Forums >General Running>USATF Controversy
#artbydmcbride
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/03/usatf-announces-will-become-subsidiary-nike-move-will-remove-complaints-potential-conflicts-interest-2/
United States Track and Field, the governing body for track and field in the US, announced today April 1, 2014 that it has agreed to be taken over by Nike, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon. The move will consolidate what has long been a ‘close working arrangement’ according to senior Nike and USATF officials.
“Honestly, after being paid indirectly by Nike for so many years, this felt like a natural next step,” said Stephanie Hightower, chair of the USATF Board. “We believe this will benefit all parties involved.”
I am assuming this article is an April Fool joke.....
Runners run
April Fool's joke with a generous helping of biting satire on the side.
Yes, fantasy and wishful thinking at best. USATF is hunkering down and refuses to meet with the track and field athletes association (Nick Symmonds and the gang).
Do you want me to explain the background?
Certified Running CoachCrocked since 2013
"In a rare act of transparency, Siegel offered great detail on how today’s agreement will greatly enhance USATF’s finances. In addition to Nike upping its sponsorship by 100%, a key part of the deal that many may not grasp initially is that USATF will now be able to eliminate its marketing, timing and communications budgets.
“Since USATF is officially part of Nike, there is no need to pay flashresults.com for their timing services. We can just put down the results the way Phil (Knight) wants them. He’s promised to talk to Alberto (Salazar) on Monday before every USA meet and email us a file of the desired results by Wednesday,” said Siegel who added that he thought his background in NASCAR..allowed him to be creative enough to conceive of the deal."
not bad for mile 25
sure, why not?
During the National Indoor Championships, Nike Oregon Project athlete Jordan Hasay was accidentally tripped by Gabe Grunewald, who went on to win the race and qualify for the World Championships.
Hasay subsequently came fourth, failing to qualify for the World Championships.
The race committee reviewed the video tape and confirmed, then reconfirmed that Grunewald had not done anything wrong. End of story.
However, Salazar then appealed citing "new" video evidence and Grunewald was disqualified. The DQ meant Hasay would go to the worlds.
Salazar later was heard yelling abuse at Grunewald's husband, who had justifiably complained about the DQ.
Several women athletes publicly protested at Grunewald's DQ by holding hands in solidarity prior to the start of the 1,500.
Under pressure and extremely upset by the controversy, Hasay rescinded her appeal and Grunewald was reinstated.
Later, in the men's 3,000 Jerry Schumacher (a coach of a diffferent Nike sponsored team) decided to have his 3 runners work together to successfully pace Ryan Hill to World Championship qualification.
After an appeal by Salazar, Schumacher athlete Andrew Bumbalough was disqualified for bumping in to Galen Rupp, Race replays clearly showed it was a case of mistaken identity.
Salazar was reported to be very angry because he felt the Schumacher athletes had worked together (perfectly legitimately) to defeat Salazar’s prize pupil Galen Rupp, whereas in reality the goal had been to support Hill.
After the race, Salazar got in the face of one of Schumacher’s athletes and yelled at him. Later, Schumacher and Salazar encountered each other and Salazar once again got very vocal. Allegedly he had to be restrained by Nike empoyees as he tried to put his hands on Schumacher.
The USATF have never explained why they made their decisions and why they broke their own rules in DQ'ing Grunewald, or why they DQed Bumbalough.
The USATF has been accused by several pro runners of being an incompetent and corrupt organization overly influenced by NIke.
Several high-profile runners have proposed forming a union to increase their influence over the sport.
And here I thought it was April Fools day and not Groundhog Day.
https://www.runningahead.com/forums/topic/f59b2f5f7a4b4ab98f9bcba1cc60cd45/resume#focus
"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel
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The USATF has been accused by several pro runners of being an incompetent and corrupt organization overly influenced by NIke. Several high-profile runners have proposed forming a union to increase their influence over the sport.
They already have a union, TFAA: http://trackandfieldathletesassociation.org/site/
However they are proposing to protest USATF championships, and to form their own league. That would be like (on a much smaller scale) the NFL players saying to heck with Roger Goodell and the NFL and creating their own league. There have been several coups in the last 35 or so years.
AAU was the old corrupt organization that kept the the athletes from making any money--made most famous by Pre and his cohorts living in bug infested quarters, while the administrators went to 4-star hotels. That was finally busted in the early 1980s, and the TAC (The Athletics Congress) was formed. They lasted for about 15 or 20 years. In the meantime, one of the most infamous old AAUers (if I recall correctly) was Olan Cassell who was as autocratic and corrupt as Putin, who somehow made the transition and was leader for a long time. In the mid-1990s the board (made up of several current or former athletes, including Olympic marathoner Nancy Ditz, an attorney) pulled an administrative coup and they voted Cassell out of the chair.
Craig Masback was CEO of USATF for a number of years and he talked a good game, and probably did bring about some positive changs, but he stepped down. His replacement, Doug Logan, only lasted 2 years and he was ousted by Stephanie Hightower (retired Olympic hurdler). It was kind of a strange one, and I'm not sure if they ever came out with anything. The scuttlebut among some (I think Letsrun) was that Logan was trying to root out the corruption, and got booted from the inside by Hightower and her cronies.
Max Seigel seemed to be an okay CEO, but then again, USATF is now owned by big business (Nike) and run by Hightower who seems to be something of a snake.