Tracking device

Tuesday, June 22, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

When American sprinter Maurice Greene shattered the 100-meter world record last week in Athens, Greece, the feat received only passing mention on most sportscasts in the United States and was reduced to a two- or three-paragraph item in many newspapers.

The American media's treatment of Greene's record was disappointing to three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, but not completely surprising.

"No, and that's unfortunate," Joyner-Kersee said during a visit to Las Vegas Monday. "It wasn't as big here in the States as it was in Europe. Interest in track has fallen off in the States."

Joyner-Kersee said that U.S. Track & Field has to find a way to maintain the interest Americans seem to have in the sport during Olympic years.

"I think that the sport of track is going through a transition period right now," Joyner-Kersee said. "We have a lot of great young athletes out there and they've got to figure out a way to market the sport as a whole and use some of the people that paved the way for all of us and keep interest in the public's eye."

Joyner-Kersee was doing her part to cultivate a new generation of potential track fans during her hourlong visit Monday to Rancho High School, where she interacted with approximately 50 school-age participants of the Greater Las Vegas Inner-City Games.

Joyner-Kersee, the American record holder in the long jump and 50- and 60-meter hurdles and owner of six Olympic medals, said it is programs such as the Inner-City Games which can rekindle America's interest in track and field.

"I feel, as a whole, you have to market the sport to the masses and capture our young people at the grass-roots level," she said. "Jackie Joyner, FloJo (Florence Griffith-Joyner) ... we came from grass-roots programs.

"Funding has got to go back into the grass-roots programs and then start building those relationships from there, and then you develop a following of these young kids and they will come and watch (track and field). It's all going to take effort and time."

Joyner-Kersee said that while she would like to see UST&F take a more aggressive approach in its marketing, the athletes themselves have to take some initiative if the sport is to regain its stature in the States.

"Along with talking about marketing the sport, we, as athletes, have an obligation, too," she said. "In this day and age, it's hard to ask people to sacrifice for the better because we live in a society where (people say), 'If I can't benefit from it today, what do I care about people tomorrow?' and that's unfortunate."

Joyner-Kersee, who attended UCLA in 1981 on a basketball scholarship before turning her attention to track and field, is impressed with the way the WNBA has promoted itself and gained a foothold in the American sports scene.

Track, conversely, is hard to find on TV in a non-Olympic year.

"Women's college basketball has always been here to stay, it just took people a while to realize that they were packing it in years before the '96 Olympics came along," she said. "I feel with the WNBA, when you've got the NBA marketing behind it, then it won't fail.

"But track is unique. I think we have to figure out who we're marketing to, who are the track and field fans, and start targeting those fans."