Track is good. Too much track is, like any excessive good, a very bad thing. And most track meets have too much track. The Olympics have so much track that the track meet takes two weeks; there are so many events that any given Diamond League meet has only half of the events. And your standard high school or college track meet is an all-day or multi-day affair. This is fine for hardcore, ridiculous track nerds like us. But if track is ever going to be a thing that can be consumed by a regular person, some events have to go.



There were rumblings in late 2014 that the IAAF and IOC were considering getting rid of the 10K, shot put, 200m, triple jump, and one of the two men's race walks. The IAAF had to write on its own site that "no credence whatsoever should be given to recent unfounded speculation regarding possible changes to athletics' programme within the Olympic Games," which means that some credence should definitely be given to said speculation.

The tricky part is figuring out ​which ​events to cut. It's easy to cut events you dislike, but getting rid of a sprinting event logically has to mean taking a pound of flesh from the distance races. So, I asked my co-workers after the Olympics--when sentimentality about the medals we won runs highest--which events they would get rid of. I ignored the race walks when polling my colleagues.

The 10K is great. But it's also is a full half hour added to a meet's program, is often a total affront to fans when slow--unlike other races where a tactical first half can be entertaining--and makes for terrible television. It should not be a track event.

I also think the 200m, 10K, triple jump, and hammer should go; all seven of the people who responded here voted to mercy-kill the hammer and 10K. The triple jump was the only other event nominated for death six times.

Gordon Mack: all hurdles, 200m, 800m, 3K SC, 10K, all throws, multis, triple jump, pole vault

A diehard track fan likes almost all the events, a normal track fan only likes a certain amount of events, and an average sports fan only cares about who the fastest person in the world is. That's why track and field needs to be simplified to one sprint event, one long sprint event, one mid-distance event, one distance event, one vertical jump, and one horizontal jump. The rest are just repetitive.

Ryan Fenton: 400m hurdles, 10K, shot put, discus, hammer, triple jump

Field events should boil down to throwing far, jumping high, and jumping far. The one caveat is pole vault and high jump, which both involve jumping high, but the pole vault throws people 16-20 feet on a pole--so it's compelling TV when done right. If you asked me this five years ago, I'd probably take out the steeple, but now Jager is kicking ass so my U.S. bias shines bright! I was debating keeping the 200m and 10K, but the reason I kept them is because of the storylines they produce. At the Olympics, everyone wanted to see Bolt. If we take away that event, then we lose eyes on the fastest man in the world, which is arguably one of the most important pieces of an event at the highest level. I could do without the 10K on the track, so I'd recommend moving it to the roads--it makes for better TV because it's more about tactics than pace and looks better in terms of scenery. People relate to 10K road races, not running 25 circles in an empty stadium. I also got rid of the 400m hurdles, because if we're going to eliminate a distance event, we should also eliminate a sprint event.
 

Johanna Gretschel: hammer, 200m, triple jump, 10K (switch 1500m to mile, switch heptathlon to decathlon)

There are too many throwing events. Hammer gets the axe. Javelin is cool, and shot put and discus are common at high school/youth level. Weight throw is not listed here (only held indoors), but you can get rid of that, too. Triple jump is the least interesting of the jumping events, so axe that, too. Long and high jump are easier to follow/cooler to watch. Eh, you could also get rid of the 10K--too long. Make distance people move up to the marathon.

Meg Bellino: 10K, javelin, hammer

The 10K is extremely hard for any human to follow in person or on television. The javelin and the hammer throw are simply uninteresting to me. The shot and discus are popular sports in high school, so keeping those up through the Olympics makes sense. But the javelin and hammer don't seem necessary. 

​Joe Battaglia: 200m, 800m, 3K SC, 10K, triple jump, discus, hammer

I preface this by saying the axe needs to drop to make track more marketable/televisual/easy for average fans to understand. To me, the 100m and 200m are repetitive in their fields and all anyone cares about is who's the fastest man/woman and that is decided at 100m. The 200m and 800m are tweener events, to me. Long sprinters run the 400m. The fastest mid-distance runners excel at 1500m. Plus, schedules and rounds often make doubling impossible/unlikely, so why keep them?

Most of the highest-level steeplechasers could also excel at either the 1500m or 5000m, plus the steeplechase is an equine sport. The 10K is too long to televise and boring for folks who don't want to watch people run circles for 25 laps. The triple jump is glorified hopscotch, which is a children's playground game, not an Olympic sport. Discus and hammer need to go because if track is to get out of the stone ages in its presentation, we should probably start with eliminating throwing stone-age weapons. I thought about cutting out the javelin too, but Julius Yego's story is too cool to eliminate. In place of all of these dropped events, I would add the DMR.

Mark Floreani: 200m, 400m hurdles, 3K SC, 10K, discus, hammer, triple jump

When I looked at this exercise, I tried to figure out how to make the sport more marketable. I do believe that the sport of track is stuck in 1972, and there needs to be a change to really compete for eyeballs. I love a good 10K, but I am weird for that, and for every good 10K you have 99 other ones with hardly anyone in the stands. The hardest one for me was the steeple, since I ran it, but Evan Jager is awesome at the 1500m and 5K as well. We should eliminate events where talents can duplicate. If we kept the steeple, we would need to get rid of the 5K, and I don't think we should do that. This same logic holds for the 200m and 400m hurdles.

In the field, we need one throwing, one vertical jump, one horizontal jump--eliminating the triple, hammer and discus. I believe the top athletes for each event eliminated would still be a top athlete in track and field. For example, if we eliminate the triple jump and Christian Taylor focused on the long jump or the 400m, he would still be an Olympian and medal contender.