In East Africa championship distant runners are the equivalent to LeBron James or Aaron Rodgers in America. There’s a lot of motivation for success in running over there.
I don’t doubt that.
I was only referring to the OP’s belief that Americans would lose interest in a sport where all the top competitors are completely foreign to them, and arguably other than for those directly competing, the marathon has gone that way over the past couple of decades.
The relative finance opportunity, reward and need of course tend to be much greater for East Africans than for Americans as well.
Yea, like trying to outrun lions.....