The arrival of the new Netflix series Sprint is to be wholeheartedly welcomed but don’t expect it to solve all of athletics’ problems, writes Cathal Dennehy
Stop the presses. Cancel the promotional campaigns. The folk in the innovation department? Take a well-earned holiday. We like the long jump as it is, thank you very much, and who ever asked for a one mile steeplechase?
In case you haven’t heard, our sport is about to be saved, and it didn’t take a big commercial deal or a cracking World Championships to do it. No, our knight in shining armour is hurtling towards us, set to arrive and sweep us off our feet on July 2.
SPRINT, the long-awaited Netflix docuseries, will tell the stories of the world’s fastest 100m runners. Produced by Box to Box Films, the company who made Formula 1: Drive to Survive, it will have a similar, game-changing effect on athletics. Now that we get to see what Sha’Carri Richardson has for breakfast, how Noah Lyles chooses his outfits, how Marcell Jacobs warms up, the effect will be seismic. Groundbreaking.
Diamond League meetings will sell out months in advance. TV viewerships will triple. NBC will write a blank cheque for rights to all major events, while the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV will go to war to secure them in Britain. This is the Drive to Survive effect, and it’s coming for athletics. Or maybe not.
Okay, now that I’ve got that off my chest, a genuine statement: This series will be good for athletics. That the world’s biggest streaming service, which has almost 270 million subscribers, has deemed athletics interesting enough to commission a series is a sign that rumours of the sport’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. The fact that hundreds of thousands across the world, many of whom have likely never watched a 100m race, will learn the stories of the world’s fastest athletes is also significant.
A well-packaged sport can certainly make people watch. But for them to truly invest? It requires stuff like this, which teaches fans who they’re watching; to love them or hate them but make sure they feel something when they see them race. Beyond the easy win that patriotism offers at major championships, far more fans are likely to tune in if they want a specific person to win – or indeed lose.
So, the fact SPRINT will help us get to know the world’s fastest men and women is unquestionably positive. But anyone expecting an upsurge in interest like Formula 1 experienced in the years after Drive to Survive will probably be disappointed. If it happens, it’s not going to be down to this.
The full version of this article is available in the July issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here