Why is track and field not big in schools like they are in American schools?

18 comments

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2. The weather mainly.

   Track and field in the pissing rain/hail/sleet/snow is fucking miserable.

3. Erm… we did it every year.

4. Most schools are lucky to even have an astroturf

5. Dunno where your from but every school I’ve been to in the UK placed a large emphasis on track and field

6. Lack of facilities for most comp schools, basically.

7. It was reasonably big when I was at school in the early 90s, but my school later sold much of the ground that housed the track and sand pit etc and I suspect many others did as well to raise capital during the homebuilding booms.

8. We did a bit of athletics every summer in my school. Cross country and long distance mainly. We also had an annual fun run where you dress up in costumes and run long distance for charity.

   I also was part of an athletics club outside of school when I was younger and did a few competitions so just depends on you and the school you went to I guess.

9. Budgets

10. While you can compete in your sport for School, i imagine its not the same in UK as in America. Kids compete for clubs, in England, rather than Schools. If you’re good at a sport you would be in a team or club outside of School which would be a bigger deal.

11. We did it every year from after Easter break to end of year. We also competed with other schools. Probably depends on space and facilities though.

12. I did track and field in both middle and high school in England. Tried different stuff, enjoyed sprinting and long/triple jump, ended up doing triple jump for my high school vs other high schools in the area.

13. Many British schools are still situated in inner cities so there aren’t the fields to do this kind of thing or the money for them to have dedicated tracks.

    Anyone good enough will be part of a club.

14. I feel like school and college sports form a larger part of a lot of American communities because a lot of places are so far away from big cities with professional sports teams.

    It’s like how college football is a big thing over there. Over here most people live within short drive of a professional football team.

15. Britain has more and closer together schools with fewer pupils per year group. (Although because secondary school is 5 or 7 years whereas US high school is 4 years, overall school size is closer.) It means we don’t have ridiculous car dependency and 15-year-olds driving. But it also may mean British schools don’t have the resources for much more than some grass and a couple of goalposts in terms of sports equipment. I can’t imagine a British school having a 10,000 seater stadium, yet dozens do in the USA.

16. Most U.S. schools tend to sit on big plots of land and have room for a full-size track, usually surrounding an (American) football field. They might use it in gym class, but track and field is usually a high school club sport. One might choose to be on the track team, or lacrosse, baseball, etc.

17. John Major sold all the playing fields.

18. College scholarships. Doesn’t matter a fuck in the UK if you can run the 100m in 10 seconds.