Lachlan Rayner's Roar Profile

Nice article Mitch.
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Being involved in athletics, it is always interesting to see how friends of mine talk about athletics events that occurred overnight. More recently, the performances of Stewart McSweyn and Jessica Hull. I think a natural attraction to our sport of athletics is these incredible performances but they are often only ever consumed in short-form content.
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Athletics needs to realise that unless a highly-influential public figure gets involved to drive the sport into the public domain, it must do it itself. What is even scarier, is that the Olympic (and Commonwealth) Games are no longer gaining the same type of public recognition and are almost certainly going to continue to decline in the interest of the general public. Athletics (and other Olympic based sports) must come up with an annual ‘season’ where the top athletes are on display. Think of the old Track Classic meets that used to occur each year.
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We have a fantastic opportunity as a sport to promote our athletes using different forms of media. I can log on now to Twitch and watch a 17-year-old kid playing a video game to 1 million concurrent viewers. The days of requiring a consistent place on a television network are long gone. Let’s increase our resources in the digital space and show off our athletes.
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Let’s create a series of meets that occur each year which has a shortened competition that is finished in 90 – 120 minutes. Have two or three programs which cover every event and roll the program out consistently. Have the events run to a hard schedule where people know when and where they are going to see. I’m involved in a sport where we have a schedule that is to the minute. Though in athletics, a Track event can be delayed (or even run early) substantially.
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Let’s figure out as a sport the best way to cover an event. How does a long jump need to be filmed, do we need to show all six jumps (or are the final three enough?). How can we show some of the less ‘entertaining’ events. Ensure the program of events are easily able to be broadcast. Ensure proper coverage of the event across multiple platforms. Behind the scenes on social accounts, fast turn around times for footage (or imagery) that may be of interest to larger publications.
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Athletics must find a way to display its own sport in a way that is of interest to the general public. Waiting for ‘mainstream’ media isn’t the way to go and almost certainly won’t come knocking.
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Just my two-cents worth!

We need to take the pressure off our Olympians

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Athletics

Great write up Joshua! Looking forward to Imola.

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