Fourteen meets in eleven weeks, and the athletes are voting with their hamstrings. The meet calendar is eating the season.
The count
Twenty-three of the fifty best sprinters in the world have missed at least one meet through injury since May. Five years ago it was nine.
The money
Appearance fees are paid per meet, so the incentive is to run everything. The athletes who can afford to skip are the ones who least need to.
We built a calendar for television and forgot to ask the legs.
— Athlete representative
