American athletes are not only savoring the opportunity to compete in their own country on the Golden Spike Tour, but they are also enjoying the national television coverage the circuit provides.
"I think the Golden Spike Tour being televised is really good for the sport because track and field is not necessarily a household sport," American hurdler Angie Vaughn said. "Generally people only know Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner Kersee, so this way it is an opportunity for the rest of us to get our names out there and show that track is definitely a professional sport.
"It is a sport that needs a following, that it is exciting and that we have all the things that other sports have."
There are two events left on the five-meet tour, which is in its second year. The next stop on the tour is the Golden Spike Invitational on Feb. 19 at Holt Arena Pocatello, ID, which will be televised on ESPN2 on Feb. 20 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
The tour culminates with the USA Track & Field Indoor National Championships on March 3 and 4 in Atlanta. NBC will provide live coverage on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. and the championships will also be seen on March 5 on ESPN from 12 to 1 a.m.
Other stops on the tour included the Adidas D.C. Invitational, the Millrose Games and the Tyson Invitational, which were all broadcast on network television. Results from the games can be found at the USA Track and Field Web site at www.usatf.org.
"With the tour American athletes can stay in the states and build up our support and our fan following as opposed to traveling to Europe all the time," Vaughn said.
U.S. high jumper Amy Acuff said without the tour, American athletes would likely spend a month in Europe competing at this time of year. "This is so fantastic," she said, adding that while on road the athletes training would suffer. "(There) we would not have access to weights, (so we would be) getting weaker, getting burnt out on being away from home and traveling so much.
"What the Golden Spike does is give us an opportunity to stay home," she added. "I can fly from my home, leave Friday, come back Sunday and really not miss a beat in my training.
"They have also done a fantastic job on publicity and have gotten fantastic crowds together, and it is really exciting. It is a chance for us to have high-quality competition and have a descent amount of people in the arena and have the adrenaline pumping."
Go To Page: 1 2
