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Over the years athletics has done a woeful job of presenting athletes to the public. The rare interviews stars give to the press are obviously conducted with a press officer in the corner of the room. Trackside interviews are unbelievably banal. When Michael Johnson is sent to do a feature interview with a new star it seems there is a contractual obligations to spend the first 5 minutes reminding us how great he was.
In recent weeks however, I've heard some great interviews on That Running Podcast (Ross Murray with Colin McCourt) and Stephen Scullion's Road to Tokyo. Both are free on iTunes and Spotify. The former has featured Emilia Gorecka, Jake Wightman, Kyle Langford, James Thie; the latter, Andy Butchart, Andy Veron and Aisha Praught. Last week the Let's Run Podcast did a long interview with Shelby Houlihan. The variety of topics covered has bene great from training and race tactics to training environments to Danny Baker-esque questions from Murray that really reveal the personalities of the athletes.
Murray and McCourt occasionally lapse into Beavis and Buthead (harmless but unnecessary when they are both funny and intelligent blokes) and Scullion should now (post Houston Marathon) cut the podcasts down to one or two a week and avoid the daily stream of consciousness and try to add in a few more interviews, but these are minor criticisms.
In a similar vein, if you haven't already watched the episodes of The Ingebritsens on YouTube - YOU MUST! My 12 year old daughter claims to have retired from athletics and no longer watches it on TV but was gripped by every single episode.
In recent weeks however, I've heard some great interviews on That Running Podcast (Ross Murray with Colin McCourt) and Stephen Scullion's Road to Tokyo. Both are free on iTunes and Spotify. The former has featured Emilia Gorecka, Jake Wightman, Kyle Langford, James Thie; the latter, Andy Butchart, Andy Veron and Aisha Praught. Last week the Let's Run Podcast did a long interview with Shelby Houlihan. The variety of topics covered has bene great from training and race tactics to training environments to Danny Baker-esque questions from Murray that really reveal the personalities of the athletes.
Murray and McCourt occasionally lapse into Beavis and Buthead (harmless but unnecessary when they are both funny and intelligent blokes) and Scullion should now (post Houston Marathon) cut the podcasts down to one or two a week and avoid the daily stream of consciousness and try to add in a few more interviews, but these are minor criticisms.
In a similar vein, if you haven't already watched the episodes of The Ingebritsens on YouTube - YOU MUST! My 12 year old daughter claims to have retired from athletics and no longer watches it on TV but was gripped by every single episode.
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