International Track Association
The International Track Association (ITA) was a professional athletics organization that existed from 1972 to 1976. It was an attempt to establish a professional sport alongside the amateur sport in athletics , analogous to the Professional Golfers Association . The ITA was founded after the 1972 Summer Olympics . The goal was to sign the top 50 athletes in the Games. The necessary sports festivals should initially only take place in the USA and Canada , after the success also in Europe and East Asia. The IAAF and the IOC demanded the athletes' amateur status , even if the athletes at international sports festivals were paid such expenses that they could live comfortably from it. The ITA was founded by Michael O'Hara , who had experience in ice hockey and basketball and founded the American Basketball Association and the World Hockey Association to compete with existing leagues. Immediately after its founding on October 25, 1972, the ITA was fought by the AAU , which forbade all judges to work with the ITA and also denied the athletes any form of reamateurisation . For the ITA at the beginning u. a .:
- Jim Ryun , who also took care of public relations ,
- Bob Seagren ,
- Lee Evans ,
- Larry James ,
- Brian Oldfield ,
- Kipchoge Keino ,
- Ben Jipcho ,
- John Smith
- Marty Liquori , who also worked as the announcer of the sports festivals
The 1st ITA Indoor Sports Festival was on March 3, 1973 at Idaho State University's and was a huge success with three world records (not recognized by the IAAF) :
- 100 meters Warren Edmonson ;
- 600 m Lee Evans;
- John Radetich high jump .
Not only was the prize money attractive to the athletes, but above all the opportunity to generate additional advertising income, which they as amateurs were denied. A total of 34 world bests were achieved at the ITA sports festivals. However, there were many competitions that were weaker than the amateur competitions. The events lived mainly from the duels of prominent athletes, e.g. B. Bob Seagren and Steve Smith or Jim Ryun versus Kipchoge Keino . After 51 sports festivals, the ITA ended, as the stars of the 1976 Summer Olympics did not join the organization. A total of 500,000 viewers and around 300 million television viewers watched the competition. The best amateurs made more money as amateurs than the professional athletes, so they did not join the ITA. The multiple world record holder in the shot put Brian Oldfield is said to have earned US $ 26,000 as a participant in all 51 competitions. In three years as an amateur, by participating in more competitions, he could easily have earned ten times the usual expenses at the time. The last sports festival took place on August 25, 1976 in Gresham .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Symbols and traditions . Usatoday30.usatoday.com. July 12, 1999. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
- ^ Joseph M. Turrini: The End of Amateurism in American Track and Field . University of Illinois Press , 2010, ISBN 978-0-252-03515-9 .
- ^ Arnd Krüger : American sport between isolationism and internationalism. Competitive sport. 18: 1, pp. 43-47 (1988) ; 2, pp. 47-50 . 17th June 2016
- ^ The History Of Track And Field. Where Running Started . Athleticscholarships.net. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
- ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/113496244/
- ↑ http://www.brianoldfield.com/Articles/Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20ITA.pdf auf. June 21, 2016