The collapse of an ambitious new track league has left many stunned, but the real tremor came not from the failure of Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track venture. But from what it’s unraveling exposed. As promises of revitalized attention and prize money evaporated with the season’s abrupt end, one uncomfortable reality began to dominate conversations. Track and field, outside its Olympic spotlight, remains both inaccessible and unsustainable. And now, Olympic long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall has voiced that reality with rare and striking clarity.
Her remarks came during a recent appearance on the A Touch More live podcast, where she set aside the usual niceties and spoke directly to the sport’s most persistent affliction. It has become nearly invisible to the public. “It’s so difficult to watch. It’s not on television, and it doesn’t have its own network,” she said. “We need it to be more accessible to the naked eye, to a viewership.” Her tone was not merely one of complaint but of deep frustration, sharpened by years spent navigating a system that has failed to evolve with the times. For Davis-Woodhall, the issue is not just inconvenient. It is existential. If audiences cannot find the sport, how can it possibly grow?
She drew a pointed comparison to earlier decades. “It was all over the place in the 1980s. It was in the 1990s. You could watch track anywhere. And now it’s just very much so consumed with other events and pickleball. Sorry,” she added with an apologetic shrug, the kind that barely concealed her exasperation. For her and many other athletes, the struggle isn’t limited to the track. Watching a meet requires navigating a thicket of apps, subscriptions, and broadcasting voids. An exhausting effort for even the most committed fan. In a media landscape already dense with streaming services, one more paywall can seem like the final deterrent.
Davis-Woodhall’s comments come at a time when the sport’s economic framework appears increasingly fragile. The abrupt demise of the Grand Slam Track series, reportedly due to financial strain, was emblematic of a broader instability that now permeates the field. Sponsorships are limited. Prize money is inconsistent. Even elite athletes are often forced to self-promote on social media just to maintain visibility. Davis-Woodhall, who has garnered a strong following online, admitted that much of the footage fans see from meets is unofficial. Shared despite restrictions, simply because no one else is broadcasting it. The burden of visibility, it seems, has been placed on the athletes themselves.
The implications of her remarks are not confined to one athlete’s experience. They raise a foundational question for the sport’s leadership. Will they continue to prioritize fragmented, outdated models of media distribution, or will they adapt in meaningful ways to meet audiences where they are? If accessibility remains elusive, so too will relevance. And as Tara Davis-Woodhall made abundantly clear, the cost of inaction will not merely be borne in dollars. But in lost generations of fans who never even had the chance to watch. And track fans are standing right by the Olympic gold medalist.
Fans rally behind Tara Davis-Woodhall as she exposes track and field’s silent crisis
As soon as the video went viral, fans flocked to the comments section. The fan noting, “We get diamond leagues during the summer…” highlights a structural disparity. While Europe maintains consistent championship events, the U.S. lacks a cohesive domestic circuit. Davis-Woodhall’s frustration stems from this gap, as it limits exposure for American athletes outside global meets, reinforcing her view that track remains inaccessible in its own backyard.
When a fan said, “Yes And let’s also not leave field out…”, it pointed directly at a broadcasting blind spot. Davis-Woodhall’s concern about visibility extends beyond track races—field events often go entirely untelevised despite fans paying for access. The fan’s experience validates her claim: even invested viewers are routinely let down by poor coverage.
2023 World Athletics Championships Budapest Tara Davis-Woodhall USA, Long Jump Women, during the 2023 World Athletics Championships at National Athletics Centre, Budapest, Hungary on 19 August 2023. Budapest National Athletics Centre Hungary Editorial use only , Copyright: xIanxStephenx PSI-17887-0049
The remark, “One big issue with how track is filmed…” reflects a deeper visual disconnect. Davis-Woodhall raised access issues, but this fan touches on presentation. The sport’s lack of cinematic storytelling and dynamic angles makes performances feel flat, contributing to the viewer drop-off that Davis-Woodhall warns will cost the sport future generations.
“Absolutely!! I love track and field…” is the echo chamber Davis-Woodhall finds herself trapped in. The fan’s willingness to follow the sport clashes with their inability to find coverage. Her call for greater accessibility becomes all the more urgent when even passionate fans are lost in a maze of subscriptions and broadcasting gaps.
With “@thewoodhalls are changing this sport”, the comment reflects how fans see Davis-Woodhall not just as an athlete but as an agent of reform. Her candid critique has struck a chord—by using her platform to expose the sport’s failings, she and her husband are actively shaping public discourse around track’s broken media model.
The fan frustration in “it’s crazy that you can’t even video at meets…” ties directly into Davis-Woodhall’s point: athletes are forced to self-promote under restrictive rules. Despite being the very performers drawing fans in, they face institutional blocks to sharing footage. The burden of visibility, as she said, is unfairly theirs to carry. Thus, with things looking a bit complicated, it now remains to be seen what happens next.
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