Track and field, the NFL, and the NBA might all be professional sports, but they’re different in more ways than just the money. While the NFL and NBA have massive financial backing and clear systems for getting athletes to the top, track and field is a whole other ballgame. Justin Gatlin, the five-time Olympic medalist who retired in 2022, recently talked about athletes’ unique struggles in track and field. It’s not just about the money, it’s about how the sport works, or rather, how it doesn’t have the same structure as those other leagues.

On the Run Your Race podcast, Gatlin explained that track and field doesn’t have a system like the NFL or NBA where athletes are drafted and scouted early. “Track is no real orthodox way of getting to the top it’s just survival of the fittest,” he said. While other sports have clear pathways, like a draft or an established team system, in track, athletes must perform and hope they get noticed. ” There ain’t no drafting tracking field so you just run your a** off and you hope you get noticed,” he added, highlighting how much harder it can be to break through in track, with no guaranteed way to get to the top.

Gatlin opened up about his own journey, remembering how he didn’t get recognized until he placed third at Nationals. That performance was a turning point in his career, and it was only after that he started getting letters and offers. Over his two-decade-long career, he became one of the fastest sprinters in history, with a personal best of 9.74 seconds in the 100m. But his rise wasn’t anything like the straight paths seen in team sports; track and field athletes have to rely on standout moments to get noticed by sponsors or recruiters.

Gatlin’s memorable moment was when he was in high school doing the two most difficult events, the 100m and 110m hurdles, in the same meet. He won both, and this gave him the realization that he might just be something other than a mere fanciful contender. To this very day, Gatlin is still a part of the sport even though he retired from it but is still connected through his podcast! But this all reminds us of the Noah Lyles/Anthony Edwards situation when Edwards was chosen over Lyles, although Noah was a world champ at that time.

The ongoing struggles for track and field athletes to gain recognition

And back in 2023, Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles was annoyed by an unexpected invitation from Adidas. The brand had asked him to attend an event for NBA player Anthony Edwards, who had not played in an NBA final at that time. But Lyles was at that time in the midst of negotiating a contract extension with Adidas, and his reaction was pretty clear: “You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe?” He spoke, raising his eyebrows in response to the comparison, deciding it was not his strong suit. It was somewhat incongruous to Lyles that he saw Edwards receiving all this attention because he, too, was good, better in fact.

Despite this, Lyles was quick to note that he never disrespected Edwards and that he did have talent and had been playing very well this year; the question lingered, “How could you not see that for me?” What was more painful was that Edwards received a special shoe, something Lyles never got despite being a six-time national champion. Lyles shared on social media: “No disrespect,” Lyles added, “He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big.”

Adidas opted not to respond to the situation in the media directly, but in February 2024 they offered Lyles a much better contract in track and field than any other athlete since Usain Bolt. Even so, the incident shows the challenges track and field athletes like Lyles faced in getting the recognition he felt he truly deserved. Despite all their hard work, it often feels like track and field athletes aren’t getting the same level of money or attention as athletes in sports like the NFL or NBA. What’s your take on this disparity?