What happened to Winter?
Indoor athletics, which
will capture the world’s attention again in
the splendid setting of the Palais Omnisport in
Paris Bercy later this month, has surprisingly
old roots. In his "History of
Athletics", Roberto Quercetani mentions that
some indoor competitions took place in Cincinnati
in 1861, but the real beginning dates back to
11th of November 1868, three years after the end
of the American Civil War, when the New York
Athletic Club staged its first indoor
championships. The NYAC used a building still
under construction which was later turned into a
huge ice rink called the Empire City Skating
Rink. In 1868 this edifice, situated at the
corner of 3rd Avenue and 63rd Street, was missing
part of its roof. Rain water would drip inside
and freezing drafts blasted through the building.
The athletes were to compete on a 201m track (8
laps to the mile) clay track laid directly onto
the floor which had very tight, difficult bends
and short straights.
Wally Donovan, the American
historian, has managed to locate the results of
this memorable evening. They should be
considered, despite their modest nature, the
first national records of the USA. Let’s
remember William B. Curtis, who ran 75 yards in
9.0, Frank Johnson, who completed 220 yards in
28.0, H.S. Magrane who ran the 440 yards in 62.0
and the 880 yards in 2:28, F.W. Stone who cleared
1.57m in the high jump, W.L. Campbell, who pole
vaulted 2.51m, Alexander Graham who threw the
shot put 10.79m …
The creation of a European
Indoor Championships, unofficially in 1966, and
officially in 1970, was a decisive step in the
evolution of indoor athletics. Yet aficionados of
athletics had to wait until Primo Nebiolo became
President of the IAAF in 1981 before an Indoor
World Championships became a reality.
Primo Nebiolo had declared
many times that athletics could not have a high
profile just during three or four months each
summer. For athletics to become an all season
sport, it was necessary to create major new
competitions, put promotion and communication
tools into place, and structure the winter
season. By 1985 this had partially been done,
with the creation of official IAAF World Indoor
Records which would have to be set in indoor
arenas with 200 metre tracks.
More...
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Robert Pariente examines the long and
fascinating history of indoor athletics before
previewing the 6th IAAF World Indoor
Championships in Paris
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