Fans at the 1993 Stuttgart World Championships
John Geer has been to all but two World Athletics Championships.
Like many Americans who have attended most, if not all, of the previous World Athletics Championships, he looks toward this summer’s event at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon with piqued curiosity.
When the world’s best descend on the reimagined Hayward Field for the 18th iteration of the World Athletics Championships on July 15-24, it will be the first time the event will be held on U.S. soil. And it will only be the second time the event has been held in the Western Hemisphere — the first being Edmonton, Alberta, in 2001.
When the world comes to Oregon this summer, it will see a unique event — one held in a stadium dedicated to track and field, and in a city that is not a major global metropolis such as Rome, Paris, Berlin, or Tokyo.
Geer, 75, is a retired teacher who lives in San Carlos, California. Thanks to Track and Field News Tours, he’s been to every Summer Olympics since the 1968 Mexico City Olympics except for the 1980 Moscow Olympics and last summer’s Tokyo Olympics. He’s also been to every World Athletics Championships except for 1997 in Athens, Greece, and 2019 in Doha, Qatar.
“One of those things I am looking forward to is to see how many spectators attend this meet every day," Geer said via email. “This is a 10-day meet with no rest days, and I think it will be interesting to see who shows up for this World Championships. By that I mean how many people from outside the United States will come to Eugene for these Championships.”
One person who won’t have to travel for the WCH Oregon22 is Mark Steinberg. The 66-year-old Eugene resident has been to every World Athletics Championships. The first World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 1983 came between two Olympic boycotts — the U.S.-led Western boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and the boycott by Eastern-bloc countries, such as the-then Soviet Union, of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I had the most anticipation and excitement for the first one,” Steinberg said. “The previous two Olympics and the following Olympics were diminished by boycotts. No boycotts for the first World Championships. All the top athletes were there.”
Track & Field News magazine, the self-proclaimed “Bible of the Sport” was created in 1948. In 1952, the first Track & Field News Tour was launched to take people to the Helsinki Olympics. That first tour had 46 people on it. Four years later, when the Summer Olympics were in Melbourne, Australia, 69 people joined the tour. The tours were off and running.
Since 1952, Track & Field News has been to every Summer Olympics except last summer’s Tokyo Olympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Track & Field News Tours has also taken people to every World Athletics Championships and will again this summer. Track & Field News Tours include airfare, hotel lodging, and tickets to all sessions. This summer’s World Championships tour is sold out, but there is a waiting list people can join for $150 in case anyone opts out.
Track & Field News Tours does have openings for June’s USATF Outdoor Championships on June 23-26, also at Hayward Field.
“When you go to a World Championships and/or an Olympic Games, there are other factors besides the track and field that make that particular meet so memorable," Geer said. “I love to travel, and track and field has helped me see a good part of our world.”
One of the highlights of the Track & Field News Tours is a gala group dinner party to which the world’s best athletes are invited. Among the track and field royalty who have attended these parties and mixed with fans over the years include Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Michael Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mike Powell, Lee Evans, Ron Clarke, Bob Beamon, Dr. Roger Bannister, Tirunesh Dibaba, Justin Gatlin, Ashton Eaton, and Sanya Richards-Ross.
“I've met a lot of great people through these tours,” Geer said. “When I started in 1968, I was 22 and one of the youngest people on the tour. Now, I seem to be one of the oldest on the tours.”
Ed Fox, 80, of Palo Alto, California, has been the Track & Field News Tours leader since the 1970s. Two World Championships memories that stand out to Fox are the women’s 1,500m and 3,000m victories by American Mary (Decker) Slaney in 1983, and Great Britain’s Jonathan Edwards setting two men’s triple jump world records in 1995 in Gothenburg, Sweden, when he became the first man to break 18m and 60 feet.
“Our tour party in Helsinki in '83,” was also a memorable moment, Fox said, listing Emil Zatopek, Carl Lewis, and Ron Clarke as guests of the gala dinner party that year.
Fans flocking to Hayward Field this summer are counting on seeing several moments that will be etched in history. Visitors to previous World Athletics Championships have witnessed some of track and field’s greatest moments and rivalries from the epic men’s long jump dual between Americans Mike Powell and Carl Lewis in 1991 in Tokyo; to Usain Bolt’s stunning world records in Berlin in 2009; to the long-distance rivalry between the Ethiopians and Kenyans; to the 1-2 U.S. finish from Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase in London in 2017; to the women’s sprinting prowess of Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Allyson Felix of the U.S.
“Of course, I am looking forward to every single event — men and women,” Geer said. “I know the competition will be extreme and a lot of fun. I believe there will be at least one world record set in Eugene this July. I am looking forward to seeing a lot of excellent track and field athletes in person.”
Mike Fanelli, 65, of Asti, California, said Eugene’s love of track and field should make it a worthy World Athletics Championships host despite being the smallest host city.
“As a major fan of the sport, more than any specific event or discipline, I mostly look forward to being in the Eugene big-meet environment,” Fanelli said. “Connecting with so many old friends from around the globe, morning runs on Pre's Trail, quaffing post-meet microbrews while digesting all of that day's meet highlights while in the company of aficionados and athletes. You really just can't beat it.”
By Ashley Conklin
