Flashes of Panic

The IAAF announced today the finalists for the 2007 Athletes of the Year, and both of my picks (Haile Gebrselassie and Meseret Defar) are on the list, as are the two athletes who led the “internet voting” when I cast my vote (Liu Xiang and Blanka Vlasic). We’ll see who their panel of experts selects as AOY.

I was interested to read their explanation of how the six finalists were chosen:

Weighed at 70% the IAAF Family vote consisted in a list of 1320 recipients including IAAF Council Members, IAAF Member Federations Presidents, IAAF Committee Members, IAAF Meeting Directors, Authorised Athletes’ Representatives, IAAF Staff Members and selected members of the International Press.

So, assuming all 1320 of us voted for both men and women, my vote counted for approximately .05% of the overall selection.

As part of the Online Public Vote which weighed at 30% of the overall standings, the IAAF received a total of 165,616 votes (112,571 for the men and 53,045 for the women).

This is interesting for two reasons. First, more than twice as many votes for men as for women, suggesting that people care more about the men’s events. I suppose this is understandable given that the raw numbers are more exciting (e.g. faster times) but the competition is sometimes more interesting on the women’s side—see the pole vault, for example.

Second, doing the same math as above, an internet vote for the women counted for .0005% of the total (100 internet votes would be roughly equal to one “IAAF Family” vote) and for the men, .0002% (somewhat more than 200 internet votes to equal one “IAAF Family” vote.) Lesson: if you want your vote to make a difference, follow women’s athletics!

Technorati Tags: athletics, blanca vlasic, haile gebrselassie, iaaf, liu xiang, meseret defar