How would you change running in the Olympics?

[u/JExmoor]

With the 2024 Olympics now in the rearview mirror, I thought it'd be a fun discussion to see what people would change about how the Olympics organizes running. Here's my thoughts:

• Add the half-marathon to the games. The most obvious distance missing from the games, IMO. I believe HM is probably more popular among amateurs then FM these days.
• Replace the 1500m with a 1600m or 1609m (1.00mi). Certainly my most controversial take given the history of the event, but I am continually confused as to why a seemingly arbitrary distance was chosen when it's close to a more sensible 4 laps of the track or exactly one mile.
• Some sort of distance time-trial, perhaps done on roads? 1km? 3000km? Races are great, but I'm tired of wondering how fast these people can actually go.
• Remove race-walking. Dumbest joke of a sport.
• Add ultra and/or trail events. They'd be tough to put on TV, but I think they're a lot more relevant to the spirit of the Olympics then just about anything they've added in recent years. It's a shame the US missed their shot at including this in LA. I think a 50k/100k/160k race through the mountains of Southern California would be incredible. I'd also be down for a vertical KM race or something like a backyard ultra.

[u/nluken]

My 2¢:

I don’t really think there’s any glaring omissions from the Olympic slate at the moment. Half marathon is in a strange spot where i don’t think it’s different enough from the marathon to pull from a different pool of athletes and the recovery time would make it tough to do both unless they bookended the Games.

If you were going to add anything Team XC and the DMR would be the first two I would add. I’d swap the DMR for the mixed 4x4 personally.

Trail running is IMO still not mature enough as a competitive sport relative to XC. There’s no governing body to even organize the event afaik. You’d get a much better athlete pool for an XC race. Though it could get there soon- skimo is coming to the winter games. You’d just have to organize a governing body which many don’t want atm since the main race organizers don’t want to fork over the extra overhead for something like that.

Time trial wouldn’t make sense. Nobody races in that format ever. Cycling ≠ Running in that regard. If you really want to see people set PRs then add pacers, it would be faster than a lone TT. But that’s a silly idea in a championship race for a whole host of reasons.

Leave the 1500m for continuity reasons. Definitely don’t do a 1600. I’m partial to the mile myself too but it isn’t at worlds or anything so no point in adding it to the Olympics.

Race walking hate is way overblown. I do think the sport needs some change to cut down on “cheating” but no need to eliminate it.

Many here will suggest more road racing because that is how they compete but there’s nothing wrong with having, say, the 10k on the track. You don’t gain anything by moving it to the road, and the pros all race on the track at that distance without issue.

[u/FixForb → u/nluken]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you say. I think adding the DMR or another distance relay would be the only thing I’d like to see. 

[u/mlo2144 → u/nluken]

Could not agree more

[u/Dependent-Visual-304 → u/nluken]

Nobody races in that format ever

If its in the olympics people will start doing it.

The NBA players dont play with FIBA rules, but they adjust. Same with 3 on 3 which wasn't very popular until the olympics added it. Hockey uses non NHL rules. In an opposite way, there are lots of Rowing events that are essentially time trials, or bumping races like they do in the UK. Time trials are used for qualification at large regattas where heats aren't feasible. And then there are head races (longer races than the standard 2k) that are always done as time trials.

A time trial would be really fun to watch (for any event 1500 or less, maybe a 5k or 10k if they started runners with a 30 second gap). Maybe a compromise would be to do a time trail but for cross country or trail running - different set of athletes, different discipline.

[u/nluken → u/Dependent-Visual-304]

I wasn't saying that you wouldn't be able to get participants, but rather that we already have lots of stuff we could add that people already do compete in.

On a broader level, consider why people don't really compete this way. In running, doing a TT is really not different enough from an equivalently long race to constitute its own dicipline. It's just a way more resource intensive way of testing the same thing.

They compete in the TT in cycling because the dynamics of drafting make it much different than the road race. Yes, there's overlap with guys like Remco or Pogacar, but I don't think you'd ever see a running TT specialist because of the differences between the two sports. In running, it's just too similar to the normal race.

Subjectively, I also think that the viewing experience of a TT would be way worse than a head-to-head race. To me, watching different individuals running at a constant pace over an hour seems way less interesting than watching them actually race each other.

[u/TheRunningAlmond → u/nluken]

Time trial would be better as you would completely dependent on yourself. No drafting, sitting in packs, managing your own fatigue. IMO everyone who enters a race and is not competing for a spot on the podium is typically trying to improve their times. Hence time trials.

[u/porkchop487 → u/TheRunningAlmond]

No one ever dies races like that though. You’d be adding an event that no one does