EUGENE, Ore. — Newly renovated Hayward Field sits in the middle of the University of Oregon campus, its futuristic exoskeleton rising above the aging brick buildings like a spaceship. It cost Phil Knight and friends $300 million, and it includes a 5,000-square-foot video board, a 10-story tower with a hall of fame, luxury boxes for Nike execs, covered training areas under the seats, a three-lane urethane running track circling the concourse, majestic curved wooden beams supporting the roof.
This is where the World Athletics Championships — the colonists call it track and field — opened Friday with nearly 2,000 athletes from 190-odd countries in 48 events and continue through the following weekend. This marks the first time in the event's 39-year history it has been in the United States, the best track meet on U.S. soil since the 1996 Olympics, the best on the West Coast since the 1984 Olympics — or, if you discount that because of the Soviet boycott, since 1932.
But it's what is immediately outside Hayward Field that symbolizes the importance of these 10 days for the sport in this country.
