That voice fade at the end of the video was funny. Like you slowly closed the door on your own rant.

In the Men's Long Jump's defense, every mark above 8.80 was either a byproduct of blatant altitude + ideal tailwinds, or the 1991 Tokyo track that was scientifically engineered to make sprinters/jumpers comically faster than usual. I would still wager that the conventional WR is 8.79 by Lewis in 1983/'84 (4.89% diff in the end). You can argue the cold war era doping protocols helped to even get to that level too, but I guess you could wager super spikes/more optimal training has sort of "balanced" the playing field in that regard to an extent, but also maybe not enough to counteract the egregious advantages Beamon, Lewis, and Powell's marks had imo.

I don’t get the idea that an event is boring because nobody’s pushing the world record. I love this sport and watching the different events for the sake of the sport itself, not the spectacle of world records. Maybe I’m the weird one though


P.S. Throwing technically mentioned lets goooo!

The issue with long jump is that the clear and by far most important factor in distance jumped is runway top speed. But the last 20yrs, the athletes with the best top end speed have completely ignored jumps. Whether it's lack of money or big egos, the best potential long jump talents aren't even competing in the event.

Field events struggle because you need to tune into the whole thing to get the most value out of it, and that's impossible when balancing ot with track events and keeping the broadcast under 2 hours.

Messing with the format is probably the best way to go about it. Ryan Crouser's elimination shot put event was sick and I'd like to see the other field events try to thrive on their own with a new format. Some ideas include:

A bracket tournament of 1v1 duels with a title belt (like combat sports).

A 'height auction' where the official slowly raises the bar while jumpers bid on a height.

A cumulative distance scoring system for a team format that punishes fouls.

Field event grudge matches with undercard matches (again to borrow from combat sports).

Look, I am not saying that there isn't technique involved with running events, but with field events there is so much more intrinsic technique that it stands to reason someone will break away and leave everyone else in the dust.  Its why the Olympic record in the long jump is still held by Bob, and personally I don't think there is anything wrong with that.  Likely every field event will go through significant periods where nobody is close to the WR (such as the shotput post Randy Barnes) and then eventually it will be revolutionized amidst a breakthrough of one or more athletes (Crouser and Kovacs) bringing it back into the light.  Women's shotput is a great example as it is still stuck in that inbetween era.

I think the Rome DL long jump was actually quite electric (or at least the ending) with the last three jumps changing the standing completely. Sure the marks weren't anywhere the WR but imo exciting nonetheless

Comparing different events with % off the WR is incredibly flawed and you know it.

This video almost convinced me a sub 8.5m long jump and a 2.34m high jump are meh but then I looked them up. First one is the equivalent of taking off from top of the 3-point line on an NBA court and landing out of bounds behind the basket while the second is casually leaping over Yao Ming wearing Timberlands. Nuts.

Funny enough Jane Hedengren bro her highschool 3200m record at Brooks PR with a time of 9:17! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 She's too fast bro

It's quite telling the people who want more field events to either changed in format to their liking or be scrapped all together. Not everything has to be super long or far for it to be a great competition. The men's long jump DL in Rome was a great example of this. Several changes in the lineups and an unexpected victory too.

Many of these Diamond League events feature several top ranked throwers & jumpers including World & Olympic Champions & Medalists. More often than sprinting races through the DL calendar these days. Only downside at these DLs is the poor and inconsistent coverage of these events. 3 throws/jumps from the Women's Discus & Triple Jump of 30+ attempts is just so deplorable as a recap.

Also, wouldn't it be fun if some field events get Pairs or Team events. Too many ideas that aren't explored enough on the field side.

Such a fun informative video.

I think it’s a bit silly to compare % off the world record as though it’s a good and fair comparison between events. Certain events just tend to have greater variability. Additionally, using that metric on the women’s throws is INSANE because the toplists in those events are so obviously completely the product of Soviet era doping programs. Women’s strength events are well known to receive the greatest increase in performance from doping, so it’s incredibly unfair to judge the current women’s throws by comparing them to Soviet records. If you use a (albeit still flawed) better metric like WA performance scoring, high jump does indeed rank worse this year than every event on your little list (except women’s triple which exactly toes it. However, it is also known that WA performance scoring tends to give men’s events higher scores than women’s overall, so MHJ still loses the tie). The only event that I think has any case for being as bad as the men’s high jump right now is the women’s javelin. But regardless, the men’s high jump is without a doubt, not very good right now. Not only bad right now, but bad for the better part of the last decade.

I enjoy field events

The problem is that diamonds league gives distance running insane TV time. With all due respect to distance runners, but the majority of people don’t want to see the entire 1600 and 3200. Throwing events get like sub 5% of all TV time despite having multiple multiple near world record throwers in each event

The 3000 meters steeplechase in the Tokyo 2025 worlds was the worst final of a 3000 meters steeplechase since the 60s olympics.
Notice that it seems the athletes didnt want to get caught doping or something, like a guy ranked 100th in 2025 would get a medal wtf.

10:15 i was at the hoka festival of miles, she was literally blazing away from the rest of the race, it was insane

Oh so this guy can follow high school track & fields how much he wants

But when I do it I'm a "creep" and have to "leave school grounds immediately"

It’s literally the only field event I can tolerate when yomif kejelcha is running a 5k 😭

1:10 I placed at that meet in High Jump this weekend!