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Kerley has explained how athletics can grow even more popular following the Olympic games.
Olympic 100m bronze medalist Fred Kerley recently shared his thoughts on how athletics can continue to grow in popularity in the United States following the Olympic Games.
Kerley, who recently triumphed at the Silesia Diamond League, clocking an impressive 9.87 seconds in the 100 meters, believes the sport’s momentum can be sustained by keeping fans engaged year-round.
Kerley’s victory in Silesia saw him narrowly edge out Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, who finished second in 9.88 seconds, and Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake, who set a personal best of 9.89 seconds for third place.
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Italian former Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs finished fourth with a time of 9.93 seconds. At 29, Kerley has turned around a season that began with challenges both on and off the track, and he is now focused on dominating the World Athletics Championships next season.
Track and field has seen a surge in popularity since the last Olympic Games, with efforts to maintain fan interest including the Netflix documentary SPRINT, which spotlights the world’s fastest runners. However, Kerley emphasized the importance of maintaining the excitement around the sport.
“Just keep the hype on,” Kerley told FloTrack after his victory in Silesia. “The top people are still competing. Just because the Olympic Games are done, or even the World Championships end (does not mean fans should stop following them).”“We still have the best athletes competing around the world, from the throws to the jumps to the discus events.”
Kerley’s comments came in the wake of Noah Lyles’ insights on how track and field can gain more structured and organized popularity.
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Lyles, who has emerged as one of the sport’s most prominent figures, recently spoke on the Night Cap podcast about the potential challenges that increased exposure could bring to the sport.
“SPRINT just came out. It is successful around the world. It is successful in the U.S. They’re about to come out with another season. It’s going to do great.
“ The hard part is that we as a sport are not ready for the popularity that is going to come,” Lyles explained.
“Everybody is going to say, ‘I want to be a track and field fan!’ ‘I want to follow Fred!’ ‘I want to follow Noah!’ ‘I want to follow Erriyon!’ Guess what? We don’t even have a place to go and tell them to watch the track meet. Because in every other different country, it’s in a different place.”
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Lyles also expressed concerns about the shift in broadcasting rights for the Diamond League from NBC to FloTrack, warning that this change could be detrimental to the sport’s growth.
He highlighted the difficulty for fans to access content, particularly in the U.S., where viewers may need to use VPNs or turn to less reliable sources to watch their favorite athletes compete.
“We, ourselves, are not ready infrastructurally-wise to say, ‘Hey world! We’ve got something amazing for you.’ That’s the hard part,” Lyles said.
“The rights for the Diamond League just got dropped by NBC and moved to FloTrack. Now we’re putting it behind a paywall and making it even harder for fans to become new fans. It hurts because I knew this was going to happen.”
Kerley and Lyles’ insights underscore the need for the track and field community to address these challenges and leverage the growing interest in the sport to build a more accessible and sustainable future for athletics. As the sport continues to evolve, athletes like Kerley and Lyles will play a crucial role in shaping its trajectory, both on and off the track.
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