Busemann’s World Cup column: If you want to make a show, you also have to perform

US sprinter Noah Lyles is the best proof for the thesis of ARD athletics expert Frank Busemann: Sporting quality is the prerequisite for entertainment in the stadium. If you disguise yourself when making a show and don’t stay true to yourself, you lose your authenticity.

I had deja vu today. A double. One was 26 years ago, the other 13 years. The protagonist or trigger of this hallucination is a certain Noah Lyles. He used to like to walk around in Heide-Rosendahl commemorative socks. Sometimes they even had wings.

The 200-meter final was on – and the audience stood up. Then the runners drummed down the track and the stadium began to bubble. Lyles reached the finish and the clock stopped at 19.32 seconds.

In 1996 – at the Olympic Games in Atlanta – Michael Johnson ran exactly this time and in seismographic measuring stations one should have read earthquake activity around the stadium then as now. The mass raged and caused the cauldron to overflow. That was damn fast.

Jersey ripping like from the textbook

And then he does the mini-Harting: the jersey was worn out in no time. Torn and shredded. It hung from his body in rags. As with Robert Harting after his discus triumph in Berlin in 2009. Do you have to practice beforehand? Is there a predetermined breaking point? Can you do it with just adrenaline? Or can you only use clothes of inferior quality for that? Is there an art director for dramaturgy and staging? Is there a do-it-yourself guide by Robert Harting that explains the perfect crack in a video? Doesn’t matter! The effect counts – and he made it. ratch.

Complex requirement profile for superstars

And this isn’t just the case with jersey rips. At least since the introduction of Profitum at the Olympics, the job description as a requirement for the well-to-market athletes: “Special knowledge in emotionalizing the professional audience” and “Iconic display of the final triumph to the possibility of producing suitable image material” are necessary. To do that, you have to do some faffing, rehearse a pose, be funny, be fierce, or set some record.

If you perform well, you can do (almost) anything

All in all it is an advantage. Only then can you let Larry hang out – when performance meets entertainment. Everything else is silly. We’ve gotten used to the mini-Ronaldo in the mini-kickers. The Harting-Fetzer in the track and field athletes is stopped as soon as possible by mom because jerseys are expensive.

In the American lifestyle, a bit of gaga is almost normal. In German culture, one is quickly pushed into very strange corners, smiled at wearily or rebuked wildly. You get a slap in the face from being different right and left if you don’t perform. Anyone who doesn’t conform to the mainstream is vulnerable and always has to be better than the average athlete. As an athlete you have to either like it or endure it.

A bit of show must be

The much-cited USP, the unique selling proposition, can be seen again and again in the circus of the big ones. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is not only fast and mega-successful, but also has a special hair color, for example. I really think it’s not real. Shericka Jackson, on the other hand, just ran fast. Very fast, that’s what makes her special – and she’s now the second fastest woman behind Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Oh yes, there was still something with her. A bit of show must be. A little show is allowed. This increases the recognition value, but is only for professionals. You also have to like being different as a type. Who dissembles loses his authenticity – and then the shot backfires. As long as you stay with yourself, you have a lot of buffer to the outside world. Noah Lyles has the biggest grin, the loudest starting pose, the fastest legs.

Smith and Carlos were ahead of their time

Two of history’s greats were welcomed at Eugene’s Hayward Field: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who held up their black-gloved hands in the Medal Ceremony at the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games, representing the Black Power movement Strongly condemned and addressed.

At that time. Today they have been rehabilitated, they are admired and respected all over the world. They were ahead of their time. years ahead. That was a political statement with the risk that they would lose everything. Political expressions of opinion are not welcome these days, it’s more about shallow entertainment. A big difference.

Not everyone can wear golden shoes

When athletes perform and then have fun with a bit of entertainment without neglecting their sporting qualities, fans and organizers are happy.

But it’s not easy. You can’t ask for that. Often we wonder, but afterwards we talk about it. And this Michael Johnson was wearing gold shoes back then. Someone wrote me that yesterday. He’s right, there was something…