Athletics can’t keep kidding itself – it needs a five-pronged plan to save track and field | Sean Ingle
Formula One provides a good example of what can be done if a sport tries to appeal to a younger audience and embraces the popularity of social media
The world’s fastest man is being trash-talked by a YouTuber. “Are you ready man?” asks Darren Watkins, AKA IShowSpeed, on a live stream broadcast around the world. “You know my name’s Speed, right? And you know I am going to win.” Noah Lyles, the Olympic and world 100m champion, smiles at the teenage upstart. Then he bites back. “You gave yourself that name? That’s so cute.”
The pair agree to race over 50m for $100,000. Speed confesses that he has never worn a pair of spikes before, but keeps telling his 43.8m followers that he can beat Lyles. As the pair line up, Speed does a backflip. Then the YouTube megastar, Mr Beast, who has 431m followers, fires the starter’s gun.