Music Meets Running

Over the last decades, high-level athletics’ mid- to long-distance races (from 1500 m to ultra-trails) have indubitadly turned into remarkable multiplatform-released spectacles. Mercantilism and the sufferings endured by superstar-level sportsmen and -women in such a context are sometimes denounced (see, e.g., this article by Le Monde). That being said, anyone having explored those sport disciplines from an actor and/or spectactor point of view in the late Twentieth Century will be able to testify that they have become much more aesthetically pleasing  — the beauty of the athletic shows being significantly correlated to the evolution of broadcasting tools and the explosion in performances and world records. 

As a first and wonderful example, and with respect and admiration, let’s introduce the Women’s 10,000 m Final of the Doha, Qatar, 2019 World Athletics Championships. This is one of the greatest and most epic episodes of the athletics’ history. During half an hour, the power, the elegance, the grace — the race is frequently akin to a ballet —, and the dramaturgy of the spectacle are at their maximum level. The control of the pace and run and the battle for the podium are in the hands of three geographical entities: the redoubtable teams of, on one hand, Ethiopia (Letesenbet Gidey, Netsanet Gudeta, and Senbere Teferi) and, on another hand, Kenya (Hellen Obiri, Agnes Tirop, and Rosemary Wanjiru); and the unbelievably versatile — able to shine on all distances from 800 m to marathon — though isolated Dutch Sifan Hassan. The suspense is indescribable. 

In music, the gestural and theatrical perfections are even more astonishing and the courage and abnegation of the twenty-two entrants of the competition, held in difficult climatic conditions, are strikingly accentuated. In order to fit the selected musical track (“I’m Not Scared”, by Pet Shop Boys, 1988), the movie of the race was split and finally reduced to 7 min 30 sec. The actual chrono is regularly indicated in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Last but not least, let’s precise that the meaning of the song lyrics has nothing to see with the ins and outs of the race.

To be continued…