By Pierre Sylvain
4/25/21
Above is a picture from https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3987787 of Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon
The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenge to athletes across the world. With governments attempting to stop the spread of the virus, large public gatherings were no more, meaning, no more public sporting events. For professional track & field athletes, 2020 was supposed to be an especially important year because of the upcoming summer Olympics in Tokyo. During this time, athletes had to train without knowing if they were going to compete in the foreseeable future.
Eventually, the International Association of Athletics Federations would be able to put on safe track & field venues with no spectators in late summer and early fall. But, athletes still had to train from late March to May without knowing if they were going to be able to compete at all. The data below will show how productive of a year 2020 actually turned out to be by comparing the number of world records set in 2020 with the records set in the past two decades.
A good way to tell if a year in track & field has been productive is the amount of world records that have been broken that year. There are 30 track & field events with an average of about 8 world records that are broken every year. When a world record is broken, your name is temporarily stamped in history as the greatest of all time and honor is brought to your country. It is something every track & field athlete dream of and every track & field fan hopes to see.
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The data above shows that 2020 is tied for second place as the most productive track and field year in the past two decades. Despite not being able to compete regularly, athletes still worked hard through the pandemic to put on super star performances across the world. This demonstrates the motivation and mental fortitude that these athletes had even with an uncertain
The three greatest suppliers of world records are the United States, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Since these countries have supplied so many great records in the past, it only makes sense that they would be the ones suppling the records in 2020 as well.
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These countries realize the importance of putting on a show for their people back home. This gave them the motivation needed to put 100% into training everyday even with an incomplete outdoor track season.
All in all, this data shows how dedicated these athletes are to becoming better, and they did not let the covid-19 pandemic slow them down.
Social Media Plan:
My target market it track & field fans. I would advertise this story on my Instagram account. Then I would reach out to college track & field team accounts to see if they will repost my post on their Instagram story. More specifically I would reach out to colleges that are in the Colonial Athletic Association conference, same as Northeastern University.