Fair or foul: Top adidas exec alleges the Chicago Marathon (sponsored by Nike) wouldn't let any adidas athletes run the race

It's their race. They can do what they want.

I think it's pretty pathetic, along with the abysmal prize money. Only paying 5 deep international and $55k for first place? And only accepting international athletes from one company? They don't deserve to be a world marathon major anymore if they keep that up. 2013 was the last really good year for Chicago with the 2:03, has gone down hill pretty quickly since then. A course like that and world marathon status they should have a 2:04 or faster every year and several others in the 2:05-2:07 range but we aren't seeing that. Sixth place at a world marathon major on a flat course shouldn't be 2:10 or slower, yet that's what we often see. Amsterdam is better now, and Dubai, and easily a few others. It's sad to see. I hope the money gets pumped back in and we see deeper fields and better top athletes again at Chicago next year.

Fine line between a right to contract for exclusivity and a violation of the Sherman Act. There is no exemption for pro running like there is for pro team sports.

You can quickly see that if this is a practice that is in place, it is going to lead to elite marathoning that is bifurcated by sponsorship. That can potentially tank the world marathon major circuit and create a situation where all the top marathoners are running for one sponsor over the other simply to be able to get into the top marathons controlled by the same sponsor.

Are they restricting (preventing entry) or just not paying them to attend (and cover travel)? I think those are two totally different things.

"It's their race. They can do what they want." - If this were a random marathon or something like Doha or Valencia, I might agree with you. I think it's short sighted. However, the main issue is that World Marathon Majors should be held to a different standard. Maybe you don't pay appearance fees to Adidas athletes or pay as much--fine--but to exclude them (if that's what happened) should jeopardize the race's status as a WMM.

silvery gold wrote:

Are they restricting (preventing entry) or just not paying them to attend (and cover travel)? I think those are two totally different things.

Exactly. I seriously doubt they'd take the time to screen out entries from anyone that has a deal with adidas.

flyoverstaterunner wrote:

"It's their race. They can do what they want." - If this were a random marathon or something like Doha or Valencia, I might agree with you. I think it's short sighted. However, the main issue is that World Marathon Majors should be held to a different standard. Maybe you don't pay appearance fees to Adidas athletes or pay as much--fine--but to exclude them (if that's what happened) should jeopardize the race's status as a WMM.

It's their race. They can be short sighted if they want.

Good point. Still, if you are claiming to be a world class event you need to bring in the best field you can regardless of who sponsors a particular athlete and obviously some 2:05 guy's not going to pay for airfare and a room in Chicago if another major is giving him money to come.

I think it's pathetic wrote:

2013 was the last really good year for Chicago with the 2:03, has gone down hill pretty quickly since then. A course like that and world marathon status they should have a 2:04 or faster every year and several others in the 2:05-2:07 range but we aren't seeing that. Sixth place at a world marathon major on a flat course shouldn't be 2:10 or slower, yet that's what we often see. Amsterdam is better now, and Dubai, and easily a few others. It's sad to see. I hope the money gets pumped back in and we see deeper fields and better top athletes again at Chicago next year.

I get what you are saying about the times particularly the depth of them but there is a difference between some random guy running fast at some random European race and big names. And they've certainly had some major studs at Chicago since 2013.

Eliud Kipchoge won Chicago in 2:04:11 in 2014.

Mo Farah won it as a huge name in 2018.

Tirunesh Dibaba and Brigi Kosgei won Chicago in 2:18 in 2017 and 2018.

Brigid Kosgei ran the 2:14:04 world record there in 2019.

flyoverstaterunner wrote:

"It's their race. They can do what they want." - If this were a random marathon or something like Doha or Valencia, I might agree with you. I think it's short sighted. However, the main issue is that World Marathon Majors should be held to a different standard. Maybe you don't pay appearance fees to Adidas athletes or pay as much--fine--but to exclude them (if that's what happened) should jeopardize the race's status as a WMM.

Also this race is being used to pick US team members to Worlds. Imagine if they start enforcing it for US athletes as well. If it would never fly if it was applies to Americans, then it shouldn't fly with the African stars as well. I don't like how African stars are viewed as nameless commodities.

chicago is falling but let's don't exaggerate wrote:

I get what you are saying about the times particularly the depth of them but there is a difference between some random guy running fast at some random European race and big names. And they've certainly had some major studs at Chicago since 2013.

Eliud Kipchoge won Chicago in 2:04:11 in 2014.

Mo Farah won it as a huge name in 2018.

Tirunesh Dibaba and Brigi Kosgei won Chicago in 2:18 in 2017 and 2018.

Brigid Kosgei ran the 2:14:04 world record there in 2019.

But when these big names show up they're setup to win, because the race didn't pay anyone else good to show up. Mo Farah and Rupp was the best one in the past decade having both of them, but there was still a huge drop-off after them. When Kipchoge won he wasn't really a big name yet, and he didn't have too much crazy competition, and they were still riding on being the world record course from recent years right before that. When Rupp won in 2019 or whatever year it was, no one good was there. Didn't he win in like 2:09?

I think there should be a standard minimum of prize money to give out to be considered a marathon major, and they should all pay at least 10 deep to have an actual good race instead of a few guys up front and then everyone else dropping out because 6th place gets nothing. I'd also love to see appearance fees getting thrown out. It's so frustrating knowing that some random person who used to be good can show up and make $50k+ to run terrible, maybe 15th place, while some current under the radar runners get 2nd or 3rd place and get less than that.

Has Mr. Nel ever attended, watched the television coverage, or attempted to enter an athlete into the Prefontaine Classic, a DL event? It is also highly biased. He should also note that Benson Kipruto and Diana Chemtai Kipyogei, both adidas sponsored athletes, won the adidas sponsored 2021 Boston Marathon. Guye Adola, also with adidas, was the men's winner at the 2021 Berlin Marathon that lists adidas as a marketing partner.

He's tipping his hand: this is what Adidas does in Boston and Berlin.

This has to be the sport's worst-kept secret, not exactly newsworthy.

rojo wrote:

flyoverstaterunner wrote:

"It's their race. They can do what they want." - If this were a random marathon or something like Doha or Valencia, I might agree with you. I think it's short sighted. However, the main issue is that World Marathon Majors should be held to a different standard. Maybe you don't pay appearance fees to Adidas athletes or pay as much--fine--but to exclude them (if that's what happened) should jeopardize the race's status as a WMM.

Also this race is being used to pick US team members to Worlds. Imagine if they start enforcing it for US athletes as well. If it would never fly if it was applies to Americans, then it shouldn't fly with the African stars as well. I don't like how African stars are viewed as nameless commodities.

Imagine US marathoners being newsworthy. 😂😂 Chicago's sponsors aren't all that concerned with Sara Hall or Emma Bates, FOH.

Weird individual. The clues in the title - it’s an invitational.

If true, this is utterly disgraceful. A terrible scandal.

Berlin, I don't think so. Kipchoge won in 2018 (his WR), Bekele in 2019 (just missed WR) and Bekele was 3rd this year. Nike guys. So you can't say Adidas excluded Nike guys there.

Rojo started this thread but I went and looked at the Chicago top 10 the last few years.

Shure Demise is an adidas athlete and was 3rd in 2018 on the women's side.

Bernard Kipyego is an adidas athlete and was 3rd in 2017. That's all I could found.

I reached out to Spencer for specific examples of athletes being turned down and he did not provide any.

This is an interesting one as even if an athlete was turned down, it might be hard to get them or an agent to speak up.

Boston and Berlin did have adidas winners but there were Nike athletes in the field. Having said that there are way more Nike sponsored athletes than adidas.