There isn’t much glory for collegiate track athletes in the indoor season.
Everybody can picture the Summer Olympics Games of 2008 in Beijing – Usain Bolt breaking the world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash, carrying the Jamaican flag on his back as he ran around the track. But Bolt was running in front of millions of fans, celebrating his victory outdoors.
In reality, the track and field season is a yearlong sport divided into two seasons – indoor and outdoor. For most in the track world, the real prestige and glory lies in the outdoor season, making the indoor campaign almost a warm-up season for many athletes.
The UCLA track and field team has taken the same mantra in its training.
“The trick is to remind them and to let them know that the goal is in the month of May and into June,” said sprints and hurdles assistant coach Darrell Smith. “These kids like to compete – they’re ultra competitors, but it’s my job to give them perspective.”
Smith noted that the indoor season has historically been an East Coast-Midwest season, as weather conditions often play a factor in training. Just last week in Flagstaff, Arizona, the Bruins had to deal with high altitude conditions and below freezing temperatures.
“For us on the West Coast, a cold day is 50 degrees,” Smith said. “But for a lot of schools, they don’t have a choice but to focus on the indoor season.”
The true driving factor of the outdoor season, Smith said, is the prestige.
“Indoor is always a preparation for the outdoor season,” said true freshman sprinter and hurdler Rai Benjamin. “So I’m definitely looking forward to outdoor season and facing new competition, especially in the 400 hurdles.”
Over the course of the last five years, however, neither the men’s nor women’s teams have been ranked in the top 25 for the indoor season – with the lone exception of 2014, when the women’s side was No. 23 nationally.
Sprints, hurdles and relays assistant coach and former Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes remembered how athletes approached the two seasons.
“When I was in school, it was almost non-existent,” Hayes said. “I only ran indoor season once – it was my sophomore year, and think I ran two races before ending at NCAAs. Now it’s a real season and so we have to treat it as such, but I don’t ever see it being as important as outdoor.”
Both Bruin coaches have different goals for each of their groups, and train athletes depending on where their strengths lie. While some may run to peak in both the indoor and outdoor season, others will treat indoor solely as preparation for NCAA outdoor nationals in June .
To Hayes, it’s all about “breaking them down and building them back up,” over the course of the six-month season.
“If I think my athletes can make the final in NCAA indoor nationals, I’m going to push them for that and train them for that,” Hayes said. “Then I’m going to start over and push them for outdoors.”
The outdoor season still remains the ultimate challenge. Having carried the American flag on her back in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Hayes had a firm take on the difference between seasons.
“Look at it this way: The Olympics is only outdoor, and at the end of the day our sport is an Olympic sport,” Hayes said. “That’s the pinnacle of our careers, and that’s what outdoor nationals can give us.”