The Blog Is 13 Years Old

Last year, while commenting on the blog’s views, I wrote: “I cannot understand what is happening.” Before we go any further, take a look at the graphic below.

Last year, I also wrote: “I don’t have any explanation for the spikes in 2017 and 2019. The huge spike in 2025 appeared at the time of the World Championships, but I don’t think there was any real correlation.” What are those famous spikes in 2017 and 2019? Here is a graphic from 2020.

Now go back to the first graphic. The 2017 spike is only a tiny bump, while the twin peaks from 2019 cut a sorry figure in the 2026 graphic. And the “huge” spike of 2025? Well, it is there, but there is nothing huge about it when compared with the views in 2026. June alone brought more than 200k views, and when you look at the cumulative figures, the one-million mark was reached sometime around that month.

But let’s get serious: are those real views? Even the most optimistic estimates would not put the blog’s readership at more than a few thousand views per month, and I am being generous. No. What is happening is that all those large language models are scraping the web, trying to ingest everything they can find, and my blog is part of their fodder. So, if one day somebody decides to write an article with the help of Grok or any other LLM, the half-assed artificial-intelligence app will be able to produce some insipid text parroting my idiosyncrasies, trying to imitate the style of Rethinking Athletics.

The article with the highest number of views was, you guessed it, “The Javelin Controversy”, followed by “Pole Vault: Before and After” and “Before the Olympic Medals: The Olive Wreath”. Sadly, the one article I consider my best, “Eleven Wretched Women, or How Fake News Almost Killed Women’s Athletics”, has not yet reached a thousand views.

In case you were wondering whether the blog will continue, rest assured: it will. I cannot guarantee the publication frequency, but I have managed to maintain a regular rhythm of at least one article per month, often more, over the years. I hope that, at least for the next year, I will be able to keep it up.