Yes, this is a big deal. NBC actually broke away from gymnastics to show Tyson Gay’s 10.00 run into a -1.5 headwind, his first race since July 2011.

Tyson Gay, 2012 adidas GP NYC, photo by PhotoRun.net

That twitter trended Tyson Gay, which means for the non twitter folks, that Tyson Gay was a large object of interest on the twitter, where one must learn to be succinct, using only 140 characters. Tyson Gay is a favorite on twitter as he answer many of his queries and shows his shoes, and talks about his life as one of the best sprinters in the world.

Highest ratings since 2005, Gay top trend on Twitter at adidas Grand Prix

6/16/2012

The sport of track and field hit historic broadcasting and social media
marks as NBC’s coverage of the adidas Grand Prix June 9 reached the
highest ratings of any non-Olympic or Olympic Trials track and field
event since 2005 and Tyson Gay became the top Twitter trend in the
country during his first competition in nearly a year.

Television coverage for the adidas Grand Prix showed a rating of 1.3
with a 4 share, which translates into just under 1.8 million viewers. It
was a 41 percent increase over the event from 2011. Specific numbers
covering the ratings of the last five years of the adidas/Reebok Grand
Prix are shown below.

TV Ratings – adidas/Reebok Grand Prix
2008 – 0.7/2 (CBS)
2009 – 1.0/2 (NBC)
2010 – 0.9/2 (NBC)
2011 – 0.9/2 (NBC)
2012 – 1.3/4 (NBC)

NBC broke away from its earlier coverage to feature American record
holder Tyson Gay race the 100-meters live. During that time Gay became
the top trend on Twitter in the U.S. as he made his first appearance
since June 2011 and continues his return from hip surgery.

Combining TV ratings from the adidas Grand Prix, the Prefontaine
Classic and Penn Relays from earlier in the season, the numbers showed a
30 percent increase in overall viewership for the three events from
2011.

The high numbers lead into the start of the Olympic Team Trials – Track
& Field as NBC will feature a total of 12 hours of live coverage. A
full TV schedule for the Olympic Trials, which are scheduled for June
21-July 1 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., can be found here.

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 50-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."

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