Cross country has risen in popularity within the last few years due to its uniqueness when it comes to scoring, terrain, and opportunity. While cross country is under the division of USA Track and Field, cross country is a completely different sport. Runners get a team score when competing, but each athlete is always in competition with themselves to beat prior records
With a unique scoring approach tied in with once-in-a-lifetime courses, it is no surprise that cross country is in great standing. Tyler Noble, the senior manager of sport science and data analytics with USA Track and Field says that “without necessarily looking at our membership data and speaking a bit from experience myself having run cross country from middle school all the way through college, rates overall have gone up in terms of participation. In terms of the events that we offer, we go all the way down to the youth level to establish a base pipeline for anyone who’s interested in running cross country. From a youth perspective, that continues though our senior level at the national governing body, I would say that morale, events, and numbers are stronger, which has directly contested to every level for cross country—including the NCAA—possible.”
In addition to the national governing body providing athletes with the complete cross country toolkit, cross country’s venues are extremely enticing coming off travel restrictions in 2021.
“When you run cross country, you are outside and have parks, golf courses, wooded areas, streams, and more right beside you. For runners, it is nice to know that you relate to your environment. We also have another segment of our organization called Ultra-Trail based on a push from certain groups. With that division, we have the World Mountain Ultra-Trail Championships across several different events where races are set through mountains.”
Additionally, Noble says that since “every course is unique and different. It offers an incentive to want to push yourself at different locations. One race for a regional championship might be flat while another one might be hilly. A national meet can place a runner in a different state completely with not only different terrain, but air pressures as well. The uniqueness of the courses adds to athlete’s aspirations to conquer different titles and get out of the door.”
Aside from unique terrains that are always changing, “cross country is one of those sports where you show up to practice with one pair of shoes and a heartbeat,” says Noble.
In recent years, many spectators have seen their sports go from youth league accessible to travel only with the latter being highly expensive, time consuming, and not feasible for families with more than one or two children. For cross country, however, “you do not haul equipment around, so it is rather inexpensive compared to other sports making the ease of access very plausible. Cross country is a very inviting, accessible sport, and we have seen the shift in younger athletes and parents when it comes to encouraging their children
to participate. Since cross country does have the opportunity advantage, it looks a little anecdotal when you look at participation numbers for this year.”
Due to its accessibility, in the future and especially in 2023, the national governing body is expecting the sport to grow even more rapidly.
“This is a sport that younger athletes can take with them beyond high school. Athletes start the cross country curriculum when they are around 12 and can continue racing well into their senior years. Cross country is a lifelong sport, and it has started to show in our numbers.”
