host city in the province
Athletics World Championships in Eugene: “Find someone else”
Eugene in Orgon has a great passion for track and field: A runner crosses the finish line at Hayward Field. Photo: Steve Dykes/EPA/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
There has never been an athletics world championship in the USA. Eugene, Oregon is a city that has been passionate about sports for decades.
No other city in the United States has anywhere near the passion for athletics that the World Cup host city of Eugene, Oregon has.
Six years before the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, this is a problem for a sport that has produced top athletes from the USA again and again for decades, but can no longer market anyone there as a domestic superstar. Host the Super Bowl? Or an all-star game of the best NBA basketball players? The country’s metropolises are queuing up. But the World Athletics Championships, which have never been held in the USA before? They get a university town in the provinces.
Nike one of the reasons for the World Cup in Eugene
You weren’t necessarily spoiled for choice, said World Association President Sebastian Coe to the Wall Street Journal. In order to get the interest in the run-up to the 2028 Olympics to the hoped-for level – among the top five sports followed in the US – other venues are needed for future meetings. “If I’m being very blunt, we need to go to the LAs, the Chicagos, the Miamis,” Coe said. So far, however, they have not been particularly interested in his sport, whose only venue for the Diamond League in the USA is also Eugene and which, even at a very high college level, attracts fewer spectators than many a football game between two high school teams.
Hayward Field in Eugene is an important place among track and field athletes. In recent years it has become more and more synonymous with the brutal Olympic elimination for Team USA due to the high level. It was only in June that athletes there secured their starting place for the World Championships, which began on July 15, at the national championships.
The sporting goods giant Nike has its origins there and is without a doubt one of the main reasons why the World Cup is taking place there from 15th to 24th July in the first place. Defending long jump champion Malaika Mihambo on the last, record world champion Allyson Felix on the first and all other athletes on the eight days of competition in between will be cheered on by an expert audience, the renovated stadium and expanded for the World Cup is completely tailored to the needs of athletics events designed.
«The first World Championships on US soil»
However, the infrastructure for the many people involved in a major event is not at the level that previous host cities such as Doha, London and Beijing were able to offer simply because of their size. “It will be interesting to see how that works. Especially when it’s very hot. Many of the accommodations do not have air conditioning. If there is a heat wave, it will be a real problem, »said Dennis Shaver of the German Press Agency. As director at Louisiana State University, he is responsible for one of the best track and field programs in the country and has accompanied numerous Olympians on their way. He also criticized the fact that there is no 400-meter warm-up track right next to the stadium. The existing track is more of a square.
Shaver has no doubt that the youth system in the USA, which is closely intertwined with school and university, is the perfect path for talented people – but he has no doubt that Eugene is the best possible venue. “I’m not convinced at all, to be honest. I know they will do the best job possible,” he said. But “there are a lot of things that will be a little different for people than at the World Championships that I’ve been to.”
The organizing committee of the World Cup, on the other hand, is naturally convinced that great competitions will be organized for everyone involved. «You could certainly find places on a map that have more hotels. But can you find the necessary people, facilities, funding and experience for track and field competitions? We have this here, »said spokeswoman Jessica Gabriel of the German Press Agency. “These are the first World Championships on US soil. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. In the run-up to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, it is becoming increasingly important to bring athletics up in the United States.”
When asked why this first World Cup is taking place in Eugene, Gabriel’s answer was: “Find someone else who is willing to host it.”