In honor of the Fourth of July, let’s look at four things track and field should declare its independence from.

1) Requiring World Record Relay Team Members To Be From The Same Country

This issue became widely known after USC ran faster than Poland’s world record mark in the indoor 4x400m at the NCAA Championships. Three teams, in fact, broke the world record in that race. But the Trojans didn’t leave the meet atop the record books. 

Why? Because USC’s Rai Benjamin currently represents Antigua in international competition and the IAAF mandates that for a relay record to count all participants must represent the same country. The end result was Texas A&M, who finished second, owning the world record while USC would receive the NCAA record. 

An NCAA record that is faster than the world record? Fun!

If you believe that the world records should represent the best marks ever achieved by human beings at various track and field events, then why should an athlete's country of affiliation have any bearing on whether or not the performance counts as a world record? 

An American (or Canadian/Jamaican/Kenyan/German, etc.) record needs to be achieved by a member of that nation. That’s the whole point of national records. But a world record? As long as you are a resident of planet Earth, you should be good to go.  

This was best summed up by my House of Run co-host, Jason, on our episode of the show right after those NCAA Indoor Championships.

From this week's show: @jhalpin23 explains why USC's 4x4 WR should be a WR
Full episode: https://t.co/OWc8yhS7oW … pic.twitter.com/25smD7GYWs

— House of Run (@HouseofRun) March 16, 2018

2) Rabbits In Diamond League Mid-Distance Races

I touched on this a bit in my Diamond League Mid-Term grades post, but I think meets should consider scaling back the use of pacers in the 800m and 1500m.

This wouldn’t have to be for every meet—I fully understand the need to achieve qualifying marks and rabbits usually help achieve that. But, much like the marathon, the use of rabbits also takes away from the unpredictability that makes 1500m championship racing so much fun. The men’s 1500m looks particularly scripted this year, with the rabbits sometimes taking the leaders all the way through to the bell, leaving only 400 meters of real running. 

As is the case in the marathon, these runners are capable of running fast on their own. But they won’t until they are given the opportunity to try to race in an event where they pace is solely dictated by those who intend to finish the race. This could also be extended to the 3000m and up, though the rabbits in those races stick around for a shorter percentage of the race, lessening their impact.  

For serious world record attempts, sure have the pacers. But for anything slower, let’s experiment with having a race that isn’t preordained. What you lose in a fast time, you gain in drama. I’m not sure most people at home could tell the difference between a 3:29 and a 3:34 if the clock was covered up. A rabbit-less race becomes more in line with what the 1500m looks like in a meet where medals are handed out. 

3) The Same Uniforms

“Why is everyone wearing the same jersey?” is a common observation among casual observers of a professional track meet. 

It’s a question that doesn’t have a satisfying answer. Yes, I’m sure budgeting plays a role (not everyone can have a unique jersey) and the need for different shoe companies to project a unified identity. 

But it's crazy to me (and virtually everyone else who has observed pro track) why the best athletes don’t have their own jersey. Usain Bolt raced with his own face on his kit and Brooks has put their athletes' names on the back of the jersey so there has at least been some effort to mix things up. Nike once again gave special jerseys to athletes who won world titles last year to help them stand out. But isn’t the goal to make every athlete look distinct?

Uniforms should be a fun part of the sport. Major team sports have entire websites devoted to analyzing and picking apart the different iterations of what a team wears. I don’t think track needs to go to that level. But at the very least I’d like to be able to know who is who in this 5000m race and a little variation on the outfits could go a long way toward helping me with that.

4) Scheduling Quirks

To name a few:

1) Two Diamond League meets in the same week (we should be able to spread these out)

2) Having more than one Diamond League meet after the World Championships/Olympics (everything after those apex meets just feels like a letdown)

3) Not having a World Championships/Olympics once every four years (this could have been an entire post).

4) Only having World Relays every other year (relays are fun, they should do this meet every year, or at the very least, make sure to do it in the non-championship year).

5) Having a World Championships that starts on September 28th (whoops, too late)