Perhaps it is true that competition can bring out the best in track and field athletes, but the best in a team also emerges during a meet. There is no denying the importance of the individual. However, it is the team who can pull together, the team in which each athlete runs, jumps and throws with every ounce of his or her strength for the good of the whole, who will reach the farthest with the talent they possess.
These ties are particularly apparent during the closely seeded meets, in which every point counts. They are more than noteworthy in an article for the public to read, too. Those who read the meet results can easily see who the best athletes are but don’t always understand the dynamics of the meet.
What is not so evident is how a runner was able to muster up that last bit of energy to pass the next person on the final curve, then the ensuing exhilaration; how a jumper felt when trying an event she had never done before; what the last lap of the 2-mile feels like; the audience’s excitement when their favorite competitor battles for each and every point.
This is what track is really about. As a high school track team member myself, I would like to hear more about the internal aspects of meets, along with the recognition of superior performances.
Anna Hayden
Bangor
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