Readers may claim to despise the Advanced Games, but the surge in clicks, comments and debate suggests athletics still can’t resist the allure of controversy.
readers of AW: enjoy reading about athletes breaking records, winning medals or major competitions. But you’re also a sick bunch, and modern metrics like pageviews and engagement stats tell us you’re particularly fond of clicking on articles about drugs or death and obituaries.
Given this, it is not surprising that Our short and deliberately non-celebratory article on advanced gaming has garnered more page views than anything else in the past week.
More page views than our coverage Diamond League in XiamenTied for No. 2 all-time in women’s javelin and 100m hurdles with Yan Ziyi and Masai Russell. More than our piece Elise Turner’s big win in the 3000m In Los Angeles, including news of Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman for the 800m in 1:45. More than our comprehensive National Athletic League Summary.
Performances at Enhanced Games weren’t even good. It wasn’t so much extended as failed.
There were just two events, the men’s and women’s 100m, with Fred Curley winning the men’s race in 9.97 and Tristan Evelyn winning the women’s in 11.25.
Full of self-delusion and admiration, Enhanced Games posted on social media: “Fred Kerley Almost Breaks WORLD RECORD and Wins $250,000”.
Keyword: almost.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Rhys Prescod came home in 10.48, a time beaten by more than 50 Britons last year.
Curley and Evelyn insisted they did not use drugs. The former, however, currently serves an anti-doping ban for location failures.
Evelyn said about her speech. “This proves that winning takes more than chemistry.”
AW: It wasn’t the only publication covering the event either, though at least we didn’t shell out money to travel to Las Vegas to watch it live.
The Times he was especially condemning, saying: “Innocent, delusional and “high school” level. Advanced games are backwards.”
Online coverage of advanced games is often overlooked by fans. “Don’t give the event oxygen” is a common cry.
The media tries to do that, though. Advanced games are oozing with controversy and getting people talking. Even fans who don’t like the coverage clearly feel compelled to stoke the flames of discussion by telling various outlets what they think.
On Monday, we published a report on the coverage of the extended games and the National Athletic League, but the “steroid Olympics” attracted more than 300 comments on our Facebook post, while our very worthy article on “proper athletics” at the NAL (an event that used to be televised in the 1980s).
Like all good sports scandals, the extended games lie somewhere between farce and fascination, and athletics can’t stop staring. Everyone says extended play should be ignored, but almost no one actually ignores them.
About 25 years ago, we had a brief policy of not writing about athletes who failed drug tests in our weekly magazine. Our view was that we didn’t want to draw attention to them.
We now realize, however, that this was a noble but flawed strategy. When it comes to drug stories, the athletics world turns them around.
Everyone knows that our time would be better spent in the purity of Corinth chariots of fire, or follow the results of the National Athletic League. Yet instead we click on Advanced Games, revel in the absurdity, and then blame the media for covering it.
It’s a love-hate relationship that no one likes to admit.
