Insight

Why one forgotten format might still have a future in modern athletics

Track and field rarely changes overnight. But in recent years, there’s been a quiet shift in how the sport approaches its product. Long defined by tradition, athletics is beginning to explore new formats — not to replace its Olympic core, but to complement it with ideas that better align with contemporary audiences and media platforms.

That shift is visible in several ways.

The World Shot Put Series, developed with support from World Athletics, has reimagined the shot put as a personality-led event. Instead of fitting into a standard meet schedule, it’s been carved out as a standalone competition – designed to build audience interest through rivalry, direct competition and format tweaks. Field events, often overlooked in broadcasts, are being put into focus.

The launch of Grand Slam Track, led by Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson, marks a more structural reimagining. The idea is to create a consistent, season-long format where a fixed group of top athletes compete across multiple meets, with league points and commercial packaging. It’s still early days, but the project signals a growing belief that the sport needs clearer storylines and event cohesion.

Elsewhere, DNA Athletics – Dynamic New Athletics – offered a more radical experiment. Trialled by European Athletics in 2022, the format pitted mixed-gender national teams against each other across a sequence of traditional track and field events, with points earned in each discipline. Those points translated into staggered starting positions for a final mixed relay, effectively turning the entire evening into a single connected contest. While the concept was bold, it struggled to gain traction and hasn’t been repeated since. Still, it represented an important attempt to rethink how athletics could be presented to younger or less traditional audiences.

None of these ideas were guaranteed successes. But they reflect something important: the sport is more open to innovation now than it has been for decades.

And that’s what makes the Elimination Mile worth revisiting.

What is the Elimination Mile?

The Elimination Mile is a simple variation on the classic middle-distance race. Start with a full field of runners; at the end of each lap, the last-placed athlete is eliminated. The field shrinks every 400 metres until the final lap, when the remaining runners sprint for the win.

What makes the format compelling is its built-in urgency. Unlike a standard 1500m, where most of the action is concentrated in the final lap, the Elimination Mile forces decisions throughout. There’s no hiding at the back. Every lap matters. Tactics shift constantly for viewer’s enjoyment.

The race has only been tested a handful of times in formal competition, most notably during the Nitro Athletics event in 2017. A video of that race – uploaded by FloTrack, track and field’s largest digital media outlet – has gone on to become their most-viewed distance race ever, with over 2.6 million views. Comments are filled with casual fans calling it the most exciting race they’ve seen in the sport.

Since then, Nick Symmonds, a former Olympian turned athletics influencer, has popularised the format further on social media. Through a series of informal, amateur races on his YouTube channel, he’s attracted millions more views using elimination-style concepts. While these races aren’t professional-level, they consistently draw strong positive responses from general audiences.

Why might it be time for another look?

Are we saying the Elimination Mile would dramatically change the fortunes of track and field? No – its impact would be modest. But every time it’s been run, whether in a sanctioned meet or a social media setting, fans have responded with enthusiasm. They understand the format immediately. They enjoy the tension. And they come back for more.

The data points are limited – but the success rate with fans so far is near 100%.

That alone may justify further experimentation by organisations like World Athletics, Grand Slam Track, or the Diamond League. A one-off showcase would be low-risk, low-cost, and aligned with the sport’s current appetite for testing new ideas.

If nothing else, the Elimination Mile represents a small ember of excitement. And in a sport looking to spark new interest, it’s worth seeing if that ember might catch flame.

After all, anything that deepens fan engagement – however modest – will always be welcomed by broadcasters, sponsors, and the sport’s wider ecosystem.