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Watching the 2025 World Indoors in Nanjing on TV, by Orrin Konheim
We asked Orrin Konheim to watch the World Indoor Champs from Nanjing on television and provide us with deep thoughts, and he sure did!
Having just experienced the thrill of the NCAA indoor championships in person, it’s worth noting that the collegiate and professional track circuits are the exact opposite in terms of which season is the more exciting.
In the collegiate ranks, the season-long arms race for one of the 16 best marks in the country is straight-up thrilling. I barely can watch any of the meets due to a lack of subscriptions, but checking TFFRS at the end of every weekend to see how bogglingly fast everyone’s getting is excitement enough, and if I can catch some of the races or replays, it’s a bonus.
In contrast, the outdoor seasons encourage more tactical races, translating to a heap of boringness. Virtually, the only races that matter are Penn Relays (for bragging rights) and the regional and national championships. If athletes are in better shape, it’s not showing in the times, and it feels like we’re being cheated of seeing the athletes at their best. It made me feel worse and not better about the NCAA outdoors to know that Washington’s Nathan Green and Oregon’s Elliott Cook were capable of breaking 3:33 (as they showed at the U.S. trials).
In contrast, the pros are incentivized to peak at the Diamond League and the world championships. The only reason to get in shape this early is if you want to sneak in an attempt at an inferior medal in your calendar. Even then, I’m guessing that these athletes are banking on the fact that their competitors aren’t in their PR shape.
As a result, it feels dishonest not to acknowledge the softness of the records being broken as it does when the broadcasters at the NCAA championships give a shout out to the person who holds the fastest 5k in the outdoor season (the indoor times are faster). When the broadcasters say, for example, that Josh Hoey is the American record holder at his event and second all-time, it feels false. And not just to me. I might be wrong but I think anyone who watched the Olympics or US championships would know that the winners of those races typically are getting 1:41s and 1:42s. The average track fan doesn’t have that short-term of a memory, right?
All of this aside, there seems an undercurrent among commentators and commenters on the internet to denigrate the medalists themselves. The accomplishments of people who never enjoyed as much success on the outdoor sphere – Eric Slowinski, Lolo Jones, Ryan Hill, Belgium’s Alexander Doom, Barbara Pierre, and Emily MacKay –tend to be denigrated. Considering how the opportunities there are for global medals is so much greater than the number of deserving athletes, we need to do away with this attitude.
There are comparisons to be made to sports like soccer (AKA football) where certain events aren’t taken seriously by the fans of the sport. If a soccer star like Lionel Messi or David Beckham goes on loan to the US, the fans back home don’t care if they do well in the MLS: Similarly, I’ve never met a fellow soccer fan who takes the Olympic football tournament seriously. Due to its overlap with club season and age restrictions; it’s considered a junior tournament.
The world indoor champions still contain enough of the best in the world that if you can medal, it’s worthy of a lot of praise. This year, Claire Bryant’s gold in the women’s long jump (ranked 31st in the world) and the bronze medals of Luke Houser in the 1500 and Ky Robinson (let’s call him an honorary American because of his Stanford days) were the pleasant surprises. Considering the competitiveness of these events, the odds of achieving similar results in Tokyo are extremely marginal for all three of these athletes. But that does not take anything away from their accomplishments here. They showed up at the starting line against impressive competition and had results you can’t argue with.
They weren’t the full story of American success. Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson earned their first global medals in the 400. Patterson is delivering on the promise he showed as a USATF junior champion in 2016. Faust was an all-American at the University of Kentucky, but apparently his hometown newspaper couldn’t get his nationality right. Ouch!
The much-hyped Josh Hoey also won the 800 by a hair. Unlike Luke Houser and Ky Robinson, Hoey is enough of an x-factor that he might have a chance in Tokyo. One of my favorite recent developments in track and field announcing has been seeing Ato Bolden expand his range and cover the 800 as he does here. However, small nitpick: Someone on the Peacock broadcast incorrectly stated that Josh Hoey won the race wire-to-wire. Another quibble that has nothing to do with the announcing: The 800 is kind of ruined by only having six finalists. If the NCAA and many high school state championships can put 8 or 9 people on the line at the finals, why can’t World Athletics? This is a highly variable event filled with lots of winners (Dave Wottle in Munich 1972 or Yuriy Borzakovskiy in Athens 2004 are two examples of Olympic surprises ) have come out of nowhere. With only six finalists and 50% of the participants getting medals, there’s less possibility of a surprising result.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: Shelby Houlihan. There is a large portion of our national fan base that refuses to believe she’s innocent. A large portion of that fanbase is unhappy that she’s in the sport. As for the person of the fan base that thinks she might be doping now, I can’t say. I’ve tended to notice that people throw out suspicion at just about anyone who does extremely well. Is there any other sport in which there’s a negative repercussion from the fans for being good at what you do? Why can’t fans sense the irony of this? I’m speaking for myself here, but it leads me to is the conclusion that in relation to the average sports fan, the average track fan is A) far more concerned about the usage of illegal drugs and B) far more hateful of people who violate those norms.
Again, I am only speaking for myself when I voice this potentially inane thought: While I understand the idea that drugs give an unfair advantage, I don’t spend much time thinking about who might be using substances when I’m watching a meet; and I don’t waste too much energy being upset at anyone who has been caught on the wrong side of the gray zone. The key issues here are whether A) Shelby has an unfair advantage now and B) whether she’s properly been punished. On the latter point, missing two Olympic cycles when the typical drug user is only meant to miss one is not just sufficient punishment, but a little overboard (in my controversial opinion). As for whether she has an unfair advantage today, does anyone think she would want to sacrifice four more years?
This wasn’t the most exciting track meet I’ve seen in person or on TV. Those honors go to the meets that take place at Boston University and the Millrose Games. Track fans are fortunate enough that we’ve had them every weekend. What Nanjing did offer was the making of new heroes. Even in diluted fields, here’s to Luke Houser, Claire Bryant, Ky Robinson and the rest.
