T&F's Characters--The Videos

Are you a Social Media--or You Tube--or just an Internet junkie?

(Or even a sometime casual viewer!)

Then you probably have noticed an increase in the number of videos (lasting anywhere from a few seconds to an hour or more) being produced & posted by various Track & Field athletes!

As Usain Bolt's final (??) year of racing ended, talk abounded as to whether the sport could survive withOUT such a Mega-Star!

Forget the "GOAT" discussions!  WR's get broken---and SOMEday---Bolt's 9.58 & 19.19 will be surpassed!
No, I'm talking of a personality that more "austere" sports (baseball, golf, football) doesn't allow, or at least downplays!
Sport is "SERIOUS"---a "life or death" battle---can't be funny, can't be "different"!!

BULLSHIT!!

T&F keeps turning out "characters"--even if those dull NBC post-event interviews just bore you silly, and fail to show this spirited side of our elite athletes!
But turn to Twitter, and---as I have---you will find several examples of T&F athletes BEING human---offering unusual talents, a "all work & no play makes Jack a dull boy" mentality that might surprise you!

Some of these are "professionally" done--as in Carrie Tollefson's "C Tolle Run" videos and her audio podcasts!

There are biographical informational vids showing athletes in training, with their coaches telling us how they're doing.

For me, I think it began with "Catching Kayla", the ESPN 60 video about MS victim Kayla Montgomery!

It made me cry, as it did Shalane Flanagan and many others!

Lolo Jones kept putting out videos of herself in funny situations!

I remember her InstaGram (??) vids when she was recovering from surgery!

There were those Flotrack vids (not all of them free!!)--their "Driven" series--especially the ones about Alexa Efraimson!

Sandi Morris showed her quirky side with videos showing her with her pet snakes!!

Then she put out some REALLY funny vids about stupid things people say to PV'ers!

And now she's turning out music videos, with her singing and playing acoustic guitar!

She is TALENTED!!
(Surely as good as Brigetta Barrett, another whose singing vids went viral!)

Emma Abrahamson---a mid-class (16 minute 5K's) distance runner at Oregon--has just posted several "Day in the Life" vids of the Ducks XC team---the Women, but showing some of the guys!
UO Coach Maurica Powell says she approves of & likes them, but doesn't do Social Media herself!

Of course, there have been several movies made which are basically extended videos.
Documentaries like "Fire On the Track" about Prefontaine, or "We Grew Wings" about the 1985 & 2011 Women's UO teams!
But these are less spontaneous, more planned & plotted out than, say, Abrahamson's vids!

During the recent World Championships in London, Natasha Hastings turned out a few of her "Tea Time" videos!
These are basically Skype-type vids showing "Tasha" talking to the screen and holding intimate conversations with some of her friends---Allyson Felix, Jenna Prandini, Sharika Nelvis, Eric Kynard, Tianna Bartoletta, Kellie Welles (She has a married name now--can't recall it offhand!), and others!
A few of these were longer than an hour, and were as informal as you could get!

In case you haven't noticed, all of the above are by and/or about Women!!
Part of this may be due to my own predilections---I love women!!
But I also can't think of any MEN in our sport who have produced these types of videos!!

One "candidate" to do so might be Kyle Merber!
His Tweets are funny and honest--two ingredients that make us who we are!!

But are guys's make-up compatible with making self-deprecating style videos, showing their own "silly" side?

(And is it sexist for me to believe that Women can, and do, better & more often than Men??)

If Seb Coe and other powerful "Athletics" execs want to change our sport "for the better", they might want to check out all of the above!!
He (they) will see current elite athletes as the "entertainers" they are---just like Usain was & is!!

BTW, while I've focused here on the visual (& audio, in the case of Carrie's podcasts), I strongly recommend you READ some VERY well-written, and informative, and funny, and serious, and PERSONAL (read "intimate"!!) blogs!
(Besides mine, that is!!  LOL)

Start with Phoebe Wright!
Then add Lauren Fleshman.

And more recently, Morolake Akinosun and Tianna Bartoletta!

Speaking of the latter, I'm seeing Tianna's as the most LITERARY--at least in the way she presents her thoughts on the page.
It's like a poem come to life---ABOUT a life, a person, a human being!
As a writer, I've always seen the written word as being more than just the message of its words & sentences--it's in the FORM it's presented to us on the page!!

Form can add power & depth to what are just gray-type words!
And Ms Bartoletta--of the ones I've read-- does it best!!

So watch, listen, read!

And discover a whole new side to our athletes!!