by Larry Eder
The Millrose Games will be experienced for the 116th time on February 11, 2024.
The Millrose Games is one of the most historic indoor track meets in our sports history.
In 2024, it is one of the two Indoor meetings in North America designated as a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting.
The Millrose Games began as a fixture at the Madison Square Gardens, which hosted many indoor meetings at the MSG stadium, located in the middle of New York City.
Many of the greats competed there, from Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, to Ashton Eaton, the two-time Decathlon gold medalist and WR Holder. On the women’s side, Mary Decker Slaney set an iconic record for the mile there, and the sprints and hurdles have seen some of the true greats of our sport, including Olympic Great Wilma Rudolph (1961).
In the days up until the early 2000s, one would see a crowd of 18,000 plus in the Madison Square Gardens for the Millrose Games.
The meet was always held on a Friday, so fans did not have to come back to Manhattan. The Catholic League 2-mile relay would bring in a lot of fans, as did the High school relays.
The sprints would always feature the top stars of the day, as well as the sprint hurdles and the jumps, long jump, high jump, and pole vault.
The writer recalls 2008 Olympic champ Steve Hooker of Australia clearing 6 meters in the rarefied air of the MSG.
For many years, tickets for the next year went on sale the very next day after the meet. The three hours plus of track and field circus had young and old enthralled.
The highlights each year included the Wanamaker Mile, and Eamon Coghlan earned his moniker here as “Chairman of the Boards” with his incredible string of seven wins over the Wanamaker Mile.
The NIKE Track & Field Armory has hosted the Millrose Games for over a decade now, when the meet was moved from a Friday to a Saturday, meaning most fans had to return to Manhattan for the event.
The late Dr. Norb Sander moved the event from MSG to the Armory. While Dr. Norb, a former winner of the NYC Marathon, moved the event and his legacy of hosting the event lives on, the truth is, the Millrose has some of the finest athletes in the world in the intimate track and Norb built, the NIKE Track & Field Armory.
This year, the meet will be held on February 11, 2024, and can be watched on NBC Sports and Peacock. Among the stars, Yared Nuguse, Laura Muir, Elle Purrier St. Pierre, Julien Alfred, Hobbs Kessler, Alicia Monson, Grant Fisher, Danielle Williams, Josh Kerr, Cooper Teare, Christian Coleman, Andre De Grasse, Nia Ali, Rhasidat Adeleke, Yaroslava Mahuchickh, Vashti Cunningham, Chris Nilsen, and KC Lightfoot will all be there!
Check your local listings to make sure you do not miss this one!
Broadcast information: The marquee events featuring professional athletes and top college and high school runners will be broadcast on NBC and live-streamed on Peacock (subscription required) from 1-3 p.m. ET.
To enjoy a preview of the 2024 Millrose Games, please read this piece by Karen Rosen for World Athletics! https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/news/millrose-games-new-york-2014
This is a revision of the column I did for our 9 partner RunningNetwork sites, located at RunningNetwork.com. You can find the original column just below: https://americantrackandfield.com/millrose-games-comes-to-the-nike-track-field-armory-on-sunday-february-11-2024-by-larry-eder/
