jon’s right is not just about this year, its next year, and the year after that, and that, and that this sport of athletics we all so love, continues to enthral, engage and amaze us.
