Track and Field 101: The Wind Gauge

At a small 2026 meet at Eisenstadt, Austria, 2020 Olympic 100m gold medalist Marcell Jacobs lowered himself into his starting stance. As he prepared for the starter's pistol, the wind howled, ruffling meet officials' hair and jackets. When the gun was fired, Jacobs shot out of the blocks, and 9.67 later, he crossed the finish line having run the third-fastest 100m time in history, behind only two marks posted by Usain Bolt. However, for all intents and purposes, Jacobs's result doesn't count. That's because the official wind reading trackside was 4.1m/s - an illegal wind.

For better or worse, we end up talking about wind a lot in our sport in general, and in Colorado in particular. I'm writing this article to add some transparency to how wind gauges work and the methods used to get the readings assigned to various heats and attempts in track and field.

Using wind gauges

First, there are two types of wind gauges in use--those that are remotely operated, and other devices that must be started manually by a human operator.

For the most part, use of remotely-operated devices are limited to use in the straightway races (100 meters, 200 meters, and the 100/110 meter hurdles). Not all meets will use a remotely-operated device, but it is becoming increasingly common, at least in these event. 

The long and triple jumps also require wind readings, but - due to the nature of the events - these wind readings are almost always taken by hand-operated devices.

There are very definite protocols for how and when wind is measured during a race or an attempt.

In all cases, the device used to measure the wind (called an anemometer) must be placed four feet above the ground, parallel to the ground, parallel (in another dimension) to the straightaway or runway, at a prescribed distance from the straightaway or runway, and at a prescribed distance from the take-off board or finish line.

In the case of the long and triple jump, the anemometer must be located within two meters of the runway and 20 meters from the foul line (or take-off board).

In the case of the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 100/110 meter hurdles, the anemometer has to be, once again, within two meters of the track (in this case, the inside edge of lane 1), and placed 50 meters from the finish line.

For the long and triple jump, the anemometer must be started when the jumper begins his or her approach and the recorded wind reading is an average of the next five seconds.

For the 100 and 100/110 hurdles, the anemometer shall be started with the start of the race and be averaged over the next 10 seconds (100 meters) or the next 13 seconds (100/110 hurdles). For the 200 meters, the anemometer should be started when the runners reach the 100 meter start line (top of the straightaway) and be averaged over the next 10 seconds. 

Determining if a wind is "legal" or not

Wind readings are rounded up to the nearest tenth of a meter per second. A rounded wind reading of 2.0 meters per second or less is considered "wind legal," meaning times from that heat or attempt may be used for records, state qualifying, and seeding purposes for future meets. For conversion purposes, 2.0 meters per second is just a little under 4.5 miles per hour.

But if the average wind reading for a heat or attempt is 2.02 meters per second, that wind reading is rounded up to 2.1 meters per second. Any marks associated with that heat or attempt are used for purposes of meet placement and scoring but would not be allowed for records, for qualifying for state, or as seed marks for a future meet. Most anemometers do the rounding up automatically, so nobody ever knows if a wind reading for a particular heat attempt was 2.02 or 2.09. 

Any mark associated with a negative wind reading (into the face of the runner or jumper) is always legal for records, state qualifying, and future seed mark purposes. Headwinds are noted in results like "-1.3," and while there is no conversion - your time won't be adjusted because you ran into a strong wind - you can claim some bragging rights if you run a PB with a negative wind reading!

Note that the only relevant dimension of the wind reading is the magnitude of the wind vector in the direction of the forward motion of the competitor. That sounds pretty technical, so let's break it down into a more concrete example.

Let's suppose the finish straight of a track heads due south (most tracks are laid out in this manner). We will further suppose that a wind is blowing in a direction of 25 degrees south of west at a magnitude of 5.0 meters per second. Will marks registered under these conditions be wind legal?

To answer that question, we need to know how the anemometer - aligned with the finish straight - will read the wind. Essentially, the anemometer measures only the southward component of wind. If we break our 5.0mps wind into westward and southward components using some basic high school trigonometry - thanks Pythagoras - we get a westward component of 4.53 meters per second and a southward component of 2.11 meters per second. That would register as a +2.2 wind reading and the effort(s) would be deemed not wind legal.

But, all sorts of other factors come into play. Winds don't blow a steady rate. They surge, subside, and even shift in direction. So, the next heat may have a wind of 4.0 meters per second in a direction of 27 degrees south of west. That would result in a wind reading of +1.9 meters per second, which would in fact be wind legal. It's not at all uncommon on a blustery day for some heats or flights to post legal marks, while others do not.

Why having wind gauges matters so much

So what about meets where there are not wind gauges? That's fairly common outside of major invitationals and championships, even in 2026. Can we just use wind information measured nearby that's publicly available, say, from a weather app?

Unfortunately not.

Even if the National Weather Service were to set up a station next-door to a track, the wind readings at that station would not necessarily correspond with the wind readings from the anemometer alongside the track. For one thing, wind speed and direction vary considerably even over fairly small distances. For another, most high school stadiums afford a little sheltering effect from the winds. 

Moreover, if a track and field facility is thoughtfully designed, the long and triple jump runways will be aligned perpendicular to the prevailing winds. By doing that, you will turn most of the winds into crosswinds, which will rarely exceed the +2.0 limit in the direction of the forward motion of the competitor. 

Aligning straightaways in a direction perpendicular to the prevailing winds is another matter altogether, though. It is rare that a track is laid out with that consideration in mind. 

In most cases, a track is simply wrapped around a football field. And football fields are (in most cases, at least) purposely laid out in a north-south alignment to minimize the necessity of players (receivers, especially) needing to look at the ball without peering directly into the light of a sun near the horizon.

So, since a lot of Colorado's wind tends to come out of the north, we get a lot of wind-aided marks in the 100, 200, and 100/110 hurdles. 

It may have already occurred to you that a heat of the 200 meters could actually benefit considerably from the wind but still end up wind legal. If we assume our heat of the 200 meters finishes in a southward direction, this might happen if we had a wind out of the east. A wind from the east would give considerable push to the runners through the curve of the 200 but would barely register on the anemometer because it measures only the southward component (the component aligned with the finish straight) of the wind.

That was seemingly the case in April of 2026 when Australian teenage sprint phenom Gout Gout ran 19.67. Although the official wind reading was 1.7, accounts from the stadium suggest that the wind was "swirling," and that he may have in effect benefited from an even stronger tailwind on the opening curve of his race.