USATF “Responds” to Outcry

by EJN March 28, 2014 Comments (0) Articles Like

After weeks of silence, this is what we all finally get from USATF regarding how they will respond to the events that unfolded at indoor nationals in Albuquerue, NM back in February.

Statement from USATF President and Chairman Stephanie Hightower

3/26/2014

There has been public discussion the last several weeks about a range of topics in our sport, centered around field-of-play decisions made at the USA Indoor Championships. As we have stated, USATF is taking a look at the events of Albuquerque as well as our related systems and processes. Public suggestions to the contrary, the topics related to Albuquerque are not quick fixes. These are topics that involve important elements of our structure that have ramifications far beyond race results at a single meet.

Since Albuquerque, CEO Max Siegel and I have engaged in a discussion of how best to address these issues in a deliberate, thorough and thoughtful manner. As USATF President and Chair with oversight of governance, I have asked USATF Board Member and IAAF Senior Vice President Bob Hersh, one of international track & field’s foremost experts on competition rules and governance, to lead a USATF working group that will look into these matters. We will announce other members of this group in coming weeks. Athletes will be a very important part of this process, as well as others in our organization. We appreciate the passion of all our stakeholders. Because it is far-reaching, this process will take place over weeks and months.

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In about a month’s time, this is what they came up with? This?! Come on, man! Don’t know about you, but this isn’t good enough for me. Remember that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

“We have top men working on it now.”
“Who?”
“Top. Men.”

Seems to me that if they were serious about getting athletes involved then they wouldn’t have blown off and then subsequently ignored the TFAA’s request to get involved. No reason they can’t have the athletes’ union involved right away, unless the Top Men need to go through and child proof everything first.

The running community is very intelligent yet our governing body seems to act like we’re a bunch of idiots. What happened regarding the DQ’ing of Grunewald and Bumbalough was egregious and definitely impacted the integrity of the sport. This won’t just go away, and we can’t let it just go away. Let’s keep the pressure on these guys until they treating us with a little more respect.