One of the most common questions over the past few years has been: why isn’t the 200m run at the World Indoor Championships?
Right now the 200m is one of the most high profile events, with some of the top names in the sport like Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo, Gabby Thomas and Shericka Jackson. And historically, some of the most high profile athletes in history were also primary 200m runners, from Florence Griffith-Joyner and Allyson Felix, to Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt.
But only one of them, Allyson Felix in 2003, ever ran the 200m at the World Indoor Championships. And speaking of 2003, that was just 1 year before the event was completely cut from the World Indoor Championships schedule, and we literally have not seen it since.
A Brief History of the 200m at World Indoors
For context, the World Indoor Championships were first held in 1985 and 14 different events were contested. Everything from the 200m and 800m, to the long jump and pole vault, even the walking events were held.
In 1991, the 4x400m relay was introduced, and in 1993, the combined events were added. 2 years later in 1995, the walking events were removed from the schedule. But things would remain the same until 2004, when the 200m would become the final event removed from the indoor schedule and would never make a return.
The Outside Lane Advantage
Throughout the 1990s, the men’s 200m gold and silver medalists all came from lanes 4, 5 or 6. Not a single athlete got the top-2 spots from lanes 1, 2, or 3. And the reason is pretty clear.
Running from the inside lanes on an indoor 200m track means you have a much tighter bend to navigate around, and you don’t get much advantage from a banked track. In the outside lanes, both bends are much more gradual, with lane 6 barely even having to run around the first curve. But then they also get the benefit of a high bank, almost running downhill from the start and when they are coming down the home straight.
This all but ensured someone from the outside lanes would take the top spot, and as Nick Davies, the former Director of Communications for the IAAF, said in 2004: “You shouldn’t know the winners of an athletics event before the start.”
Disqualifications and Injuries
Additionally, because of how fast athletes are running, essentially full speed around a very tight turn, that presented another issue of simply maintaining that speed or keeping your balance. That led to athletes sometimes unintentionally slowing down to make sure they could navigate the curve. Or alternatively, athletes would frequently lose their balance and even trip over themselves.
But this ultimately led to the other aspect, which is athletes getting disqualified.
One of the most basic rules in track & field is you can’t step on the inside lane or else you get disqualified. Well, because of how tough it was to navigate the bends, many athletes would end up losing their balance and stepping on the inside lane, leading to a DQ. This was most notable in 2003 when 6 men were disqualified from the 200m heats and semis for stepping outside their lane, including defending champion and gold medal favorite Shawn Crawford.
Finally, running around that tight of a curve at those kinds of speeds is just asking for injuries to occur. Between 1995 and 2003, only once did all 4 athletes actually finish the final race successfully. Again, the tight turns and injury risk likely being a major factor here.
Why the NCAA Still Runs It
So even though it was cut from the World Indoor Championships, you might ask why the NCAA Championships are still running it? Those athletes are running fast and all the same risks theoretically apply, right?
The NCAA has been running the 200m at the indoor championships since 1988. At that first indoor champs, held in Oklahoma City, they began using the 2 heat format with 4 athletes in each section. So they arguably have been ahead of the curve in understanding athletes on the inside lane are at a disadvantage.
Also note that NCAA schools are competing for points and a team title for their school. So there always remained an incentive structure for athletes to not only compete indoors, but compete in an event that suits itself for a potential double. 60m and 400m athletes can either move up or down, respectively, into the 200m and score some extra points. Similar to the distance races, where a miler can move up to the 3000m or down to the 800m if they are a truly talented athlete, and score some extra points for their team.
On the pro level, there’s no true incentive structure like that, and even more importantly, there wasn’t as much glory in running the 200m indoors compared to outdoors, further leading to athletes leaving the event, and ultimately its cancellation from World Indoors in 2004. We’ll come back to this idea of glory in a second.
The Case for Bringing It Back
Now some, even previously myself, have at times made arguments that they should bring the indoor 200m back to the World Indoor Champs, but why?
This would allow more top sprinters to compete. The gap between a 60m and 400m is relatively wide, so the 200m is the perfect middle ground.
Outdoors, the 200m is also one of the most high profile events. We have names like Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo, Kenny B, Bryan Levell. If we saw them all line up for an indoor 200m, that would absolutely be exciting.
Additionally, to mitigate the issue with inside lanes, they could run a 2 heat final at the World Indoor Championships, similar to what the NCAA does. They are already moving to this format for the indoor 400m at Worlds, so it could make sense for the 200m as well.
Finally, adding the 200m would provide some more sprint balance to many meets on the circuit, which tend to lean heavy on the distance side. It’s not uncommon to see everything from the 800m, 1500m, mile, 3000m, and a ton of off distances like the 1000m, 2000m, 2 mile, or other races at top international meets. But the sprints will usually consist of the 60m and 400m, maybe a 300m.
Why I Don’t Think It Will Return
But ultimately, I actually don’t think it’s a great idea to bring it back, and I highly doubt the indoor 200m will ever return to the World Indoor Championships for a few key reasons.
First, even if a 2 heat format is adopted and athletes only ran in lanes 4, 5 and 6, athletes are still running too fast around very tight bends and potentially risking injury. That’s simply not going to be a risk top level athletes would want to take when their careers are on the line.
Second, and connected with the first point, is that the indoor season is simply not as important as the outdoor season. And that is holistically, in terms of athletes getting public recognition and spotlight, the training benefit, or even the financial benefit.
The outdoor season is where athletes will always have better opportunities to make more money. So why race an indoor event that not only has the potential risk for injury, which may jeopardize your outdoor season, but also, even if you do win or run fast, it won’t even give you enough spotlight and recognition compared to the work you had to put in to earn it? Additionally, there are many top 200m sprinters who either skip the indoor season completely, or simply run the 60m even if that hasn’t been seen as their primary event, because the risk is relatively low.
And also, remember that the World Indoor Champs occur during even numbered years, meaning every other championship is the same year as the Olympic Games, which is the most important event in the sport. Athletes will not risk anything in an indoor 200m if it means jeopardizing their chances at Olympic success, whether that’s winning a gold medal or simply qualifying for the Games.
Summary
So in summary:
- The indoor 200m was contested at the World Indoor Championships from 1985 until 2004.
- It was cut from the World Indoor schedule because athletes who lined up in the outside lanes were almost guaranteed to be the medalists, because many athletes were DQed for stepping on the line, and because it’s an injury risk for athletes to be running so fast around very tight bends indoors.
- Despite it being cut at the world level, the 200m is still contested at the NCAA level.
- Finally, though there is always public discussion around it, it’s unlikely the event will ever return to the indoor championships.
Watch the Full Video