Load management unavoidable for most track and field athletes on road to worlds
Athletes often forced to choose between competing a lot in July or peaking in August
This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
Last Sunday morning in Silesia, Poland, Sha'Carri Richardson, the American sprint sensation, strode past Jamaican star Shericka Jackson to win the women's 100 metres at last week's Diamond League event.
Jackson ran 10.78 seconds, a stride-and-a-half slower than the world-leading 10.65 she ran to at the Jamaican national championships in early July, but still fast enough to win most high-level races. Except Richardson, fresh off a U.S. championships that saw her qualify for worlds in two events — the 100 and the 200 — refused to let Jackson's blazing speed rattle her. Richardson gave ground early, then calmly walked Jackson down over the race's final stages to win in 10.76.
WATCH | Richardson takes down Jackson for 2nd time this year | Athletics North:
As co-headliners, Richardson and Jackson delivered — but wasn't this race supposed to be a three-way showdown that included Marie Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast?
Yes, initially. But Ta Lou, whose 10.75 season's best ranks third in the world this season, withdrew from the race.
Similar story on the men's side, where Akani Simbine of South Africa upset American standout Fred Kerley to win a 100-metre dash that was originally scheduled to include Christian Coleman, the 2019 world champion. It was an entertaining race — with Simbine grabbing a lead and holding off a hard-charging Kerley — but not the one most ticket-buyers paid to see.
Strategic withdrawals
Here, it helps to remember that all of these athletes are professionals, and to assume they have valid reasons to miss races. Travel, training and competing all ask a lot of an athlete's body. For most of us, a pulled hamstring is something we read about while choosing our fantasy football teams. For a professional sprinter, it's a job hazard.
A costly one.
Blow out a muscle now and you miss the rest of the season. Sometimes the best race is the one you don't run.
But if the reality involves strategic withdrawals from big races, a question arises:
Does track and field have a load-management problem?
Not quite.
The one-and-done false start rule is a problem. It got Devon Allen DQ'd at world championships last summer. Allen, a practice-squad wide receiver with the Philadelphia Eagles last season, could have won a world medal in the hurdles and an NFC championship within a five-month span. Instead, he left worlds empty-handed, because the sensors in his starting blocks said he reacted to the one one-thousandth of a second too quickly.
WATCH | Devon Allen speaks on disqualification from World Athletics Championships:
And the sport always has money problems. Maybe not meet promoters and federations, but the cost of staying competitive, and the scarcity of guaranteed money, has the sport's dwindling middle class feeling squeezed.
Load management is less a problem than a dilemma that arises when the sport and the business of track and field collide.
And for fans, who spend money and block out time to watch specific matchups, it can grow frustrating.
Earlier this season, the prospect of a couple of 100-metre showdowns between Kerley and Lamont Jacobs, the most recent Olympic champion, had all of us marking our calendars. Two super elite sprinters with Texas roots and gold medals at the world level, each of them confident, and neither of them shy about social media trash talk — what's not to like?
Injuries. That's what.
A disappointment, for sure. But it's also nearly unavoidable in a sport full of independent contractors who have to compete and earn a living, even as the physical strain of sprinting threatens their health, and poor performances can drain their earning power.
Most mainstream North American sports have unions, and collective agreements that spell out what's expected from players. The NBA's newest contract sets its threshold for individual awards at 65 games. You can load-manage your way to a 60-game regular season, or you can win an MVP trophy, but you can't do both.
Track and field lacks those stakeholders and guidelines. Instead, it has shoe deals and other sponsors, which are the closest thing most athletes have to job security, and which are more lucrative if you can leverage a world or Olympic medal. So if you're a podium contender forced to choose between competing a lot in July or performing at your best in August, the decision isn't that difficult.
WATCH | Canada's Aaron Brown on how to improve pay structure of track and field:
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of the sport's top performers — her 50.68-second clocking in the 400-metre hurdles should last decades as a world record — and one of its most recognizable faces. Before U.S. nationals in early July, she had only raced twice outdoors this year. Her stablemate Athing Mu, the world and Olympic champion at 800 metres, competed just once before the U.S. championships.
Going against the trend
Two superstars going against the trend toward load management?
Richardson and Jackson, who followed Diamond League Silesia by racing in Hungary two days later, and will also compete at the Diamond League event in London this Sunday.
Jackson won her 200-metre race in Hungary, while Richardson lost to NCAA champion Julien Alfred in the 100. The result was a mild upset — only mild because Alfred is a phenom who holds the NCAA's 60-metre record, and has run 10.83 in the 100 this year. But it also highlights a pitfall of packing your schedule with high-level races.
Staying sharp all season long is one task. Peaking for the biggest competition of the year is a different challenge. Rare athletes can do both. Most have to plan carefully — train, race, and load-manage.
Is it disappointing?
As a fan… yes it is, at times.
But if you have realistic expectations, it's not a problem.
Just a reality.
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