"Not many people care about results" - Justin Gatlin on track and field viewers' priorities

By Soumik Bhattacharya

Modified Nov 16, 2024 14:23 GMT

Former American track athlete Justin Gatlin shed light on the change of priorities of the track fans that have emerged in recent times. This comes in the wake of 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles' clash against YouTuber IShowSpeed, which the track athlete won convincingly.

Though the race was a charity contest, Lyles reportedly earned a whopping $100,000 as prize money. This is more than the individual prize money of the track meets Lyles has won this season, which includes events like the Olympics and London Diamond League.

Former track athletes Gatlin and Rodney Green opened up about this instance in their recent conversation. In an episode of his "Ready Set Go" podcast posted on November 14, Gatlin claimed that the fans don't care about the time splits of the races these days. He also mentioned the various other dynamics of track athletes such as their character and behavior that are being prioritized by the viewers.

"The fact is not many people care about results like timewise as much anymore. It doesn't hold as much weight, as in this era, people care about persona, people care when you come across that line what swaggy thing you doing and what you saying," Gatlin said (4:12 onwards).

Gatlin further added:

"They want to know your character, they want to know how you going to be out there, they want to know your aura at the end of the day."

During the podcast, Justin Gatlin also remarked that Lyles' victory against Speed will earn him a different level of popularity. This could be because of the immense fan following of his opponent and the referee of the race, Mr Beast, who has approximately 330 million subscribers on YouTube.

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Justin Gatlin opens up on his decision to start his podcast after hanging his boots in his track career

Justin Gatlin with his 200m silver medal at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing (Image via: Getty Images)

Justin Gatlin opened up about his decision to launch the "Ready Set Go" podcast after he retired from the track. The five-time Olympic medalist launched this new endeavor in 2022 and since then has accumulated over 1.4 cr views.

Gatlin said he wanted to create this podcast to share the abundant track knowledge he and his co-hosts have with the fans.

"For me, even starting all this with the crew—they are fam, man—I did it because we have so much knowledge and passion for the sport," Gatlin said (1:28:06).

Justin Gatlin is usually seen with retired Bahamian track athlete Rodney Green in the podcast. He has invited numerous prominent track personalities such as Gail Danvers and Fred Kerley.